Readers of Games & Education are probably already familiar with my role playing games and EFL work through the various brief articles which have appeared here or from the lengthy article which appeared in an early issue of Interactive Fantasy. If anyone wishes me to email an online version of one an earlier academic incarnation of that research on this subject (originally presented to the ROC National TEFL Conference and later archived by TESL-L, an online discussion group for English teachers with over ten thousand members), just send an email message to me at phillips@cc.nccu.edu.tw, and I'll send it right out. Publishers willing to help out can also contact me at this address.
In addition to my RPGs in education project, I have also used various conversational and non/conversational card games in classes such as Once Upon a Time (this is a superb game for language classes and probably will work well with related disciplines equally well; most of the teachers in my department have four to five decks to use with their classes), Illuminati, Zebu, and the card version of Cluedo. I also plan to use The Great Dalmuti with classes this coming semester.
At the beginning of this school year, I received a couple starter decks and some booster packs of Steve Jackson's Illuminati New World Order trading card game (TCG) from a friend to which I later combined a factory set to create a large pool for classroom use. Initially, it worked out quite well; in fact one of the projects we've done in the past with the original Illuminati game was for the students to design new cards for the game based upon local politics and current events.
Illuminati is a great game for learning about American culture and politics simply because of the great diversity of groups and ideas incorporated into the game. There are a couple excellent concordances to the game which are invaluable for helping stude nts to understand where the ideas=20for the various cards come from. For advanced students it's a great way to deepen some cultural understanding while intermediate students concentrate more on the language used to play the game.
Beginner classes might falter a bit with the game, although the basics can be learned through play rather quickly. Since I work primarily with Intermediate to Advanced students, the game works well enough as a language/cultural tool.
As in the past couple years, this past semester students played Atlas Games's Once Upon a Time rather extensively and then designed their own decks based upon genres or story types of their choice, such as mystery, cyberpunk, horror, wilderness adventure, whatever, and the activity was both a big hit with the students and extremely successful as a language practice device. Some of the student created decks were also quite beautiful. I had suggested that the students "borrow" art from comic books and the like to illustrate their decks, but a few of the groups did their own original illustrations. One deck in particular, a humorous horror and mystery deck, worked out very well indeed with a combination of rather bizarre story items with very good original cartoons.
I've introduced Once Upon a Time to several teachers who now use it quite a bit in their own classes. This activity is effectively used at both the Freshman and Sophomore level at my university and is one of the few activities students and teachers never tire of. By the way, Once Upon a Time also works well as part of a writing assignment; ask the students to play a game and then write the resultant story or give them several Once Upon a Time cards and one Happy Ever After Card and have them write a story using all of the elements.
Since the TCG games phenomenon is fairly big in the west but virtually unknown here in Asia, I suspected that the games might be perfect for my classrooms since all of this is new to my students, adding a fresh quality to the whole enterprise.
At the beginning of my project, I contacted a few of the TCG and RPG publishers I know of on the Internet, asking them for help, and was very happy with the positive response. Although a few companies did promise to send materials and then backed out later (unfortunately, some dropped out without telling us they had decided to do so), we had enough Magic, Wyvern, On The Edge, Ultimate Combat, Rage, Redemption, and The Last Crusade decks to get started. Although it didn't arrive in time for the start of the project, Sim City will very likely work very well once it does arrive, as will the other games we haven't had a chance to experiment with yet but which we know are on the way. From experience with the decks we received, I am certain that students will continue to find the activity very entertaining as well as worthwhile as an English language practice activity.
I have been using the games with first through fourth year university EFL students. Before entering university in Taiwan, students have already had six years of formal English language instruction from Junior through Senior High School so even a Freshman is not what one would consider a rank beginner. The classes range from straightforward English Oral Training and Practice classes to a couple writing classes and one class devoted to Role Playing Games; yes, I really do teach an RPG class for university students here. While some classes have as many as sixty students, and others have as few as ten, each class typically has twenty students who are all involved with the activity, usually divided into small groups of three to four for "group" games or two for "duel" or dyad games.
