Using a 3D Online Game to Assess Students' Foreign Language ...

Using a 3D Online Game to Assess Students’ Foreign Language Acquisition and Communicative Competence Anke Berns1 , Manuel Palomo-Duarte2, Juan Manuel Dodero2 , and Concepci´on Valero-Franco3 1

Facultad de Filosof´ıa y Letras Escuela Superior de Ingenier´ıa Facultad de Ciencias de la Educaci´ on Universidad de C´ adiz, Spain 2

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Abstract. Over the past decade there has been an increasing attempt to explore the potential of computer games in order to engage students’ towards foreign language learning. However, literature review has shown that there are still few attempts to provide empiric evidence of the educational potential of computer games, whereas the present study aims to address this lack. The purpose of our paper is to explore the possibilities of using a highly interactive 3D online game, we previously designed according to our student needs, in order to reinforce their foreign language acquisition and communicative competence. The target groups are students of a German foreign language course from the A1 level (CEFR). For our project we designed a 3D online-game that is based on a roleplay, in which students need to cooperate in order to complete the game successfully. The game is built upon the OpenSim platform, and cooperation is conducted through game chats. Game chat interactions are being registered in a log file that is later processed. Furthermore, by analyzing different indicators we are able to obtain initial evidences to assess students’ proficiency regarding their communicative competence in the target language. We include some examples from a pilot study we did with students of a German foreign language course (A1). Keywords: Cooperative learning, virtual worlds, computer-supported language learning.

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Introduction

The current paper presents the results of an ongoing project which aims to explore the possibilities of enhancing students’ foreign language acquisition and communicative competence through the use of a 3D game-based environment. The starting point of our research is the increasing need to provide students with those learning tools which allow them to foster their foreign language skills beyond the classroom. The reason is that our students are usually enrolled in very large size German language courses, whereas they often lack opportunities to use D. Hern´ andez-Leo et al. (Eds.): EC-TEL 2013, LNCS 8095, pp. 19–31, 2013. c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 

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and interact with other speakers in the target language. Hence, language practice outside the classroom becomes extremely important in order to complement faceto-face teaching and thus to guarantee that students reach the competences they are expected to have at the end of the term. With the increasing rise of the Information and Communications Technologies, teachers and academic institutions often integrate blended teaching practices based on the use of virtual learning environments (VLEs). The latter aim to provide teacher and students with access to learning contents, services and applications anytime, any place and at any pace. Most widely used LMSs offer a huge variety of learning tools (i.e. wikis, discussion forums, blogs, chats and messaging) which facilitate interaction beyond the classroom ([3,1]). There has been furthermore an increasing attempt to explore the educational potential of computer games in the area of foreign language learning ([16,23,7]). This has been done both through adaptations of a variety of commercial games such as World of Warcraft, The Sims, Wonderland, Lineage II or Ragnarok Online (see amongst others [21,25,22]) as well as through the specific design of educational games, also called serious games ([4,7]). In recent years many research studies have made claims on the benefits of integrating Multi-User Virtual Environments ([10]) and, especially, computer games in the area of foreign language teaching and education, stressing their motivational as well as educational potential (see amongst others [30,21,1]). Nonetheless, a number of researchers have underlined that there are still very few empiric studies which have directly investigated the effects of computer games on students’ foreign language learning ([23,7,21]). In addition to this, literature review has shown that computer games are often employed to address very specific aspects such as vocabulary and grammar training ([8,9,5]). This is often done through drill-based activities rather than through authentic and synchronous peer-interaction in the target language. Despite the still widespread use of drill-based computer games, there has been recently an increasing trend to explore the potential of computer games to enhance foreign language learners’ interaction and communicative competence. As outlined by Garcia-Montero [12] in order to acquire communicative competence one needs to use the target language by interacting as much as possible with other speakers. The aforementioned aspects, together with the increasing need to engage students in self-directed learning beyond the classroom, may explain the recent interest in exploring the pedagogical as well as motivational potential of massivemultiplayer-online games (MMPOG) as well as synthetic immersive environments (SIEs). Both are based on the interaction as well as collaboration with other players, providing thus multiple opportunities for authentic synchronous interaction, in and with the target language (recently [22,19,6,26,7,21]). A deeper look at some of the key-principles of foreign language acquisition may shed some further light on the learning potential of those computer games, which provide highly interactive environments.

