{"id":9774,"date":"2018-07-12T18:42:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T16:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=9774"},"modified":"2018-09-06T08:49:06","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T06:49:06","slug":"how-and-why-to-teach-chinese-through-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-and-why-to-teach-chinese-through-games\/","title":{"rendered":"How and why to learn and teach Chinese through games"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This article was written as a follow-up to a keynote presentation and a workshop held by me at the 15th Annual Chinese Teaching Conference organised by University College London Institute of Education \u00a0Confucius Institute for Schools, 2018. The original article was published here<\/a>, but I publish it here too because I believe it is useful for students as well as teachers.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Games are meant to be fun, but games can be more than just entertainment. Used in the right way, games can be an excellent way of teaching Chinese to learners of all ages and proficiency levels. In this article, I will discuss several types of games and how they can be used to teach Chinese.<\/span><\/p>\n

Advantages with Teaching Chinese through Games<\/h3>\n

Before I introduce categories of games, as well as specific games and how to use them in the Chinese classroom, I would like to say a few things in general about the benefits of teaching by playing games. Even though games can be more than just entertainment, let us not forget that having fun is in itself important. If we can convince students that learning Chinese is fun, everything else we do will become a little bit easier. There is a wealth of literature showing links between positive attitude and successful acquisition of a foreign language (see for example de Andr\u00e9s, 1999; D\u00f6rnyei, 2002; Arnold & Fonseca, 2007). While low anxiety, positive attitude and self-confidence do not cause language acquisition, they can facilitate it (see Krashen, 1987, the Affective Filter Hypothesis).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Another important advantage with games is that they tend to put the focus on language function rather than language form. The goal is to use the language as a tool to play the game, which can include communicating important information to other players. This is how languages are used in the real world and it is a step away from rote learning, scripted dialogues and tedious drills. Learning is not the result of directly practising language forms, but instead happens implicitly in a communicative context. For more about this, see Lee & VanPatten (1985) and VanPatten (2017).<\/span><\/p>\n

Another way of looking at it is to say that language education often focuses on declarative memory, e.g. being able to state a rule of grammar, rather than procedural memory, e.g. being able to use that rule when speaking. Knowing the former does not guarantee being able to do the latter. Games can be a good way to put the emphasis back on procedural memory (see Macedonia, 2005).<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, playing games can have important social functions. Many games require the players to follow rules, take turns and assume collective responsibility for making sure that everybody complies. Cooperation within a team is also a common feature in many games, which teachers young students to be a part of a functional group. Of course, competition is also an important part of most games, which is also something students need to learn to cope with. Regardless of the age of the students, most students love both cooperation and competition, which both seem to boost motivation significantly.<\/span><\/p>\n

For a general and very upbeat account of the advantages of games, I recommend Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal (2011).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u8c61\u68cb and Monopoly<\/h3>\n

When discussing any topic in depth, it is worthwhile to take a step back and look at what the topic includes and what it does not. This helps avoiding confusion and misunderstanding. My favourite definition of what a game is comes from Bernard Suits and his interesting book <\/span>The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia <\/span><\/i>(2014, first published in 1976). At least half the book is about defining games and this is the shortest version of his definition:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The most important part here is “obstacles”, or we could say “restrictions” and that those are essentially unnecessary, meaning that they are arbitrarily introduced and don’t really serve any function apart from making the game possible. Let’s look at a few examples. When a game of \u8c61\u68cb starts, you are not allowed to simply pick up one of your pieces and use it to directly knock out your opponent\u2019s \u5c06 and claim victory. When you play Monopoly (\u5927\u5bcc\u7fc1), you are not allowed to just grab all the money in the bank. Doing so makes playing the game impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Games can be simple or complicated. A simple game is one I think most have played from time to time, namely that of only allowing oneself to step on the white stripes when crossing a road or only walking on floor tiles of a certain colour. These rules are completely unnecessary obstacles on our walk from point A to point B. And yet many of us, even as adults, sometimes play this game.<\/span><\/p>\n

