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Conversational Gamers: Developing Language Skills and Connections Through Board Games

As the number of international students entering North American universities grows there is an increasing need to develop programs that help with their transition to a new community. International students are not only making the leap from secondary to post-secondary education, they are also entering a new country and culture and may struggle making connections with their domestic peers. This session plans to summarize the research surrounding relationships between international and domestic students and using games for language learning. It will also present a case study on the implementation of a conversation partners program that paired domestic and international students together with board games to not only improve language skills, but to bridge the gap between these two student groups. Research shows that learning through play, including multiple examples of language learners learning through gaming, is a highly successful endeavor. The literature largely focuses on using digital games in the classroom with limited research on using board games or role-play games for a similar purpose. This program was created as a partnership between the Wilfrid Laurier University Library, Laurier International and the Laurier English and Academic Foundation (LEAF) program.

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Conversational Gamers: Developing Language Skills and Connections Through Board Games

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  1. Conversational Gamers: Developing Language Skills and Connections Through Boardgames Michelle Goodridge, MA MLIS Wilfrid Laurier University

  2. Outline • Who are our international students? • International student experience • Learning language with games theory • Laurier’s program • How to attract participants? • Failures and flops vs winning game choices • Public library adaptation • Tips and next moves

  3. United States of America figures* -approx. 1.1 million international students enrolled in 2017 -top countries of origin; China (32.5%), India (17.3%), South Korea (5.4%), Saudi Arabia (4.9%), and Canada (2.5%) -literature suggests low rate of international students transitioning into U.S. jobs * https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/international- students-united-states

  4. ESL international student experience • Number of ESL international students seeking to attend English speaking schools is on the rise in Canada (on a slight decline in the United States of America) • Many English-speaking schools have introduced pre-sessional programs to help students with low IELTS scores • Many experience language and culture shock along with post-secondary transitioning • 56% of ESL international students in Canada have no Canadian friends (Canadian Bureau for International Education, 2014) • 40% of ESL international students in America have no American friends (Elisabeth Gareis, 2012) • International students from English speaking countries do not have as much trouble forming domestic friendships (Elisabeth Garesis, 2012)

  5. International and Domestic Friendships • Benefits of friendships include stronger language skills, lower levels of stress, and increased academic performance (W. Searle, & C. Ward, 1990; B.F. Rohrlich & J.N. Martin, 1991; Ward and Masgoret, 2017; Gareis, 2012) • Elisabeth Garesis identified three main factors influencing intercultural friendship; cultural similarity, communication competence, and personality/identity

  6. Using games for language learning Pros Not forcing social interaction and practice Incentive to use language skills to win Cons Some have greater mastery of language than others Hard to force second language use in mono cultural setting Sometimes the games don’t make sense or are not fun for the students Access to games may be limited Game based learning requires additional resources May need to incentivise domestic student participation Opportunity for experiential learning Games help with anxiety and shyness Practicing skills including listening and speaking Feel more comfortable making mistakes Having fun while learning at the same time

  7. What is our program? • Game Night is a weekly drop-in program on Wednesday nights from 5:30-7pm • Partnership between Laurier Library, Laurier International, and Brantford YMCA (Education and International Services) • Program targeting international post-secondary students (through Laurier), domestic students (through Laurier), and newcomer teens/young adults from the community (through YMCA) • Domestic students and staff/volunteers act as game experts • Goals: 1) bring together members of our community (campus and outside); 2) encourage the development of friendships; 3) to help with development of ESL skills; 4) and to promote other services provided by the library, Laurier International, and the YMCA

  8. How else can participants benefit? • International students from Laurier get credit towards their LEAF program requirements • Domestic students get co-curricular credit • YMCA volunteers accumulate volunteer hours • Newcomer teens/adults get an introduction to post-secondary education in Canada

  9. Tips for picking a good game • Not repetitive or a game of simple chance (Garris, Ahlers, and Driskell, 2002) that creates “pleasurable tension” (Penny Ur, 1988) • Games need “purpose beyond play” (Collier, 1998) • Few or no cultural references • Team based games work well • Look to what games are popular where the students are from • Don’t just buy children’s games – it can be insulting

  10. Failures and Flops • Apples to Apples • Monopoly • Coup • Sushi Go!

  11. Winning game choices • Sushi Go! • Exploding Kittens • Funglish • Word Slam • Banannagrams • Rory’s Story Cubes • Ultimate Werewolf

  12. Extra little tips • Collaboration could mean funding opportunities! • Advertise is traditional and non-traditional ways • Piggyback on existing programs on campus that are similar and well attended • Continually ask for feedback from all participants • Be in the “know” about boardgames • Connect to the community

  13. Laurier the trailblazer • Since implementing the program in January 2018 we have had three public libraries in the area adapt the program

  14. Next moves • Expand the program into Fall 2018 (busiest time) as pilot was successful! • Continue to do outreach and encourage others to adopt similar program • Expand the program to include digital games • Work with faculty to see if the program can become required part of the curriculum • Continue to find engaging games for participants to play and learn • Expand program to different campus’

  15. Shameless plug • Supporting Today’s Students in the Library: Strategies for Retaining and Graduating International, Transfer, First- Generation, and Re-Entry Students, ACRL Publishing, [to be published Summer 2018]