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Theoretical Background Computer Games and Foreign Language Acquisition

Taking into consideration that the development of a second language is almost wholly dependent on the amount of comprehensible input that a learner receives ([14,31]), several researchers have underlined the importance of providing foreign language learners with those kinds of interactions that facilitate the intake of comprehensible input ([15,20,11,13,2]), stimulate the production of language output ([29]), encourages negotiation of meaning ([20]) and, last but not least, facilitates noticing ([24]). According to Swain’s output hypothesis, ”output production” is seen not only to enhance learners’ fluency in the target language, but also to make learners ”conscious of their deficits (. . .)”. By doing so learners are encouraged to reflect on their language ([27]) and hence to improve their language skills. As stressed by Swain [29] ”pushed output” is an important factor to focus learners’ attention on aspects such as form and feedback. The positive and negative feedback learners get during their interaction with others is seen as a key-issue for foreign language acquisition, since it provides learners with the possibility to modify their language output and therefore to develop their competences in the target language ([24,15,27]). The above mentioned aspects make clear why versatile interaction with other speakers of the target language, independently if these are native or non-native speakers, becomes a key issue for a successful foreign language acquisition ([3]). Bearing in mind the aforementioned aspects the current project aims to explore the potential of a 3D online game (The hidden room) to reinforce students’ communicative competence through versatile interaction. The game has been designed by us within a virtual platform, called OpenSim, which allowed us to build several islands (virtual spaces) and game levels. Taking into consideration that our target students are from the A1 level (CEFR) we considered it extremely important to design a game that could easily be played by our students, providing them with very clear tasks and goals. Furthermore, in order to design learning tasks which meet our students’ language proficiency as well as needs regarding language practice beyond the classroom, we -as a teacher and game-designerneeded equally to control and administrate the game environment. This is why we believe that neither virtual worlds (VWs) such as Second Life, Active Worlds etc. nor MMPOGs are the most appropriate VLEs for our target group students. Whilst VWs are usually very open spaces which often lack of clear goals ([1]), MMPOGs generally require both, certain game-expertise and confidence with the target language ([21]). By designing our own gameenvironment the current study aims to give some empiric evidence of the educational potential games may have for A1 level students’ foreign language learning, when designed according to their needs. Our study focuses therefore mainly on the following questions: – How does participation in a cooperative online game affect students’ interaction and communicative competence in the target language?

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– Which factors influence students’ interaction and communication with others while playing the game? – Does the online game enhance students’ fluency and accuracy in the target language? 2.2

Instructional Framework

The instructional framework used for the study and game design is based on the principles of cooperative learning (CL). The CL strategy is based on grouping students in small learning teams to work in cooperation with each other in order to solve a problem, or to perform a task presented by the instructor. Since its rise in the early 1970s many researchers have stressed that learners, who work together, acquire more language and social skills than those who study the same content under individualistic circumstances ([32]). Researchers have equally stressed that to ensure the optimum of opportunities for interaction CL should take place in small groups, since this usually works best. In order to guarantee ideal conditions for CL Stenlev [28] and Oxford [18] underline the importance of the following principles: Simultaneous interaction, equal participation, positive interdependence, individual accountability, cognitive development as well as social development.

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Methodology and Experimental Environment

As outlined before, the primary purpose of the current study is to analyse the impact of a 3D online-game (The hidden room) on A1 level students’ foreign language acquisition and communicative competence. In order to provide learners with a highly interactive learning environment we designed a 3-D online game which requires students’ cooperation and thus interaction in the target language. By hosting the game in our own server we were able to store and analyze students’ interactions within the text-chats. The game aims to give students the opportunity to practise one of the most difficult grammar items of German language, which refers to the use of changing prepositions. Depending on the context in which these prepositions (under, over, behind, on the right side of, at the back, at the front, etc.) are being employed, they need to be used in combination with different cases (accusative or dative) and articles (masculine, feminine or neuter). In order to familiarize our Spanish students with its correct use, we designed a game-application, based on two different levels: A first level, which aims to introduce the use of local prepositions through a game-based activity, called Memory, and a second level, called The hidden room, which aims to reinforce the previously introduced prepositions through a role-play activity. Whilst the first level can be performed solely individually, the second level needs to be performed cooperatively (see Figs. 1 and 2). In the following we will offer a more detailed description of each game level and the activities designed for

