Learning a Foreign Language with The Sims 310
JavaTHut writes "The Journal Language Learning and Technology has a new article describing how The Sims can be modified to teach a foreign language. With this and other efforts at U.S.C. and M.I.T., could simulated immersion within video games become an effective way of acquiring a foreign language? Also of interest in the article are suggestions for using spatialized translation layers in foreign language songs and a Firefox extension for learning foreign vocabulary words."
Lazy (Score:2, Insightful)
This is actually an interesting idea... (Score:5, Insightful)
Grammar? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is actually an interesting idea... (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree. The reason immersion motivates is that you have to communicate and you can't use the language you have. Are there games that are more dependant on actually being able to communicate? Fun games, that is.
Re:This is actually an interesting idea... (Score:3, Insightful)
It would really be intriguing to be able to actually hear what the sims are saying and understand it, but I think it'll become boring listening to the same thing in even a thousand languages. Maxis would need to change what they say per language, maybe add some local remarks/sayings in it so it'll be worth going through the game.
How about some cons? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think the Sims could provide a sufficient language portion that would allow anyone to get by. Most Sims events occur within the house, when any foreign language use would be required mostly outside of it in public places, which the Sims wouldn't cover.
In addition to that, the Sims would not really provide any kind of advancement since the progression in the storyline does not imply progression in the complexity of the language. As a result the gamer would dive right into the same language level as he will be playing from that point on. Language is difficult to learn when there is no sense of accomplishment and progression which can't exist in a paceless learning.
Lastly, the Sims is quite an addictive game (speaking from experience) and encouraging that from an educational standpoint is kind of like encouraging smoking because its cool while disregarding its health implications (a slight exageration but you get the point).
Hold on a minute.... (Score:4, Insightful)
.
To me, this sounds like a way to make it possible for people that don't have regular opportunities to use the language they are trying to learn a new way to get there from here.
The only caveat I can think of is that relative anonymity seems to bring out the a-hole in a lot of us. That is to say, there might be a lot of jerks entering the sim that would try to ruin it for the rest of us just for the amusement of doing so. I guess the sim-world will probably need a cover charge to keep out the riff-raff.
anyone notice (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Maybe new for Americans (Score:2, Insightful)
> accostumed to read subtitles with some cartoons.
What's proposed in the article is a little different in that it's not just playing the game in the other language, but creating a hybrid of both languages with each chosen for specific areas of the game (following incidental learning guidelines created for annotating reading passages). That being said, the success of foreign language learning via popular culture in Europe versus the horrible failiure of U.S. foreign language classrooms was certianly the inspiration for the article (I started thinking about it when I was living in Sweden).
> They could expand this further, beyond just
> "language".
See http://www.educationarcade.org
Re:Children learn English this way now (Score:4, Insightful)
I told a colleague at work that I was planning on learning French. He ERUPTED at me and told me how useless anything French was... He hates France because they wouldn't help us in Iraq. They wouldn't help because they had a pretty good feeling that there weren't any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and they turned out to be right. Apparently being correct is good reason to hate a country... I don't see the logic but oh well.
Reminds me of the book of Jeremiah in the bible. Jeremiah was a prophet, he told people what was coming, they didn't listen, and when he turned out to be correct, they killed him. I guess people hate the phrase "I told ya so."
Re:Maybe new for Americans (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hold on a minute.... (Score:1, Insightful)
Did you know they don't even have a written language in Canada or Germany? It's true, they're so stupid -- I guess they've seen our newspapers, and they try to make newspapers of their own, but since they can't write and they can't hardly even talk, they just make a bunch of random letters together! I'm not kidding! They really do, I've seen it. So all these poor stupid Canadians walk around with these fake newspapers -- pretending to read them! I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself, but they really do pretend like they're reading! They probably don't even know what reading is, but you know how they are, "Monkey see, monkey do." They're like the Chinese -- you go to Chinatown, they do the same damn thing, but they're so stupid, God, you won't even believe this, but they're even dumber than the Canadians -- they don't even know how to make real letters! They just make a bunch of little scratch marks in a square, and they line up a bunch of those and they stare at it for all the world like they think they're really reading something! It's the funniest damn thing you ever saw in your life.
You know, I keep an open mind and I'm not a bad guy, but I just have to get down on my knees now and then and thank God I was born in the good old USA (woo-hooo!) where I got a decent education. It must suck being a dumb foreigner not even being able to read. I knew a Chinese guy in college, he was in my TV Appreciation class but he quit showing up after a couple days, and he could barely even talk at all! He was nice, but man was he dumb! He said he it was a mistake in his schedule that he was in that class, I guess he had to go back and take the ra, ra -- darn, that's a tough one -- the ramenial classes first before they'd let him be in there for the advanced stuff that Americans can understand easy cause we've got all the advantages. He said something about taking, uh, can't remember it . . . "fiz", "phys", something like that, OH yeah, I know: I can't spell it too good but it sounded just like "Phys-X", I guess is was some kinda chink Phys-Ed or something. I didn't see him in none of my classes after that. I guess he didn't make it. I kinda feel sorry for him, but you know I had a real tough schedule right then -- I had arithmetic and reading in the same semester! It's just the sarrival of the faddist. If all he could hack was that "Phys-X" and he couldn't even pass a football I guess he just don't belong in college.
Re:French can be Useful (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hold on a minute.... (Score:2, Insightful)
For instance, the words "two", "to", and "too" all sound the same when spoken and you would need to figure out from context which I meant. Similarly, "which" and "witch" sound the same. However, written down you can easily differentiate them.
On the other hand, sometimes two words are written with the same spelling and only the location of the accent, or the context in which the word appears, can distinguish which meaning is intended. For instance, "desert" in the sense of the Sahara desert and "desert" in the sense of leaving a military unit without leave are spelled the same, but the first is spoken with the accent on the first syllable -- DEsert -- but the second has the accent on the second -- deSERT.
And then there are those words that are spelled and pronounced the same
Re:Children learn English this way now (Score:3, Insightful)
Warning: US centric post
Part of the problem is the fact that we teach foreign languages too late in the education cycle -- high school and junior high. If we really want to teach children to be multilingual, we need to start in the elementary years when their minds are more adept at learning language. By the time kids are in high school, this learning advantage is gone, and they have to learn languages the hard way.
Once you learn one other language, it becomes much easier to pick up additional languages since your brain is already "programmed" to be multi-lingual. If we even taught one foreign language (say Spanish due to the very large hispanic population in this country) in kindergarden along with English, it would make it that much easier for them to pick up additional languages as they saw fit later on in their education. I think we should make an additional language mandatory in elementary school. The language could be chosen on a state or district level according to the communities influences (ex. French in the northeast, German in Pennsylvania, Spanish in the Southwest and Florida).