Prestopnik, N. (2016). Games, Stories and Language: Motivating Second Language Acquisition with Play. International Journal of Designs for Learning, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.14434/ijdl.v7i3.20051
In this article, Prestopnik explains several digital game-design strategies for motivating the L2 Spanish language learner. In order to test various gameplay approaches to L2 motivation, the author and his team, comprised of 14 undergraduate researchers, created a digital game with a strong narrative component entitled Arena. Crafted with the intention of simulating immersive language experiences, Arena takes place in the year 2410 A.D. on a distant planet whose main source of industry is mining and whose inhabitants are descendants of Spaniards. Highlighting the game’s competitive nature, Arena is envisioned as a land of both danger and opportunity. The protagonist of the story, a young American man by the name of Brock Springer, has recently come to Arena in search of his long-lost parents. As a native English speaker, like the game’s targeted audience, Brock must navigate Arena’s rough terrain and foreign tongue through a mixture of exploratory must, puzzle-solving and quest-based conversational exchanges all designed to underscore assorted levels of authentic interaction. Favoring a diegetic approach in which aspects of language learning are directly related to its narrative content, Prestopnik and his team implement a dictionary/translation device tool termed the Explorer that uses augmented reality (AR) technology. Introducing notions of space within the game world, a player must point with the AR device, versus clicking on an object or a character, in order to activate its function. As outlined within their Psycholinguistic SLA theoretic framework, players also engage in goal-orientated activities that encourage negotiation of meaning. Additionally, in response to notions of “failure” in the L2 classroom space where mistakes can diminish a student’s desire to communicate, Prestopnik and team have designed Arena to encourage players who need extra language assistance by reframing notions of “failure” in a mission based practice where new adventure tasks arise to reinforce missed vocabulary or linguistic structures. Similarly, building-in reinforcement learning tactics that take benefit from neurocognitive research, the researchers devised several reward-based systems, for example, in-game currency, armaments and power-ups, that may be linked to overall motivation in L2 language learning due to their connection to dopamine reactions in the brain.
Along with outlining the global goals, structure and play strategies of the Arena game, Prestopnik also includes five reflection points that illustrate improvements made within the game’s development period, which is still ongoing: storytelling aspects, discussions on the relation between ease-of-use and engagement, difficulties interweaving combat and play, the game play point of view and issues treating the game’s target demographic. Among one of the most thought-provoking matters brought to the fore was the storytelling property of the game. While the researchers rated this as a top priority for player motivation, when evaluated by L2 Spanish language learners, the narratives devices executed by the research and design team were deemed too difficult to follow and ultimately fatiguing for the players. In constructing shorter dialogues between characters and more digestible narrative content, the team received more positive feedback from players but felt as if the game play content was diminished as a result. The second complication brought into the reflection phase was that of the intended target demographic: American, male adolescents. Citing commercial digital games that market combat action to male gamers and a couple of studies (Jones & Jones, 2002; Pavey, 2006) that show that young men are more likely not to continue with L2 studies past curriculum fulfillments versus young women, the designers took Arena as an opportunity to boost L2 engagement and motivation within the masculine sphere. While limiting their potential players by more than half with half-digested examinations of male motivation and debatable concerns of additional art development, the research team does point to the possibility of introducing a female protagonist to future iterations of Arena to address these alarms.