Pragmatics and Gaming

Teaching strategic behavior through games in the learning environment

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Introduction & Rationale

Hello everyone! If this is your first time visiting this page, welcome! If not, welcome back! This blog was designed by Tiffany VanPelt, Alan Ullman, and Ben Pearson, members of the 2014-2015 LTS cohort at the University of Oregon, as a place to relate gaming and pragmatics, providing several links to scholarly articles and empirical evidence, as well as countless additional resources that teachers can use or modify at their own discretion. The purpose we had going into this project was to create something that fellow teachers, students, and gamers would find interesting and useful at the same time and this is the product - a blog which others will visit, get inspiration from, and provide insight of their own!

The games which we cover in our blog are digital as well as analog, using the advantages of each format productively as well as compensating for the disadvantages. In our blog, we have a good mixture of both types of games, rationale for using them in a classroom environment, and example activities/materials that can be used alongside them. While the medium in which the games are presented may be different, the pragmatics behind them are the same. Games of all kinds provide players with the opportunity to escape the conventional rules and customs in everyday life, and there is a growing movement amongst language teachers to take advantage of these gaming atmospheres for their learners. These games give students a place where they can practice various speech acts or strategic language in a fabricated setting, lowering their affective filter and encouraging their willingness to communicate. The idea is that after using these games to practice a particular pragmatic feature, students will feel more comfortable using these same strategies in an authentic setting amongst other people using the language.

Again, the objective we had creating this blog was to give teachers access to several tools that they can use or alter for their own motives (sharing is caring!). As such, we have tried to link as many articles, exercises, videos, lesson plans, and other materials for other teachers to take advantage of. We all know that you are busy, so we are here to help!  We have organized the site using hashtags corresponding to research, activity, and pragmatic benefits. We hope you can help too by sharing this page with other colleagues, enthusiasts, or friends and having them give their own input and ideas, allowing this exciting genre of entertainment to grow in the public eye as more than just a distraction and a time-waster. Our hope is to prove to others that using games can constitute more than just “fun-days” for students. They capture the attention of the player, of course, but this can be used for a particular purpose given the proper framing and preparation. With enough attention and evidence, people will begin to see analog and digital games as more than extracurricular distractions but more in line with other genres of media such as film, television shows, and music, which have already been accepted as useful, authentic materials in the classroom. People who have ever played a truly engaging game before understand that it is one of the most rewarding, human enterprises that one can have, and we want to harness this passion to serve a purpose for teaching. We hope you feel the same and get some use out of our initial findings and examples.

Enjoy!

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We have chosen to construct our Activity 2 around the puzzle game ilomilo (discussed below) in order to demonstrate a communicative activity using digital games designed to encourage engagement in student players and observers.  This lesson practices polite requests and giving directions, as well as asks students to notice, measure, and identify polite behaviors.  To access this file, navigate to the LT610 Win 2015 folder on this page, and click the file link.

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Settlers of Catan is a turn-based strategy board game in which players start out with basic settlements and roads and choose their placements according to what they think will be most advantageous. In order to expand their empires they must obtain resources to build more roads, settlements, and cities. This is an ideal game for teaching pragmatics regarding negotiations and turn taking in the L2. This website breaks down, quickly and efficiently, how to play and what it looks like. This is a great resource for teachers and learners to understand how the game works.

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Hey guys! Update to the pragmatics lesson plan page! There is now a lesson plan developed by Tiffany VanPelt, Ben Pearson and Al Ullman (the moderators of this blog) about expressing disagreement to a superior in English. It utilizes a videogame walkthrough video to stimulate dialogue on expressions of disagreement and politeness. It is really a rather fun lesson and I hope you are able to incorporate it or at least take some useful ideas from it.