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it. Level one consists of a room with four different walls, each one of which is divided into two different but connected panels. By clicking on the left panel several situations are being displayed by means of pictures (the hoover is on the right side of the table, the pizza is under the table, etc.). By clicking on the right panel the same situations are then being displayed by means of texts and audio-files. The students’ task consists in exploring and matching the correct pairs. Once the students have matched a correct pair they get a score, that is immediately registered and displayed on the screen. In order to make the game more challenging a score-system, a time limit, different sound effects as well as feedback information (Well done. Go ahead! Please repeat the activity! or You need to get 48 scores. Please try it again!) have been included. All of them aim to provide players both, with individual feedback on their task performance and on how to perform the game successfully. Once the students have passed successfully the first level, they are allowed to proceed to the second game level. Unlike level one, level two aims to consolidate the previously (in level 1) acquired knowledge through a role-play activity. The second level is therefore based on a room which contains a number of different objects: clothes, furniture, food, beverages, toys and electronics. These are placed all over the room and need to be put in their correct position reconstructing the original room order. As the activity requires the cooperation of two players, we designed two different game tools: a controller and a viewer with different views of the room. At the beginning of the game the teacher or administrator provides each player with a different tool. In order to perform level 2 cooperatively player A gets a ”controller” that enables her to move the objects within the room (see Figure 1) and player B gets a viewer with several views of the room (see Figure 2). Furthermore, in order to reconstruct jointly the correct position of each object, players A and B need to communicate only by using the text chat.

Fig. 1. View of player A with the controller tool

Fig. 2. View of player B. Picture shows the correct object positions.

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Experimental Setting

In this section we comment the methodology for selecting the participants, the data collected (both from the platform and from pre- and post-tests) and its analysis. Further information can be obtained on the website1 for this experiment. The virtual learning environment used to deploy the game-based learning experience is the OpenSim 3D virtual world (http://opensimulator.org/) opensource application server, through which a number of people and robots can interact according to computer programmed interaction rules. The 3D server is augmented with a back-end service and a set of tools that enable to log the data produced by interaction of avatars in the virtual world. The back-end service delivers data logs in a format set up for further data analysis through statistical and machine learning software tools, which can facilitate the observation of the virtual game-environment based on traces left by users in their collaborative activities ([17]). 4.1

Study Participants and Procedure

The observation of our students during more than 5 months allowed us to conclude that there are differences with regard to students’ willingness to cooperate and interact with others in the target language. It was conspicuous that in general those students who used to interact more in face-to-face teaching obtained better learning results. Without the intention to analyze the games’ appropriateness in terms of learning compared to more traditional method (as a control group), we here lean on our previous observations to make a preliminary analysis of the games’ impact on students’ willingness to interact. We therefore selected for our pilot study 12 students of whom 6 students were amongst the most active students and 6 amongst the less active ones. We then considered different categories in which we placed the more active students (category 1), the less active students (category 2) and a combination of both (category 3). Hence we created 6 teams (1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B), two for each category (1A and 1B in category 1, 2A and 2B in category 2 and 3A and 3B in category 3). Even though we are aware that the sample size is extremely small to obtain final results, it represents an important first step within our ongoing study, which need to be done with a larger amount of participants. Only in this way we are able to investigate how the composition of different teams and the kind of feedback affects foreign language acquisition in non face-to-face settings. 4.2

Data Collection and Analysis

Two types of data were collected: 1) transcripts of students’ produced chat dialogues were registered by the OpenSim platform and permit us to analyse students’ interaction and use of the target language and 2) a pre- and post-test to 1

http://code.google.com/p/daifceale/wiki/April_2013_ECTEL_2013

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analyse the impact on students’ foreign language acquisition and communicative competence. In Table 1, we can see the number of turns (considering a turn when a student stops talking and the other starts), phrases (number of phrases used in the activity), single words (single-word phrases), total words (total amount of written words) and German-only total words (total amount of German written words). Table 1. Number of words and number of phrases and turns in text-based chat Category Team Number of turns Phrases Single words Total words German only total words