Typically, I would receive thirty to forty starter decks and a box or two of boosters for each of a company's games. Some folks sent as many as fifty or more starters, and others sent as few as ten. However, we made use of whatever we could get. For games with larger numbers, I've been able to use them with more classes simultaneously. I have also been able to set up inter-class mini-tourneys. When we have fewer copies of a particular game, we rotate its use between a few classes.
Since this is a language learning adaptation of the hobbies, I've tried to adapt the games for use in the classroom. I now have tweaked a few things in the approach and in some of the rules so that hopefully it'll help students (1) enjoy the activity more and (2) better practice their English language conversational skills.
One strength I have found of TCGs for use in language practice, surprisingly enough is the "T" - trading. When students begin the activity, I try to have them make note of what cards are with each starter deck. I have the individual students do the paperwork, as tracking that many decks would just kill me.
Since most of the materials currently being studied are trading card games, I take advantage of that fact to allow students to practice conversational skills related to trade and barter. Once students are familiar with the basics of how to play and have played against a few of their classmates, I ask them to start constructing more powerful decks by deciding which cards would help them and then bartering/trading with other students so that they can exchange cards and build decks. At this time I would hop e to bring in booster packs for the students. There really are quite a few language skills that can be practiced through this sort of bartering exchange. Quite a bit of the recent scholarly research into language learning has been devoted to negotiation and negotiation strategies in the classroom and this aspect of adventure gaming ties into this quite well indeed.
As they go through this process, students continue to build and play with their decks, improving both their game and language skills. Eventually, assuming we have enough basic starters and boosters, I try to arrange to have a multiple cross-class tournament where the first round pits students from one class against those of another, all students using their customized decks. I set things up so there are several rounds allowing students to play several opponents and then a final round which determines the champion for that grade level. Sometimes we arrange for matches to be held concurrently, if classes meet at the same time (when another teacher is participating it's usually possible to do this) or have students meet outside of class and record their games.
It's important for teachers to note that since I use these games as language learning aids, I normally ask the students to go beyond the "math and play" attitude many gamers have where they simply add up all the pluses and minuses and tally the results (gr eat for math skills but not much help for language). Rather I'll often ask students to visualize the game as a narrative construct in which they are telling the story as they play. The Magic comic books, short stories, and comic books have helped immense ly to help students see more than a card game when they play and concentrate on playing out stories, what I'd term as a RPGTCG or something like Once Upon A Time's narrative card game paradigm. This is admittedly difficult to implement but well worth the effort, both as a language learner and as a hobbyist.
As an introduction to this language use narrative construct paradigm, I've developed my own game. It works fairly well, and I imagine I'll eventually write it up as a submission to one game company or another as a bona fide product.
Obviously, this sort of thing works better for some games than others. Part of the point of the research project is to determine which games are best suited for this sort of classroom application, which ones can be most readily adapted through minor tweaks, which ones need major overhaul to be of much use, and which ones are best left alone. While a class of Juniors had not problems understanding how to play Magic, a group of Freshmen told me I was crazy if I thought they could figure the game out on their own. However, after my wife and I demoed a game for them, explaining each step as we went along, they took to the concept rather quickly. For some folks you have to give them freedom to do things on their own and for others you need to hold their hands the first few steps.
I prefer to have available to students as large a variety of material as possible, since this gives us more options as well as provides the students with more variety for language use as well as for enjoyment. I hope that enough students will be turned on by the activity that they'll pursue the hobby outside of the classroom, and a few have already asked about just that very thing. After all, as I'm sure most folks who read Games & Education share my sentiments, I use adventure games in my classrooms partly because they can be applied very nicely in terms of helping students learn a great deal in an enjoyable manner and partly simply because I'm a gamer myself and get a real kick out of sharing the hobby with others.
Email Brian David Phillips at phillips@nccu.edu.tw.
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