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Werewolf: Lesson Plan

Attached is a sample lesson plan that I have used in the past to utilize the game 'Ultimate Werewolf.' The focus of this particular lesson is on indirect questions, but it can easily be modified to target different kinds of speech acts or pragmatic features. It also includes a simplified version of the game rules in case teachers do not want to go out and purchase a copy of 'Ultimate Werewolf;' the game can easily be played with notecards as well.

Link to Lesson Plan

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Here is another TableTop video to either demonstrate to you how the game dixit works and give you a visual to work off of in your adaptation to the classroom or to show to your advanced learners to have them evaluate the pragmatic components (of which it is rich) or to simply understand how the game works so that it can be utilized in the language classroom afterwards.

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Dixit is another fun storytelling game which can be played very quickly in language classroom. This game can utilize visual memory techniques to help with memory retention while at the same time creating a safe and comfortable atmosphere that raises the willingness to communicate (WTC) of the learners. Here it is part of the game to judge which picture might best represent a vocabulary word or topic under discussion. The debate can happen in a friendly atmosphere under the guise of playing a board game.

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Ultimate Werewolf

As a genre, I find that ‘hidden-role’ games like 'Werewolf', while simple to set up and play, offer some of the most engaging and immersive experiences with a group of people, and it is because of the authentic communication that the games inspire. Some players are 'Villagers,' and others are 'Werewolves,' and everyone is trying to figure out who everyone else is. 'Ultimate Werewolf' can be played any number of ways, catering to introverted methods as well as extroverted. Because of this, and the fact that gaming atmospheres are often low-monitor, introducing this game and games like it into the classroom could give less talkative students the chance to practice their language skills in a fun, yet productive activity. These games are also simple to recreate (‘Werewolf’ can be made out of notecards with the roles written on them) and offer different group formats (multiple small groups can play separate games or the whole class can play one large game). They are also an excellent source of authentic materials, and they could inspire learners to pursue other games to explore and play with their friends. If used appropriately, they can even be used for particular form-focused objectives (paying attention to the questions/statements and writing them in the indirect form). There is plenty and more to be said about how limited a teacher’s classtime is and how games can distract learners from learning the language, but there is also plenty of evidence that effective inclusion of games can direct learners to use authentic, fluent language in a relevant context.

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I have posted a lesson plan here that has three options of how to utilize the game “Once Upon a Time” by Atlas games into your classroom to teach pragmatics explicitly or peripherally at your leisure. What is most important is that this game can help to create a comfortable, fun place to explore language as well as pragmatic strategies.

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In this commercial, a famous actor (Liam Neeson) reprises his role as an action hero out for revenge in response to his village being raided by another player.  This could be used to prompt discussions of the use of ubiquitous games, marketing choices (the reasons for juxtaposing a serious actor with a cartoon-like video game), and/or simply to generate excitement and motivation at the idea that students could be playing with celebrities!  Students could discuss their opinions about the commercial, or make their own parody or response to it as yet another toehold into the digital communities surrounding the game.

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Strategy Guides

Strategy guides enable players to increase their gaming abilities and advance to new levels, abilities, and troops.  This guide could be used as a required reading prior to cooperative game play, or as a weekly experiment in new game play styles.  By having players discuss strategies in class, the instructor could have them collaborate on their own strategy which could be submitted to the site for inclusion.  In this way, students are able to interact with and impact collaborative game spaces, gaining value for themselves, and adding value for other players.  By collaborating on projects related to the game, the students become more invested in their gaming outcomes and have a greater motivation to communicate to accomplish tasks.

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Poker: Handout

This handout would be a great complement to the video shown before. Essentially it goes over the different betting phases of the game and gives students space to fill in the blanks with the appropriate card values as well as some space to say what hands the players have and to predict what they will do next. By having students do a task while watching a video, they are activating their schema in order to prime them for the rest of the lesson, which could include playing a couple hands of poker. In addition, students will be able to hear some authentic commentary from the video which will give them some exposure to the insight of the commentators as well as some poker jargon.