  16. Sources Alvarez, Vivian, “Engaging Students in the Library through Tabletop Gaming”, Knowledge Quest, V45, n4 (Mar-Apr 2017): p4-49. Brookes, S., & Moseley, A., Authentic contextual games for learning, In N. Whitton & A. Moseley (Eds.), Using games to enhance learning and teaching: a beginner’s guide (pp. 92-107), New York: Routledge, 2012. Canadian Bureau of International Education, “The Integration Challenge: Connecting International Students with their Canadian Peers”, accessed October 2017, http://cbie.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/CBIE-Research-in-Brief-2-The- Integration-Challenge-EN.pdf Chang, C.E., and P. Strauss, “‘Active agents of change?’ Mandarin-speaking students in New Zealand and the thesis writing process”, Language and Education 24, no. 5 (2010): 415–429. Chen, Jie, “Breaking Through the Traditional Second Language Learning Model – Exploring Different Exposure Approaches for Learners of Different Ages”, University of Michigan, Proquest Dissertations Publishing, (2013), accessed August 2017. Choklap, Ratanaporn, “The experiences of native speaking teachers (NSTs) when teaching English as a second language to students (ESLs) in Thailand”, Northeaster University, Proquest Dissertations Publishing, (2015), accessed August 2017. Collier, Catherine, “Creating Games for Emerging English Speakers: Language & Content Reinforcement Activities”, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Bilingual Education, Dallas, (1998), accessed August 2017. Copland, Fiona and Garton, Sue, “I felt that I do live in the UK now”: international students’ self-reports of their English language speaking experiences on a pre-sessional programme”, Language and Education, Vol. 25, No. 3, (2011):241-255. Gareis, Elisabeth, “Intercultural friendship: effects of home and host region”, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, vol. 5, issue 4 (2012): 309-328. Garris, R, Ahlers, R, and Driskell, J.E., “Games, motivation, and learning: A research and practice model, Simulation & Gaming, 30(3) (2002): 283-291. Halleck, G., Moder, C. L., & Dameron, R., “Integrating a conference simulation into an ESL class, Simulation & Gaming, 33 (3) (2002): 330-334. Kit-Lam, Eunice, “Developing speaking skills with games: towards a co-operative learning approach”, Proceedings of The 16thConference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 2011, accessed August 2017, http://paaljapan.org/conference2011/ProcNewest2011/pdf/graduate/G3-2.pdf Kloper, Eric, Osterweil, Scot and Salen, Katie, “Moving learning games forward: obstacles, opportunities & openness”, The Education Arcade, accessed November 8 2017, http://education.mit.edu/wp- content/uploads/2015/01/MovingLearningGamesForward_EdArcade.pdf Morita, Naoko, “Language, culture, gender, and academic socialization”, Language and Education, Vol. 23, No.5 (September 2009): 443-460. Newgarden, Kristi and Zheng, Dongping, “Recurrent Languaging Activities in World of Warcraft: Skilled Linguistic Action Meets the Common European Framework of Reference”, ReCALL, v28 spec iss 3 (2016): 274-304. Pillay, Soma and James, Reynold, “Gaming across cultures: experimenting with alternate pedagogies”, Education & Training, Vol. 55, Iss. 1 (2013): 7-22. Reese, Curt, Wells, Terri, “Teaching academic discussion skills with a card game”, Simulation & Gaming, Vol. 38, No. 4 (December 2007): 546-555. Rohrlich, B.F., & Martin, J.N. “Host country and re-entry adjustment of student sojourners”, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 15 (1991): 163-182. Saha, Sujay and Singh, Smriti, “Collaborative Learning through Language Games in ESL Classroom”, Language in India, vol. 16:10 (2016): 180-189. Searle, W., & Ward, C., “The prediction of psychological and sociocultural adjustment during cross-cultural transitions”, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 14 (1990): 449-464. Thorpe, Andy et al, “Improving the Academic Performance of Non-native English-Speaking Students: the contribution of pre-sessional English language programmes”, Higher Education Quarterly, Vol. 7, Iss. 1. (January 2017): 5-32. Ur, Penny, Grammar Practice Activities: A Practical Guide for Teachers, Cambridge University Press, 1988. Ward, Collen, “The impact of international students on domestic students and host institutions”, Export Education Policy Project of the New Zealand Ministry of Education, (2001), accessed August 2017, https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/international/the_impact_of_international_students_on_domestic_students_and_host_institutions Ward, C., & Masgoret, A.M., “The experiences of international students in New Zealand: Report on the results of the national survey”, New Zealand: International Policy and Development Unit, Ministry of Education, (2004), accessed October 2017, http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/international/14700 “LEAF (Study English)”, Wilfrid Laurier University, accessed November 8 2017, https://www.wlu.ca/future-students/international/english-language-support/leaf/index.html Willoughby, Sharon Elinor, “Card Game Activities Using Grammar-based Dialogues”, ERIC, (May 1993), accessed August 2017, http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED370355.pdf

  17. Thank you! Michelle Goodridge, MA MLIS Liaison Librarian, Game Design and Development Wilfrid Laurier University Join our list-serv – gaminginlibraries@listserve.wlu.ca

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