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The science of language, community, and MMORPGs
Back in August, Massively wrote a little post about Swedish research on MMOs and language learning. That article provoked me, a gamer and teacher of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), to hunt down the original research and talk directly to the researchers, Dr. Liss Kerstin Sylvén from the University of Gothenburg and Dr. Pia Sundqvist from Karlstad University, to better understand their research and findings. Note that we'll be talking here about games and language learning specifically, not other forms of game-related education. Also, Sylvén and Sundqvist don't consider themselves "gamers." Sundqvist remembers Pac-Man as her first game, both admit to playing Angry Birds on their cell phones, and Sundqvist is "allowed" to sometimes watch her 17-year-old son play League of Legends. I find this interesting because they are non-gamers who seriously consider games capable of being educational without specifically being developed to do so. This isn't a simple merger of a hobby with work; this is work in a field of interest that's still being explored.
Duolingo brings its language-learning app to the iPad
Duolingo takes a fun approach to language learning. It gamifies the process by breaking down lessons into digestible chunks and rewarding you for your progress. Starting today, you can enjoy the app on your iPad as well as your iPhone. Duolingo requires an account to keep track of your achievements and progress. You can log in with a unique username / password combination or choose to sign in with Facebook. Once you log in, you can choose the language or languages that you wish to learn. The app ships with learning modules for Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and English. The app starts off with the basics, mainly simple words and sentences. It then gradually moves into more difficult content like phrases, plurals and vocabulary. It's designed to be used in small bursts so you can take as little as 15 minutes each day to start learning a new language. Duolingo launched as a web app and then added an iPhone app. This latest version adds the iPad to the mix, allowing you to spread your learning across your devices. Your progress across all three platforms is synced so you can complete a lesson on your iPad and start in on the next lesson on your Mac. Duolingo is for the person who wants to learn a language, but struggles to sit through long, dry courses. Duolingo is quite the opposite of your typical language course -- it's interactive, enjoyable and doesn't require a big block of time. It'll teach you the basics of a language, which you then can use as a springboard for more immersive studies. Best of all, Duolingo is available for free because it has a unique business model. As you progress through a course, you can start practicing your skills by translating documents. These documents are uploaded by companies and people who pay Duolingo for the translation. You get free instruction, companies get an affordable translation service and Duolingo makes enough money to keep innovating. You can check out the Duolingo app for free from the iOS App Store.
OLPC to bring Little Pim language teaching videos to XO laptop, underprivileged children
One Laptop Per Child is tag-teaming it up with foreign language learning company Little Pim to teach English to underprivileged children. The initiative could help to blur the line between work and fun and lead to future opportunities for kids in an ever-increasingly global economy where English is the lingua franca of many multinational groups and companies. Getting educational videos onto OLPC's affordable XO laptop is consistent with the new partnerships' philosophy that "learning should be a joyous experience and that children learn best when learning and play are seamless activities." There's no word on when the package deal will be available, but we'll be on the lookout for further info. Full PR after the break.
Robot dragon teaches kids language skills, battles impulse to terrorize city
Did you have trouble learning language skills at a young age? It's probably because you didn't have the right teacher. And by "the right teacher," we mean the right robotic dragon, naturally. This cuddly little mythical beast is the joint creation of researchers at Northeastern University, MIT and Harvard -- some of whom were behind the decidedly creepier Nexi bot. It's part of a National Science Foundation-funded program to help young children learn language skills, suggesting that forming a bond with a teacher plays an important role in the educational process. The dragon will be brought to preschool classes to help test out this hypothesis. Hopefully a robotic knight will also be on-hand, just in case.
15 Minutes of Fame: From Romania to Korea via World of Warcraft
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. This is the story of Apathius, a Romanian student of languages who's made World of Warcraft her entree to the Korean language and culture. "A year ago, I used to be a slightly hardcore raider on the EU realms," she writes. "Being a big fan of anime and all that stuff, I opted for a chance to study abroad in Korea. (Japan was out of the question, sadly, but Korea was pretty close, culture-wise.) So at the start of 2010, I hopped on a plane and came here to start a 'new life,' so to speak. But still, there are huge cultural differences between the Asian world and the west, and for fear that I might not adapt to this new environment, I decided to make WoW one of my mediums for permeating Korean society." "I thought I knew WoW well enough to get the hang of things quickly, but I ended up having to re-learn a lot of things, especially PVE-wise," she continues. "'Korean Style!' my guildies told me when I first asked them why almost no one raids as a guild here. I was surprised when I heard they PUG heroic raids like Alone in the Dark and Lich King 25-man. But that doesn't mean they're hardcore, as even the casuals do very well. For example, people who had never seen Putricide before went from a 80% wipe to a 5% wipe after three tries. Also, if you're a top-end raider, you can earn about 5,000ish gold per week from raids, because the DKP here is gold, and only gold. The weirdest part about it though, I really get the feeling they take the PVE side of WoW as fun, not as competition, not as something to be taken seriously, just as a means of getting imba gear and seeing new fights." Join us for one player's quixotic journey through an American game on a European realm from her Romanian homeland to a new home and new realm in Korea.
