| Body | by Madi Collins, CASLS Student Worker
The purpose of this activity is to give learners the opportunity to experiment with finding their own puzzles and puzzle-based games to play in the target language and to reflect on the extent to which those games help them develop critical langauge learning skills.
Learning outcomes:
Learners will be able to:
- Direct their own learning
- Find puzzles and games to practice with
- Reflect on the effectiveness of puzzles and games
Mode(s): Interpretive
Materials: Language is a Puzzle video, Language is a Puzzle Handout
Procedure:
- Show learners the Language is a Puzzle video. Then, lead a group discussion of the potential benefits of using puzzles to learn language. Some questions might include:
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What strategies have you used to learn language in the past?
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What kinds of puzzles and games have you done in past classes?
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How do you use your memory when solving puzzles? Is it similar in any way to how you understand language?
- Prompt learners to do a few basic searches for puzzle and escape room-type games as homework. After finding their puzzles at home, they will bring them back to class the next day. Some search terms include: puzzle games in (target language), games in (target language), puzzles (target language), and solve puzzles/games in (target language). Learners will document their search on the
 Language is a Puzzle Handout.
- As a group, learners will share any puzzles or games they found in the target language. In small groups, they should choose one or two to solve together.
- Learners will then discuss and reflect upon the experience of gameplay. Did they learn something new about the target language? Did they learn a new strategy to help them to retain language? Ask them to discuss with peers and reflect. They will document their ideas on the Language is a Puzzle Handout.
- After this, discuss as a group what learners felt was helpful, and what might not have been helpful.
- Discuss strategies that learners found useful, and help learners make goals to implement these strategies. For example, ask students to come up with specific goals to document on the Language is a Puzzle Handout that they can measure over a period of time. For example, they may indentify a target number of domain-specific vocabulary words to learn in a week via gameplay.
Notes:
Instructors may want to find a few games or make their own before instruction in case students have difficulty finding puzzles online.
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