U.S. China E-Language Project: A Study of a Gaming ... · PDF filePresents cultural cues as part of language ... Teacher Guide with instructional materials ... Students at participating

RTI International

RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute. www.rti.org

U.S. – China E-Language Project: A Study of a

Gaming Approach to English Language Learning

Patricia J. Green, Ph.D.

Program Director, Education Studies Division

RTI International

RTI International

2

Structure of Session

Background about The Forgotten World

Demonstration of the video game

Discussion of the evaluation of the game that was

conducted in Western China in 2009-2010.

RTI International

3

Background

During President Bush’s trip to Shanghai in 2001 for the

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’

Meeting, the White House announced a series of e-

learning initiatives.

One year later, a bilateral Memorandum of

Understanding was signed by the U.S. Secretary of

Education and the Chinese Minister of Education to

establish the “U.S.-China E-Language Project”.

The Chinese Ministry sponsored the development of

Chengo for U.S. middle school students; the U.S.

developed The Forgotten World for middle school

students in western China.

RTI International

4

The Forgotten World

RTI International

5

What’s Unique about this Approach?

Encourages learning through an interactive gaming

environment that rewards students for making progress

Learner-centered in that it builds systematically on the

student’s prior vocabulary, word difficulty, and

communicative complexity

Problem-based tasks

Presents cultural cues as part of language instruction

Open source code

RTI International

6

Storyline: An RV Trip Across the U.S.

RTI International

7

Demo of TFW

www.theforgottenworld.net

Username=student PW=test

RTI International

8

Episode 1 – Takeoff to Los Angeles

RTI International

9

Introduction of Lia – Main Character

RTI International

10

Check It Out -PDA with Games and Dictionary

RTI International

11

Floating Word Games - 1

RTI International

12

Floating Words Game - 2

RTI International

13

Story Recap Game - 1

RTI International

14

Story Recap Game - 2

RTI International

15

Story Recap Game - 3

RTI International

16

Tri Words Game - 1

RTI International

17

Tri Words Game - 2

RTI International

18

Tri Words Game - 3

RTI International

19

Teacher Materials

Three day teacher training workshop

Dashboard built into game to monitor progress

Teacher Guide with instructional materials

Classroom activities

Student worksheets

Learning goals for each episode

RTI International

20

Learning Matrix for Each Episode

RTI International

21

Student Worksheet

RTI International

22

Technical Specifications

Client - Built in ActionScript 3.0 using Adobe Flash

Professional. Adobe Flash Comic pages deliver

multimedia contents.

Server Platform - Apache/PHP/mySQL stack.

Server Architecture - Customized Drupal 6.0 framework

stores all data content. This runs on PHP/mySQL

technology provided by the server platform.

RTI International

23

Minimum Technical Requirements for Labs

RTI International

24

Purpose of the Evaluation

What challenges do schools face in implementing The

Forgotten World?

Do findings suggest that students who use The

Forgotten World improve their English proficiency?

Does The Forgotten World increase student motivation

to learn English?

What are students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward the

use of The Forgotten World?

RTI International

25

Evaluation Timeline

December 2008: First visit to Gansu and meetings with

officials and pilot schools

April – June 2009: Pilot study at two schools

August 2009: Teacher training

September 2009 – June 2010: Schools implement The

Forgotten World

Students at participating schools and comparison

schools complete English reading and listening tests in

September and June.

RTI International

26

Study Design

Ten schools – 5 treatment schools that used The

Forgotten World and 5 comparison schools that did not

use The Forgotten World.

In 2 schools all eighth-grade English classes participated

In 3 schools about half the eighth-grade English classes

participated

Treatment and comparison schools well matched; mean

English proficiency scores in the fall were the same in

both groups.

Participating and non-participating classes were similar;

mean fall English proficiency scores were the same.

RTI International

27

Excellent Response Rates

In September, 6073 students tested in 95 classrooms –

99% of all eighth-grade students in 10 schools

In June, participating classrooms were retested and we

obtained a 92% response rate

Teachers also completed questionnaires and logs of

class sessions that were submitted monthly.

RTI International

28

Challenges to Implementation

Difficulty with internet connectivity

Issue was resolved when the Dell Corporation agreed

to donate servers to participating schools

Challenges due to size of some labs relative to the

number of students in a class

RTI International

29

Implementation March - June

About 70 percent of students reported that they used

The Forgotten World in class once a week or more

About 20 percent of students said they used it outside of

class

One school completed all 12 episodes

All schools completed at least 7 episodes, and most had

completed 8-10 episodes.

RTI International

30

Findings – Student Performance

Students with initial low levels of proficiency (defined as

having scored in the bottom half of all students on the fall

test) made greater gains in proficiency in the TFW

schools than in the comparison schools

Statistically significant difference for reading

Statistically significant difference for listening

No difference for students with higher levels of proficiency or

overall

RTI International

31

Findings – Student Motivation

50.90%

39.80%

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

TFW Comparison schools

Percent of Students Who Report Motivation to Learn English Has Increased

RTI International

32

Findings - Teachers’ Views

Split on helpfulness of TFW – 59% said it was somewhat

helpful, 41% said it was not very helpful

Most teachers report that they are unlikely to use The

Forgotten World again. And most teachers say they are

unlikely to use any other software

RTI International

33

Findings – Teacher Reactions

Most teachers (82%) reported that student motivation

changed and the students were a little more motivated

Most teachers also say that using The Forgotten World

changed the way they think about teaching

RTI International

34

Findings – Teacher Suggestions

Improve quality of computer labs

Provide more time to use TFW

Modify TFW to:

Allow adjustment of speed of speech

Provide more support for new vocabulary

Offer clearer instructions for games

Improve quality of stories and episodes

Align with curriculum and exams

RTI International

35

Looking Forward

Version for Spanish-speaking English Language

Learners is being developed

Open source code may lead to may adaptations

RTI International

36

More Information

Patricia J. Green

Program Director, Education

Studies Division

[email protected]

RTI International

37

RTI Offices Headquartered in central

North Carolina,

with satellite and project

offices around the world

Research Triangle Park, NC

Washington, DC

Rockville, MD

Atlanta, GA

Chicago, IL

Waltham, MA

San Francisco, CA

Ann Arbor, MI

Manchester

Pretoria

Jakarta

San Salvador

Barcelona

Abu Dhabi

Sheffield Lund