1 1A 88 171 92 456 349

2 1B 38 68 45 220 220

2A 77 134 60 288 281

3 2B 75 146 77 378 367

3A 43 115 46 234 231

3B 57 102 65 322 317

Table 2 shows the results of students’ interaction while playing the game. During their interaction students use a variety of discourse functions such as greetings, feedback, clarification requests, confirmation checks, paraphrasing, self-correction, wh-question and exclamations which permit them to advance jointly within the game and thus to complete the game task successfully. Table 2. Discourse functions of clauses in the written interaction during the game-play Category Team Greetings Feedback Clarification requests Confirmation checks Paraphrasing Self-corrections Wh-questions Exclamations

1 1A 4 24 5 9 5 2 17 10

2 1B 1 15 2 6 0 0 1 2

2A 4 38 11 4 4 3 4 9

3 2B 1 23 7 3 0 2 9 3

3A 0 37 0 5 3 1 0 1

3B 2 19 3 7 4 0 7 3

Additionally, Table 3 gives some further inside view with regard to students’ interaction and use of the target language while playing the game and communicating within the text-chat. The results show that students seem to focus more on performing the game task successfully rather than on using the target language accurately. This may explain the relatively high percentage of grammar and lexical mistakes we can observe within the text-chat. Nonetheless, it is

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noteworthy that even though all participating players were from the A1 level of german language, almost all of them used solely the target language to communicate with the game-partner. Table 3. Linguistic features of students foreign language production via text chat during the online game Category Team Grammar mistakes Lexical mistakes (spelling) Use of native language words Total of words

4.3

1 1A 28 43 2 456

2 1B 14 30 0 220

2A 29 53 3 288

3 2B 18 76 11 378

3A 25 28 0 234

3B 35 26 1 322

Pre- and Post-tests

In order to analyse the games’ impact on students’ foreign language acquisition and communicative competence we designed a three part pre- and post-test. All students’ participants were asked to fill in the tests once before and once after playing the game. Each test consists of three different exercises which all aim to test students language skills before and after playing the online-game. Whilst tests 1 and 2 focus on checking students’ grammar competence (in test 1 students have to write the name of different objects and in test 2 they need to complete the missing prepositions), test 3 focuses on students’ writing skills and communicative competence (students have to describe a picture and the position of different objects). Fig. 3 shows the normalized results obtained by 12 students who took three pre- and post-tests, consisting of 51 overall question items focused on, respectively, the assessment of lexical (34 items), grammatical (7 items) and written communication skills (10 items). Grades have been normalized in a 1.0base scale. The box-plots depict how grades are improved and dispersion is reduced in all cases of assessment. A deeper statistical analysis on a greater data set is, however, required to find reasonable evidences in favor of the virtual world learning experience. Fig. 4 shows the pre- and post-test results of grammatical and writing skills assessments with regard to those categories whose members had previously shown a low willingness to interact (i.e. category 2), and the mixed category formed by students who were and are still not willing to interact (i.e. category 3). Fig. 5 shows a comparison of overall assessment results for all categories. However, the small size of the categories and great dispersion do not allow to claim yet if grammatical or writing skills as well as students communicative competence have been improved. A higher sample size is therefore necessary to generalize the obtained results.

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Fig. 3. Box-plots of results from the pre-test and post-test assessments

Fig. 4. Box-plots of results from the pre-test and post-test assessments for categories 2 and 3 (low willingness to interact and the mixed category)

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Fig. 5. Box-plots of results from the pre-test and post-test assessments of the overall grades of every category