Link to Handout

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QQQQ vs. 9999 worst poker beat in history

This is a great video to use as a demonstration on how to play poker and also some of the more crazy things that can happen in this game. The chances of this happening in a game are so rare that it is almost painful to watch it play out. A great activity that students could do while watching this video would be to pay attention to what hands each player has, and to analyze why the players bet the way they do. The teacher could pause the video each time a new card is shown, then have the students predict what they think each player will do. By doing this, the students are engaging with gaming pragmatics and thinking about what they would do in that situation.

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Poker: Hand Rankings

This is an incredibly useful resource for students to refer back to while playing the game. In order to know what to do and whether or not to stay in the game, players have to know whether or not they have a good hand or at least a chance at getting a good hand later. Charts like these often come with decks of cards now due to the popularity of poker, but for classroom purposes, numerous copies would likely be required. The teacher would have to go over each hand one by one and check for comprehension amongst the students, but the main idea is that they are aware of the ranking system before going into a game.

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Poker (Texas Hold 'Em)

This timeless game is often associated with gambling and deception, but it is one of the greatest didactic examples of pragmatics that I can think of. With a deck of cards and some plastic chips being the only resources needed for the class (since gambling with real money would likely be frowned upon), this is an incredibly simple game to set up. There are many variations to how the game is played, but the most prevalent version is ‘Texas Hold ‘Em.’ At the start, each player is dealt 2 cards face-down and then the first round of betting starts. One player starts as the ‘Dealer’ and the two players to the right are the ‘Big Blind’ and ‘Small Blind,’ meaning that they have to throw some chips into the pot regardless of the cards they have. The rest of the players either ‘Fold’ (throw their cards away and sit out of this game), ‘Call’ (put chips into the pot equal to the current bet), or ‘Raise’ (put chips into the pot of at least double the current bet). Once everyone is in, the dealer deals out 3 cards face-up, called the ‘Flop.’ After bets are made, the dealer turns over another card, called the ‘Turn,’ and after another round of betting, turns over the last card, called the ‘River.’ If there are still players left at the end of the game, they both show the 2 cards that they have and the player with the best hand wins the chips in the pot. The premise of the game is for players to bet on the fact that they have a better hand of cards than the other players based on the cards that are face-up for everyone to see, and the 2 cards that only they know. The actions that players take when betting or raising, the mannerisms of the players, the questions they ask one another, the deduction and percentages; these are all great examples of pragmatics in motion, and this game encourages players to communicate with one another to determine what they do next in order to win the game.

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Clash of Clans

Clash of Clans is a free ("freemium") mobile game MMO available for Android and iOS systems and created by developer Supercell.  The game features a touch-screen interface and online and cooperative play.  Players build a base village with walls, defenses, and resource collectors, as well as troops with which to invade other player's villages.  Over time, through the collection of resources and collaborative trade with members of one's clan, players can upgrade resources and troops to obtain new buildings, soldiers, and defenses.  An in-game chat function allows players to strategize and plan attacks through the Clan Wars function which allows clans to face off against one another to earn in-game currency.  The game does have some violent elements, but there is no injury or gore in player battles.  The ability to limit entry into one's clan and chat to one's fellow members allows the instructor to limit the players' exposure to native speakers if desired.  There is much less customization compared to a MMORPG, and a lower barrier to entry in that game play is touch-based, rather than requiring controller skills, allowing learners to start playing immediately.  The game is also mobile, which allows learners to engage with the content at their convenience and leisure, and thus is much less resource intensive for instructors to implement.

http://supercell.com/en/games/clashofclans/

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As part of play in ilomilo, the instructor could direct students to this walkthrough for assistance in reaching their achievements.  The instructor should familiarize students with the concept of a walkthrough, then do a verbal relay race activity, with one student reading the walkthrough, then relaying that to a second student which directs the student players through the appropriate paths.  If students are more advanced, an instructor could ask them to produce a walkthrough-style webpage using Google sites for another game or a walkthrough that directs players through a particular experience or collection strategy.