Learning English through computer games is already an established practice. Because games combine good leisure time with the opportunity to fully immerse yourself in the ecosystem of the language, learning it effortlessly.
Today we will look at games in the quest genre, which are great for pumping the language and will definitely bring a lot of fun to the players. Go!
To begin with, a little tediousness: what are the good quests for pumping the language
Quests are a special genre of computer games in which the main gameplay revolves around storytelling and direct interaction with various objects.
It is the combination of these two features that makes quests an excellent tool for learning English.
The storyline draws you in and makes you feel for the characters. The player listens to the dialogues, reads the text. Quests have a better effect on memory, because they stimulate the creation of associations.
On Dale's pyramid of learning, quests can be placed on the middle rung next to watching a demonstration and watching a specific action. After all, in fact, you control the actions of a character who fully interacts with the world.
Thus, normal reading gives only 10% memorization, watching videos - 30%, and quests and other games - 50%. Which is very good for a variety of leisure.
"Point and click" system or interaction with objects allows you to learn vocabulary. In many games of the genre, it is enough to hover over an item or click on it to open its description. Here, for example:
In the inventory, the player always has a bunch of assorted items, the descriptions of which are also made up with a fair amount of humor and ingenuity.
In addition, in quest mini-games like "Search for an Object", the player must find these same items by their name. Naturally, in English. Most of the search items will be quite familiar, but not everyone will definitely be familiar with the names. So arm yourself with a translator on your phone or just type words into a dictionary app for further study.
Usually it goes like this:
1. You see an unfamiliar word on the screen and have no idea what item you need to find. In this case, we took "garden hose".
2. Look up the word in the dictionary on your phone. In our case, the phrase "garden hose" means "garden hose".3. Next, just enter it in - the phrase will come across every day until you remember its meaning. Profit!
But enough about the boredom. Let's take a look at the best quest games that you can and should use to learn English.
Siberia
The legendary game, the first part of which was released in 2002. It tells about the adventures of Kate Walker, a lawyer girl who comes to a small alpine town to conclude an agreement to buy a factory, but finds herself embroiled in a series of rather strange and exciting events.
The plot of the game is addictive. Well-written characters and a lot of interesting dialogue encourage you to go through this story to the very end. And with each new part, the story becomes more and more intricate and interesting.
In terms of gameplay, there are a lot of point and click mechanics. You need to solve puzzles, figure out where to use this or that object. The gameplay itself does not cause any particular difficulties - interaction with most items is quite logical.
As far as language learning is concerned, the Siberia series of games has very literary and well-acted dialogues.
Despite the fact that the original script was written in French, the English version is also considered the main one - the publisher released the game in two languages ββat once.
English Difficulty: 5 of 10.
Level: intermediate.Most of the phrases in the dialogues and cut-scenes are simple and with fairly common vocabulary. But to deal with the inventory and description of items, you need a dictionary.
Deponia
Another quest series. But this time in the setting of a kind of dystopia. Rufus, the protagonist of the story, considers himself an inventor and wants to fly away from his home planet, which has turned into one big dump.
This desire leads Rufus to new acquaintances, a whole series of stupid situations, and it also turns out that the whole of Deponia - the planet on which the hero lives - is in danger.
In general, a rather funny quest with unusual humor and very non-standard gameplay. Rather, the gameplay itself is quite ordinary - the long-known "point and click", but the use of most items in the inventory can cause hoo what a surprise.
In one episode, Rufus will need to put a sock on the doorknob to open the door, and in another, he will have to make coffee from chili peppers. It's weird, but fun.
The original game was published in German, but the English localization is very, very good. She competently conveys the features of the original idea. In addition, the humor remained at the level - and this is probably one of the most important features of the series.
English Difficulty: 6 of 10.
Level: intermediate.Dialogues in Deponia are fairly simple grammatically, but slang and colloquialisms are common. Yes, they make the atmosphere of the game richer and more interesting, but sometimes they interfere with full perception, because you have to go into the dictionary.
Nancy Drew
A huge line of computer games, which as of February 2020 has as many as 33 full-fledged stories!
The games are about a young girl detective who investigates strange and unusual cases. She studies evidence, interrogates suspects and witnesses, and solves riddles. In general, he is engaged in ordinary detective work (this is a surprise).
The beauty of the game is in the interaction with objects. There are just too many of them in every episode. And most of them are themed. For example, in the Ransom of the Seven Ships series, where Nancy is looking for the treasures of a sunken ship, there are a lot of items and dialogues related specifically to the marine theme. So you can learn quite thematic vocabulary right during the game.
Of course, a whole team of writers and editors is working on the games, which since 1998 have been replaced more than once in full force. Therefore, the style of English in different series will be different. In our subjective opinion, in the later games of the series, English is better - the dialogues are more precise and logical, the vocabulary in them is more extensive and interesting. But keep in mind that the writers of the series love complex sentences.
English Difficulty: 4 to 7 out of 10 (depending on the series)
Level: Intermediate-Upper-intermediate.An excellent line of quests for pumping a wide variety of vocabulary. You will have to interact with objects a lot, so the names are remembered almost by themselves.
King's quest
King's Quest is a real veteran and one of the founders of the quest genre as a separate direction in the development of computer games. It was in King's Quest that animations were first used in adventure games. The first part came out in 1984. In total, 7 parts of the series were created, except for the complete restart of the first in 2015.
We will immediately warn you that there is no graphics here. If in part 7, for example, the game looks like a Disney cartoon, then the first part is like a drawing from Paint. For 1984, the graphics were simply breakthrough, but now they only cause nostalgia.
The storyline is pretty good though. The story revolves around the royal family of the state of Daventry and tells of the various adventures that family members face. All this in a pleasant fairy-tale setting, where the theme of English mythology and folklore is well revealed.
For learning English, the game is of particular value, because the dialogues are quite simple, and the text itself is voiced in slow and understandable speech - ideal for understanding even for beginners.
English Difficulty: 3
Level: Pre-intermediateβIntermediateDue to the setting of the game, you will find a number of words that you will have to look up in the dictionary - basically, they refer to some kind of folklore and mythology concepts. But in general, the language of the game is very simple and understandable. It can be used as a good guide even for beginners.
Do you think quests really help in learning English or should they be played just for fun? We will be interested to hear your opinion.
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Source: habr.com