The attempt to overcome the obstacles also has to be voluntary. If your life depends on only stepping on the red floor tiles, trying to do so is no longer a game. You\u2019re not playing. Thus, if an activity is a game or not is often tied to attitude and the mindset of those engaging in the activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Games can be used to teach Chinese in a number of ways, but many of them involve creating obstacles that the students need to overcome by using the language they have acquired. By selecting or creating appropriate obstacles, the teacher can use games to teach specific skills or domains. This way of thinking should come easily to anyone familiar with task-based language teaching. For more this, please refer to Long (2016).<\/span><\/p>\n

Teaching Chinese through Games<\/h3>\n

When using games to teach Chinese, it is important to understand that games refer to the underlying mechanics of games, not games as commercial products. Below, I will discuss several different categories of games and how they can be used to teach Chinese, but I do not necessarily mean that you should take these games and play them according to the rules that come with the box you buy them in. Instead, I mean that the basic mechanics in those games can be used for teaching. It is up to you to find ways of adapting them to your classroom and to your students. I will discuss several examples of this, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Games Focusing on Language<\/h3>\n

The most obvious way to use games in a classroom is to use games that focus on the language itself. This includes games where words and vocabulary play a key role, such as <\/span>Alias<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Taboo<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Scattergories<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>CodeNames<\/span><\/a>. Other familiar examples in English include <\/span>Scrabble<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Boggle<\/span><\/a>, but those rely on letters and are difficult to use to teach Chinese.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Alias probably has the best underlying mechanic of any game in this category. It can be used with students of almost all ages and levels. Remember, I do not care much for how the game is described in its commercial form, I only care about that one thing that makes it work. In this case, it is the idea of describing a word without being able to use the word itself. This is in fact very similar to not knowing the word, which happens every time students speak. They can improve their fluency by learning how to navigate around gaps in their vocabulary and communicate anyway. I have written a separate article about this:<\/span><\/p>\n

Playing word games in Chinese to practise fluency<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Generally speaking, the more advanced your students are, the closer you can stay to how the game was originally intended to be played. For example, you can easily play CodeNames exactly according to the rules of the game, just with vocabulary from your course, but only if the students are already fairly advanced. The younger they are and the less Chinese they know, the more you need to limit the game. Try to find ways of reducing the complexity of the rules (if the students are young) and the difficulty of the language (if they are beginners).<\/span><\/p>\n

To further reduce the difficulty, you can also allow students to cheat by using English occasionally. Be careful, though, because the point here is to teach Chinese, and some students will resort to English if they can. One way of limiting cheating is to incorporate it into the game, but to make it a finite resource. Each student is given five tokens that can be exchanged for the right to use an English word, for example. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Image credit: Cara Bleiman<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/i>CodeNames is a good example of a game that is too complicated to play in a classroom in its original form, except possibly with adult students. However, the underlying mechanic of finding ways of connecting and disconnecting characters or words can still be used to teach Chinese.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some ways of reducing the complexity of the rules is to play with only one team (no competition), only let the students guess based on clues from the teacher and reducing the size of the board.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some ways of reducing the difficulty of the language is to only include words from certain HSK levels or words your students have already studied. I have introduced CodeNames in a separate article, which also includes a tool for generating suitable word lists for this game and many others:<\/span><\/p>\n

Playing Codenames to learn Chinese<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Games Focusing on Communication<\/h3>\n

There is a large number of games where communication between players is the main point. For example, there are many games, such as <\/span>Mafia<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>The Resistance<\/span><\/a> which are all about convincing the other players that you are not the bad guy. These games obviously require the students to be able to put forward basic arguments in Chinese to be feasible, but it need not be very complicated. For more about using Mafia in the classroom, please read this post by Diane Neubauer: <\/span>Mafia: a CI-friendly game<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are also games that focus entirely on cooperation, where the players strive to defeat the game together, often by coordinating their efforts, mediated through the spoken language. Examples include <\/span>Pandemic<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Space Alert<\/span><\/a>, both which are fairly complex and require advanced Chinese to start with. I include them here simply to show that they can be amazing tools for learning, not because they will be useful for most teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Games Focusing on Telling Stories<\/h3>\n

