Open AccessSelection Criteria for Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Video Games for Language Learning
Author(s) -
Felix A. Kronenberg
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the iall journal of language learning technologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1050-0049
DOI - 10.17161/iallt.v42i2.8512
Subject(s) - marketing buzz , context (archaeology) , narrative , computer science , agency (philosophy) , set (abstract data type) , multimedia , selection (genetic algorithm) , off the shelf , game mechanics , world wide web , software engineering , artificial intelligence , linguistics , programming language , sociology , paleontology , social science , philosophy , biology
This article addresses criteria for choosing commercial off-the-shelf(COTS) games and their implementation in the classroom and other L2learning environments. The proposal and discussion of a set of suchcriteria, which include the categories of motivation and flow, clearlydefined and spaced goals, game skills and game mechanics, content,story and narrative, multimodality, agency, course integration andscaffolding, and financial, technical, and administrative considerationsare the focus of this article. This discussion is followed by the analysesof three examples of COTS games (Buzz, Heavy Rain, and SingStar)which may be suitable in a L2 learning context.