The steady rise and increasing availability of new technologies, especially in the area of MALL, has created new challenges in the Area of Foreign Language Learning. This means that, since students have more and more access to a wide range of devices and learning materials, teachers are challenged to explore the potential and the benefits of these technologies to enhance students’ learning processes. In recent years there have been several attempts to integrate devices such as mobile phones as valid learning tools to support formal as well as informal learning Nonetheless, most of these attempts have been focused on providing learners with meaningful language input rather than on enhancing students’ active use of the target language. The present study therefore aims to explore some of the possibilities in using mobile phones for providing learners with meaningful language input as well as for pushing them towards increased language output. For this purpose we have designed a gamificated Android App which can be played either on a smartphone or tablet. The app itself provides learners, through several mini-games, with opportunities to first acquire new vocabulary input and then to practice the newly acquired vocabulary in a collaborative murder game, called Catch me, if you can. In order to successfully complete the different game tasks that are randomly assigned by the server, students need to collaborate with other game-players and develop real-world communication skills. Additionally, students’ communication is coordinated and stored by a game server that allows us to analyze students’ behaviour and interaction during the different game sessions.

1. Mobile apps and games to foster
students’ writing competences
Anke Berns
Manuel Palomo Duarte
Juan Manuel Dodero
Manuel Zurera Pérez
ANTWERP CALL 2014

2. Content
1. Teaching background
2. Purpose of the study
3. Game-structure and design
4. Software-Architecture
5. Experience
6. Methods/ Instruments
7. Conclusions
8. Future work
9. Acknowledgements

3. ● very large language courses
● few hours of formal learning/many hours of informal
learning
● few opportunities to individually attend learner needs
● need for more individualized feedback
● need for more language input and output
1. Teaching Background

4. ● the potential of smartphones to enhance language
learning in general as well as to focus on specific language
skills such as writing in and outside the classroom
● the possibilities of designing highly interactive learning
materials and environments for mobile devices
2. Purpose of the study is to explore:

5. 3. Game-structure

6. 3.1 Game-design

7. 3.1.1 Single -Player-Mode
Test 1 Test 2 Test 3

8. ● feedback that helps learners to succeed in their
“game” (immediate feedback)
● feedback that allows learners to reflect on their
errors and weaknesses (delayed & extensive
feedback)
3.1.2 Feedback Design

9. Instant feedback Delayed feedback
3.1.3 Implicit feedback
Test 2 Test 2

10. Instant explicit feedback Delayed extended feedback
3.1.4 Explicit feedback
Test 3 Test 3

11. 3.1.5 Gamification of the APP
● time-limit
● scores
● feedback on game-performance

12. 3.1.6 Collaborative role-play gymkhana: Catch
me, if you can!

13. Catch me, if you can!
Video

14. 4. Software architecture
● Openfire chat server
registers conversation logs
● the app connects to the
server to register for a
game
● when all students are
connected the server
creates teams and starts
the game
● player identities are
hidden during the game
(students need to use chat),
but stored by the server

15. 5.1 Participants
● 108 students from the A1.1 level, who participated
voluntarily in an acceptance and usability test of the first
stable version
● study was carried out in 2 sessions:
5. The experience
Session 1
Students
individually played
levels 1-3
Session 2
Students performed a
collaborative role-play
(level 4)

16. ▪ 6.1 Pre- and posttest
▪ 6.2 Paired Samples Test
▪ 6.3 Previous writing tasks> pre-test results
▪ 6.4 Previous writing tasks> post-test results
▪ 6.5 Survey
6. Method and Instruments

17. The use of mobile phones offers new possibilities to provide
students with:
● highly interactive learning environments
● versatile opportunities to get new language input and
to interact with other users in the target language
● to facilitate ubiquitous learning
7. Conclusions

18. ● to implement more learning contents and levels
● to adapt the app for other foreign languages
● to use the app with a larger sample size
● to analyze students’ log and text-chat interactions
● to analyze the correlation of feedback (instant feedback
& delayed Feedback) and learning outcomes
8. Future work

19. Would you like to test the App?
● App is available as
open-source
software
● language
independent
What you need!
● a server
● android 2.3
● integrated camera
● Wifi/3G connection

20. anke.berns@uca.es (Dep. de Filología Francesa e Inglesa, UCA)
manuel. palomo@uca.es (Dep. of Computer Science, UCA)
juanmanuel.dodero@uca.es (Dep. of Computer Science, UCA)
manuel.perezzurera@alum.uca.es (Dep. of Computer Science, UCA)
For any further question please
write us an email:

21. This work has been funded by:
● the Andalusian Government under the ASCETA (Ref. P09-TIC-5230, PAIDI
programme);
● the Tecnologías móviles para el aprendizaje ubicuo de alemán (PI_14_104)
project of UCA programme for Researching and Innovation in Education;
● the European Union under the OpenDiscoverySpace (CIP-ICT-PSP-2011-5)
project;
● We would also like to thank David Romero, the Free/Libre Software and Open
Knowledge Office at UCA (OSLUCA), Mar Dodero, Cristina Ortega, Ignacio Calleja,
Pilar Romero and Andrea Calderón for their support during the project development.
Acknowledgements