NTT DoCoMo exhibits on-the-fly speech translation, lets both parties just talk (video)
The race to smash linguistic barriers with simultaneous speech-to-speech translation is still wide open, and Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has just joined Google Translate and DARPA on the track. Whereas Google Translate's Conversation Mode was a turn-based affair when it was demoed back in January, requiring each party to pause awkwardly between exchanges, NTT DoCoMo's approach seems a lot more natural. It isn't based on new technology as such, but brings together a range of existing cloud-based services that recognize your words, translate them and then synthesize new speech in the other language -- hopefully all before your cross-cultural buddy gets bored and hangs up. As you'll see in the video after the break, this speed comes with the sacrifice of accuracy and it will need a lot of work after it's trialled later in the year. But hey, combine NTT DoCoMo's system with a Telenoid robot or kiss transmission device and you can always underline your meaning physically.
Google Goggles starts to get useful, adds text translation
In our experience, about the only thing Google Goggles is good for is telling you that your can of Coke looks like someone's face, but the company's just-released version 1.1 sounds like it might be on a whole new level of awesomeness. Basically, Goggles can now recognize text within the "region of interest" that you specify on the screen then give you the option to translate it to any language of your choosing. Between this and Google's already quite good Translate app, Android devices are getting dangerously close to letting monoglots (thanks for the great word, Google) travel safely and effectively in foreign lands. Other improvements in Goggles 1.1 include better barcode and image recognition (thank goodness), an improved UI, and the ability to initiate identification from your gallery, so it sounds like a must-download if you've got a phone running Android 1.6 or better. It's available now.
WoW Rookie: Essential WoW terminology in other languages
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. For links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's, visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide. Együtt szaladjunk vissza a temetötöl hogy ne vesszünk el. In the sprawling, global environment that is the World of Warcraft today, there's really no telling who you'll end up grouped with. Even on a white-bread American realm, I've met players whose primary language was not English. Gamers are everywhere now! In the spirit of international cooperation, WoW Rookie has crowdsourced a list of basic WoW terminology for PUGging. The next time you run into a situation where you need to communicate with someone who doesn't speak your language, reach for our translations in the Newbie Guide, linked under Guides in the drop-down menu at the top of the site. Kudos to the hundreds of readers who responded to our call for translations. Merci, gracias, tack, hvala! Let's crowdsource corrections, too -- if you spot anything incorrect, drop me a line at lisa (at) wow (dot) com. Oh, and "Együtt szaladjunk vissza a temetötöl hogy ne vesszünk el?" That's "Let's run back from the graveyard together so we don't get lost" ... in Hungarian.
WoW Rookie: What's "move out of the fire" in your language?
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. For links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's, visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide. If you use the Dungeon Finder with any regularity, you're likely to eventually find yourself grouped with a player who speaks a different language. World of Warcraft is localized (translated) to nearly a dozen different languages, including two versions of English (USA and EU), French, German, Spanish, Russian, Korean and two versions of Chinese. While U.S. and Oceanic players can generally count on groupmates to speak English, things can be quite different elsewhere in the world. Individual Latin American and EU realms tend to attract groups of players from particular areas -- Brazilians on one server, Hungarians gathered on another, Italians dominating still another. Many players welcome the language barrier as an opportunity to polish their language skills. Still, how do you coordinate your way through a tricky pull with someone who doesn't speak a word of your language? Let's crowdsource this issue. We've compiled a list of common terms you might use in a PUG. We'd like you to list your translations in the comments, if you are fluent in another language. We're not going to cover Russian, Korean or Chinese, since those players generally do not cross paths with Western players. Please keep your suggestions brief; simplicity trumps elegance. If you'd like to see phrases we didn't include, feel free to suggest them, but keep in mind we're sticking with the basics. We'll compile the list and create a starter guide in next week's Rookie column.
