RPG: As A Learning Tool
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Hello.
I was directed here from a link at http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyskusja:G ... dania_Gier. I was attracted by the use of English in this subtopic but have since read the other Threads in this section, leaving me at a loss where to make my post. Realising that English is ascribed to this section exclusively and being unable to read Polish, I have decided to post my comments here. An Administrator may decide to move my post from this subtopic to another subtopic where it is more appropriate to an English reader interested in what I have to comment.
I would be interested in having your comments as well.
= = =
I have been using Role Playing Games (RPGs) as a tool for teaching English for the past two years. While role-playing is a common tool for English teachers, I am referring to the social form of storytelling game (RPG) that uses dice to determine probabilities.
At first, I approached English language schools here in Poland with my idea. But I was surprised at the strong resistance I received from a great many of these educated business people. They expressed a moralising viewpoint that RPGs are bad. They expressed that the creative imagination used in RPGs leads to a breakdown in character and results in one form or another of deviant behaviour. Incredibly, these educated viewpoints are the same ones that advocated book burning over three centuries ago and condemn Harry Potter novels today. Apparently they believe repeated role-playing of a job interview scenario with students is more appropriate as being instructive and reflective of a living language rather than by engaging a student's imagination through listening and speaking in an on-going game.
So, I present a few of my own viewpoints concerning the use of these tools in developing mastery over the comprehension and articulation of a language.
First, it is to be understood that the entire scenario of a RPG is heavily dependent upon the processing of language to create mental images. The foundation of comprehension is built upon language that is descriptive, expositive and narrative. By its very definition, a RPG makes use of thought puzzles and riddles within its gaming structure.
Second, as a social game that is highly dependent upon language, it demands co-operative group effort and communication. Everyone is required to speak when it is their turn to declare their thoughts. There is no set pattern as there is in a Callan Method course or as there is in a memorized text of a prepared topic. Students who play social games (like RPGs) must interact with what the group is communicating at the moment. Since RPGs are played using imagination rather than acted out as a drama on stage, creative thinking and problem solving are requirements as are a facility with language comprehension and the willingness for self-expression.
There is nothing wrong with a Callan Method to encourage new language students to speak but methods such as these have their limitations. Even traditional "native-speaker" conversations are limited by the topics that can be discussed and by the environmental factors of learning in a classroom.
I posit that these traditional methods alone are insufficient to meet the on-going needs of advanced learners.
Third, operating as a group rather than as an individual, a student creates camaraderie that facilitates learning. The emphasis is on the collective experience of the game rather than on an individual's apprehending the language with the predicable results that enjoyment in learning is a reinforced message through experiential learning. This leaches off the most effective teaching methodology.
Four, mastery over a language includes the ability to express abstract concepts that sometimes are difficult to grasp even in the mother tongue. The creative use of English during RPGs challenges students to organize their thinking and to be innovative in its expression. RPGs place students in highly imaginative scenarios asking them to define and express their own solutions to the challenges of the game. In effect, an RPG puts the student into an active mode of learning rather than relying on the passive mode typical in watching a film.
Lastly, it is easy for me to go into the minutiae of benefits my gamers experience. I have had the privilege and the pleasure to experience this first hand, being paid over 50 PLN a teaching hour to implement. Gamers meet each other for the first time at my games and continue to speak English with each other even after the game, knowing that it is easier with a shared event to support each other in English than to convert their shared knowledge into a crude translation. This promotes the continued practice of thinking in the second language outside the RPG. Even language schools cannot offer this as a benefit outside the classroom.
The five points above cover large areas of learning that have other subtopics within them, which all support the use of RPGs as a modern device for learning a language at higher levels. I am sure that educators reading my post here can add much more academic background to my experiences using social RPG as a teaching aide.
Richard Whipple,
English RPGer
I was directed here from a link at http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyskusja:G ... dania_Gier. I was attracted by the use of English in this subtopic but have since read the other Threads in this section, leaving me at a loss where to make my post. Realising that English is ascribed to this section exclusively and being unable to read Polish, I have decided to post my comments here. An Administrator may decide to move my post from this subtopic to another subtopic where it is more appropriate to an English reader interested in what I have to comment.
I would be interested in having your comments as well.
= = =
I have been using Role Playing Games (RPGs) as a tool for teaching English for the past two years. While role-playing is a common tool for English teachers, I am referring to the social form of storytelling game (RPG) that uses dice to determine probabilities.
At first, I approached English language schools here in Poland with my idea. But I was surprised at the strong resistance I received from a great many of these educated business people. They expressed a moralising viewpoint that RPGs are bad. They expressed that the creative imagination used in RPGs leads to a breakdown in character and results in one form or another of deviant behaviour. Incredibly, these educated viewpoints are the same ones that advocated book burning over three centuries ago and condemn Harry Potter novels today. Apparently they believe repeated role-playing of a job interview scenario with students is more appropriate as being instructive and reflective of a living language rather than by engaging a student's imagination through listening and speaking in an on-going game.
So, I present a few of my own viewpoints concerning the use of these tools in developing mastery over the comprehension and articulation of a language.
First, it is to be understood that the entire scenario of a RPG is heavily dependent upon the processing of language to create mental images. The foundation of comprehension is built upon language that is descriptive, expositive and narrative. By its very definition, a RPG makes use of thought puzzles and riddles within its gaming structure.
Second, as a social game that is highly dependent upon language, it demands co-operative group effort and communication. Everyone is required to speak when it is their turn to declare their thoughts. There is no set pattern as there is in a Callan Method course or as there is in a memorized text of a prepared topic. Students who play social games (like RPGs) must interact with what the group is communicating at the moment. Since RPGs are played using imagination rather than acted out as a drama on stage, creative thinking and problem solving are requirements as are a facility with language comprehension and the willingness for self-expression.
There is nothing wrong with a Callan Method to encourage new language students to speak but methods such as these have their limitations. Even traditional "native-speaker" conversations are limited by the topics that can be discussed and by the environmental factors of learning in a classroom.
I posit that these traditional methods alone are insufficient to meet the on-going needs of advanced learners.
Third, operating as a group rather than as an individual, a student creates camaraderie that facilitates learning. The emphasis is on the collective experience of the game rather than on an individual's apprehending the language with the predicable results that enjoyment in learning is a reinforced message through experiential learning. This leaches off the most effective teaching methodology.
Four, mastery over a language includes the ability to express abstract concepts that sometimes are difficult to grasp even in the mother tongue. The creative use of English during RPGs challenges students to organize their thinking and to be innovative in its expression. RPGs place students in highly imaginative scenarios asking them to define and express their own solutions to the challenges of the game. In effect, an RPG puts the student into an active mode of learning rather than relying on the passive mode typical in watching a film.
Lastly, it is easy for me to go into the minutiae of benefits my gamers experience. I have had the privilege and the pleasure to experience this first hand, being paid over 50 PLN a teaching hour to implement. Gamers meet each other for the first time at my games and continue to speak English with each other even after the game, knowing that it is easier with a shared event to support each other in English than to convert their shared knowledge into a crude translation. This promotes the continued practice of thinking in the second language outside the RPG. Even language schools cannot offer this as a benefit outside the classroom.
The five points above cover large areas of learning that have other subtopics within them, which all support the use of RPGs as a modern device for learning a language at higher levels. I am sure that educators reading my post here can add much more academic background to my experiences using social RPG as a teaching aide.
Richard Whipple,
English RPGer