subject: How Games In French Language Software Work [print this page] Several times it has been mentioned and written in reviews for French language software the subject of including games. Some of the software does not include them, but the award winning ones do, even those geared towards the children. What is really the point for the games and how do they work?
Well, play is an activity that actually relaxes the brain muscles in a sense. This relaxation makes the brain absorb faster and better compared to when it is under stress. Unfortunately, learning is considered a form of stress, especially if there are tests involved and pressure from homework and tasks that are assigned by the teaches. Some even say that the school learning is a main culprit in giving students stress.
The games in the French language software are supposed to be helping tools to increase the amount of learning and to make the brain or the mind think in the language other than what it normally thinks in. For example, the game of Unscramble. If this game were in English it would not be much of a challenge looking for the known words out of the scrambled letters, but if it were in French then the challenge is more obvious, especially to the learner. Another is the game like Caf where the learner is given a menu and has to order from a totally French waiter and they have to communicate.
These two games actually use the technique of immersion where the learner is forced to think, feel and speak in French. At first the headache of figuring out the game is so frustrating that the learner simply wants to give up, but eventually, as the learner learns more and more vocabulary, grammar and phrases, they find that they can actually apply their learning to beat the game. The frustration then turns into a game of logic and use of skills. There are other games where the approach is on numbers, but they have to be thought out in French in order to solve. As the levels increase, the levels of the challenge increases with it and the learner finds that if he continues to learn and improve on the French language, the tasks get easier but also challenging at the same time.
Online learning makes use of these games as well, but what is great is that the user gets to challenge another user from wherever they may be. The interaction and the challenge increases the functioning of the brain and before the learner knows it, it is great fun thinking in French is just like thinking in English or their native language.
