Acculturation through Serious Games

A serious game that I would absolutely love to use in my L2 classroom would be this game, called Trace Effects. An educational game supported by the United States Government, Trace Effects uses 3-D interactive adventures in order to be used as a means of English language learning. The game includes an integration of the American English dictionary, as well as educating learners on the diversity of the English language that exists within the United States. Moreover, learners are educated in different aspects of American culture. Although I was unable to play the game, as an account must be set up, I was able to read up on it and view a trailer of it off of YouTube. 

Objectives from this game would include the following: acculturation, social interaction, English immersion, and expansion in learning. Acculturation would be through the game's inclusion of American culture, along with social interaction being accomplished through the multi-player modes that the game includes. As the game is in English and includes full sentences and vocabulary set to the ages between 12 and 16 years old, immersion is very much possible. Expansion in learning would be through the many activities included in the game. 

Assessment of these objectives would be through the utilization of the teacher manuals included in the game. The point-based scoring system included in the game's instructions would prove useful for assessing that these objectives are met, as well as further examination of the learners' processed acculturation.

Serious games such as Trace Effects would be great to use in L2 classrooms; although this game is more a more matured audience of L2 learners. Acculturation also proves beneficial as learners would be educated on aspects of American culture that other L2 classroom environments may not include. When learning a language, I think it's beneficial to learn about the culture as well so you may have insight on why sentences may be structured a certain way or why context matters.

Have a good weekend everyone!