Storytelling should have a place in all classrooms and of course there are many games that are meant to facilitate and mediate the telling of stories. One of the problems with storytelling is that it can be too open-ended and too free. In other words, storytelling in itself is not a game. By imposing some restrictions (obstacles) on storytelling and turning it into a game, the activity can become much less daunting and easier to approach. Asked to tell a story, any story, many students will come up blank, but if given clear restrictions and some input, most of them can do it. How about trying to tell a story using only specific elements shown on cards drawn from a deck (<\/span>Once upon a Time<\/span><\/a>) or shown on dice the students roll (<\/span>Story Cubes<\/span><\/a>)?<\/span><\/p>\n

Role-playing games can also be used successfully in the classroom, but the topic really deserves an article of its own. Briefly put, role-playing games can be used to simulate real-life situations such as ordering \u997a\u5b50 in a restaurant, encouraging real communication (if it is scripted, it is not a game). Temporarily assuming another identity can also broaden a students horizons in terms of vocabulary, and can help with pronunciation practice (it is sometimes easier to pretend to be someone else and speak like them than it is to change the way one already speaks). I have written an article about role-playing games:<\/span><\/p>\n

Role-playing to learn more Chinese and avoid frustration<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I am sure many teachers already use role-playing in their teaching and know that they can be as simple as you like. Of course, the can also be as complicated as you like, going all the way up to actual table-top role-playing games.<\/span><\/p>\n

Games that Contain Chinese Language<\/h3>\n

\"\"It used to be that most computer games were in English, or at the best of times, text translations existed for major European languages. Those days are long gone. Many high-budget productions nowadays include fully-functional versions in other languages, including Chinese. One such example is StarCraft 2, where not only all text in the game can be changed to Chinese, but where all voice acting and graphics have also been remade in Chinese, both simplified and traditional!<\/span><\/p>\n

Computer games like these are seldom suitable in the classroom, but they can provide a very strong motivation for students who like these or similar games. They might not be able to do everything in the game in Chinese, but learning about the game and some of the language it contains is probably more interesting than any textbook. I have written a separate article about this:<\/span><\/p>\n

Playing computer games in Chinese: Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Naturally, there are also many games produced in China entirely in Chinese, but these games are often very hard to access for students, both linguistically and practically speaking. Also, in order to overcome the significant language barriers at the beginning, the student probably needs to be interested in the game to start with, so games produced for the Chinese market are less interesting for teaching purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Text Adventure Games for Chinese Learners<\/h3>\n

\"\"In order to harness the power of games in language learning and teaching, I have been working on adventure text games specifically designed for Chinese learners. I have done this with Kevin Bullaughey over at <\/span>WordSwing<\/span><\/a>. These games are meant to encourage active reading, boost motivation and increase the willingness to reread in order to cement gains in vocabulary and grammar.<\/span><\/p>\n

The games are like graded readers in that they provide level-adjusted content, but instead of being a static text, they present students with choices of what to do and say. The story then develops differently depending on what choices the student makes. However, we call them games for a reason. Playing through a game to the end is not a matter of haphazardly clicking on choices without understanding what is going on. Some choices are obviously bad if the student follows the narrative and understands the choices, it is much more likely that the story ends well. In many of the games, it is almost impossible to get to the end without understanding most of what is going on.<\/span><\/p>\n

I realise that this can sound a bit abstract, so I have created several videos that demonstrate the text games. Some use a slightly older interface from before we launched apps for <\/span>iOS<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Android<\/span><\/a> , but the gameplay is still the same.<\/span><\/p>\n