Video games have become increasingly more popular and more technologically advanced. This one‐month study used interview, observation, self‐report, and reading and listening test data to demonstrate and investigate how one intermediate Japanese‐as‐a‐foreign‐language (JFL) student improved his listening comprehension and kanji character recognition by playing a Japanese baseball video game. It is suggested that language acquisition was facilitated by the subject's ability to control the video game's repetitive, highly contextualized, and simultaneously presented aural and textual language. Limitations of the study and implications for the foreign language teacher are briefly discussed.
The Challenge Research on game use in language learning is narrowly focused on game design and games as stand-alone learning environments. Few studies have investigated the role and impact of teachers in this field. Thus, we explore why teachers have been left out, why they are needed, and what teaching with games looks like.
Collaborative, interdisciplinary care is complex and its benefits can be difficult to assess. Data from this study showed that interdisciplinary teaching at the resident level has the potential to be an effective means for building collaboration and can lead to a subjective improvement in comfort managing common inpatient psychiatric presentations on medical wards. Additionally, qualitative observations suggest that such an intervention can improve interdisciplinary collaboration.
This paper details the use of a free and access-controlled wiki as the learning management system for a four-week teaching module designed to improve the oral communication skills of Japanese university EFL students. Students engaged in repeated experiential learning cycles of planning, doing, observing, and evaluating their performance of a role in a strategic interaction scenario. Each performance was digitally video recorded and uploaded to the wiki. Students then used the wiki to evaluate their video performance, transcribe and self-correct their utterances, and reflect on changes in subsequent performances. The instructor used the wiki's video and text to give students online feedback and focus post-performance group debriefing sessions. Comparisons of performance transcripts revealed syntactic, pragmatic, lexical and fluency improvement from learning cycle 1 to learning cycle 2, and observations, surveys, and interviews provide evidence for the students' ease of use of the wiki and video cameras, enjoyment of the instructional activities, and improved independence and confidence. The results suggest that a wiki, digital video, and strategic interaction-based experiential learning cycles can be effectively integrated to mediate Japanese university EFL students' oral communication development. Technical and pedagogical recommendations are elucidated. Teaching materials can be downloaded from http://langcom.u-shizuoka-ken.ac.jp/si.
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