Maybe mankind is divided into people who like to play games and those who don't. Well, I'm sure there are some who argue that we all like to play – certainly as children.
I'll even agree and concede that I "played "(European) football as a child and young adult. I now "play" with my grandchildren, and play tennis quite regularly. However, card games, board games, and certainly computer games keep me entertained and focused only for a short time.
Maybe it is somewhat ironic that I am now engaged in a new venture, which has at its main purpose to help people learn a foreign language playfully.
SKILL LEVEL AND FLOW
I began to think about why certain games are enjoyable to me and why I quickly lose interest in others. I recently read a book, "The Art of Game Design" by Jesse Schell, in which the author described the tension between flow and skill.
He explains that a well-designed game requires the player to increase his/her skill level in just the right amount. Keeping the skill level constant, makes the game boring. On the other hand, demanding too much from the player, interrupts the play and may make him give up, i.e. interrupt the "flow" of the game.
I realized that many board games become boring to me because they don't require much skill, just luck. For others, such as Bridge, Black Jack, Poker, etc. I never progressed to a skill level which made it enjoyable for me, and thereby never getting into the "flow" of the game.
SKILL AND FLOW IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
As we are designing our games around the language to be taught, we are first faced with finding the right balance between gradually augmenting the required skill level while maintaining the flow of the games.
"Skill" in a language program is acquired by listening, reading, and understanding new foreign words and phrases, then pronouncing and speaking them, and finally translating one's native vocabulary and sentences into the foreign language in spoken and written form.
Creating games that do all of that, without losing the player's attention, remains our major challenge for now. We've started to include game points and will certainly experiment "with a reward structure that includes a steady stream of rewards, points, etc."
We wouldn't mind making GamesForLanguage "addictive." Certainly, getting people to speak several foreign languages would seem a positive accomplishment. But for now, we are more focused on making our language games challenging enough not to lose players like me.
Grammar explanations in language games? Maybe not. Game playing thrives on the experience of “flow,” a term that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explores in his book Finding Flow.
Flow is a state of mind in which things come easily and are done without overthinking. Grammar explanations definitely take your mind away from experiencing flow.
Most people will agree that we don't learn a language from a grammar book. Grammar rules themselves are not set in stone. Some of them are controversial and people argue about them. If you google “controversial grammar rules” plenty of hits will come up.
We learn a language and its grammar – the rules by which a language works – mostly just by listening to and imitating other speakers. Lots of research suggests that our brains are wired to do this.
How to Learn "Grammar"?
Knowing certain grammar rules obviously is an essential part of mastering a language. But consciously learning grammar rules is a different type of activity from engaging in a language: reading, speaking or actively listening to it.
As you are learning a new language, there is a wonderful sense of “being in the flow”: when you are reading a story and getting it; when you are listening and understanding the gist of what is being said; when you are talking, and saying what you intend to express. This feeling of flow often makes the process of language learning an enjoyable experience.
As we are developing GamesforLanguage.com, the question of combining meaning with flow comes up consistently. We agree with Ron Davidson, Making a Game of Education (who argues that “games and education are a natural fit.”)
The question is how we can best make that natural fit work for us. For now, we go as far as adding brief grammar “tips” in a translation game. But mostly we set up the language games in such a way that the player makes grammar connections intuitively.
When you get curious enough about a grammar point, it is interesting to check up on it. Sometimes that's the only way that you can figure out the meaning of something.
But while you're talking or listening to someone talking to you, it's not usually possible to say “Hey, let me look that up.” Language games intend to put you right into the flow of understanding and using a language. That's not a bad skill to practice.
As we started out to develop our foreign language games and the related website, we knew we wanted to attract a wide range of learners: - those for whom traditional language instructions did not work; - those who were currently using other self-teaching foreign language programs; - those for whom such courses were either too expensive or time consuming or boring; - those who were attracted by the “game playing” proposition - to just name a few.
We were further guided by the Eisenberg's/Quato-vonTivadar's book Always Be Testing, which identifies four personality types of web users that can serve as archetypes: 1. Competitive/Assertive 2. Spontaneous/Amiable 3. Humanistic/Expressive 4. Methodical/Analytical
Without going into the authors' description of these types, we designed our site with these four types in mind. We also felt that our gamesforlanguage.com proposition has the potential to appeal to all four: - the competitive/assertive user will welcome the points and the scoring with the increasing difficulty inherent in any language course; - the spontaneous/amiable player will be looking for the “play” button and skip much else; - the humanistic/expressive learner may be interested in linking the foreign language learning to a story; - the methodical/analytical user will want to understand the logic of the approach, and get grammar and pronunciation explanations.
The K.I.S.S Principle
In the spirit of K.I.S.S., we decided to keep the playing screen as simple and uncluttered as possible. However, surveys on the site and feedback from friends made it clear that there is a difference between younger and older players. While the young players would start playing by clicking on the first playing screen, the older players were a little confused about how to start.
Arrows and a “Continue” label had to be added. Clearly, the K.I.S.S. admonishment to ourselves needs to take older players into account too. These players may indeed fall into the four user types quoted above. But, they also may need more instructions “how to play” than generations X Y Z, et al.
We are still evaluating what instructions are really needed. And, we are deliberating on how we should best communicate them. Via buttons on the start up screens? On the game screens? On the home or menu icons?
Voice Recognition?
Listening to native speakers and then emulating their pronunciation is one of the key challenges for any student of a foreign language. While some self-teaching language programs are experimenting with voice recognition programs, we decided against using this technology. Rather than being helpful, it can cause the learner to become frustrated with the program.
Instead, encourage players at gamesforlanguage.com to always repeat what they hear, and when they can, to "shadow" what the native speaker says (speak along with the speaker). By using this technique often, a learner's pronunciation can improve noticeably.
We started out with a few basic ideas: Rather than overwhelm the “learner” with explanations and instructions, we let the “player” immediately play through the various screens and games.
Keeping the playing and learning intuitive with games for listening, word identification, translation, and writing, the player will begin to memorize words and sentences and recognize grammatical structures. Indeed, we are very conscious of applying the K.I.S.S. principle to any grammar explanations as well. But that's for another blog post.
Maybe mankind is divided into people who like to play games and those who don't. Well, I'm sure there are some who argue that we all like to play – certainly as children. 