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Results

At first sight, we can confirm that the study has shown positive results. All students, no matter what category they belong to, increased their grades in the three aspects assessed when comparing the post-tests results with those of the pre-tests. However, results are specially interesting in terms of grammatical accuracy and writing skills and their improvement on part of some participants in categories 2 and 3 (see Fig. 4). The fact that students with a rather low willingness to interact and communicate in the target language improved significantly their language skills throughout the game, is promising. It seems that the virtual world created a new context where they were encouraged to communicate.Looking in detail at the different aspects measured in the tests, all students in category 1 obtained better results in the pre- as well as post-test than those students which were placed in categories 2 and 3 (see Fig. 5). Regarding grammatical accuracy and writing skills, its apparent improvement does not hold for every individual, but it does for the average. It seems that there is a relationship between students’ willingness to interact and communicate in the classroom and their foreign language proficiency. The number of turns, phrases, single words and total words shows a significant distortion in category 1. The first category has the highest number of all those aspects in the chat, whilst the second one has the lowest. Perhaps it highlights that the willingness to interact does not relate to accuracy in the communication. Another interesting aspect refers to the lexical mistakes with regard to students’ spelling. The number of lexical mistakes in the chats was lower in categories 1 and 3. That is, when there was at least one student in the category who had previously shown a high willingness to interact and communicate in the classroom. It seems that when one student of the team takes care of the writing her mate also tries her best, resulting in low mistakes. The same applies for the use of native words and reinforcing the hypothesis (reinforcing request and confirmation checks). Another finding is that feedback is higher in categories 2 and 3. It seems that when at least one of the students in the team has not shown willingness to interact and communicate in

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the classroom there is more need for providing him/her with positive or negative feedback on his/her task performance.

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Discussion and Conclusions

In the last years there has been an increasing attempt to explore the potential of computer games and virtual game-based learning environments in order to engage students towards foreign language learning. However, literature review has shown that there are still few attempts to provide empiric evidence of its educational potential, whereas our present study aims to address this lack. In this paper we explore the possibilities of using a highly interactive 3D online game in order to reinforce students’ foreign language acquisition and communicative competence at the A1 level. The game was designed by using the OpenSim platform and according to the target students’ needs. In the game (The hidden room) students had to cooperate in teams of two in order to achieve a common goal using text chats, that were recorded and analyzed. We separated students in our pilot study in three categories, according to the willingness to interact and communicate in the target language they had previously shown within the classroom. The results obtained are promising. All students, no matter what category they belong to, increased their grades in the three aspects assessed when comparing post-tests results with those of the pre-tests. The number of lexical mistakes in the chats was lower in those categories where at least one of its members had previously shown a high willingness to interact and communicate. The same applies to the use of native words and confirmation requests. It seems that when one student of the team takes care of the writing her mate also tries her best, resulting in low mistakes. Conversely, students showing scarce willingness to interact and communicate in the classroom showed a high increase in their grammatical accuracy and writing skills. It seems that the virtual game-environment created a new context where they were encouraged to communicate. Anyway, a deeper statistical analysis on a greater data set is necessary to find reasonable evidences in favor of the virtual world learning experience. The experimental environment can be prepared to automate text chat interaction analysis using natural language processing tools. For instance, POSIX regular expressions can help to detect regular communication patterns in text chats before being supervised to confirm or revoke its validity as evidences of communicative competence. The improvement of the research methodology based on the automated analysis of text chat data sets is an ongoing work that can provide an interesting line of further research. Acknowledgements. This work has been funded by the Andalusian Consejeria de Innovacion Docente and the University of Cadiz under the following projects: ASCETA (Ref. P09-TIC-5230) R&D project from the Andalusian Government and (PI-13-011): Fortalecimiento de la comprension escrita en lengua extranjera mediante el uso de videojuegos: Aleman II thorugh University of Cadiz programme for Researching and Innovation in Education, and OpenDiscoverySpace:

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A socially-powered and multilingual open learning infrastructure to boost the adoption of eLearning resources (European Union CIP-ICT-PSP-2011-5). We would like to thank also the Free/Libre Software and Open Knowledge Office at UCA (OSLUCA), and the game developer team Raul Gomez Sanchez (Escuela Superior de Ingenieria, UCA) and Francisco Rodriguez (Escuela Politenica Superior, UAM) as well as David Camacho (Escuela Politecnica Superior, UAM), the coordinator of the ABANT project (TIN2010-19872/TSI) and UbiCamp526843-LLP1-2012-ES-ERASMUS-ESMO for their much valued support during the entire project.

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