Video games used as language teaching tool

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Researchers from the University of Calgary's Digital Media Laboratory are teaming up with Red Crow College to create a video game designed to teach the Blackfoot language to Blackfoot youth.

The goal of the I'Powahsin Project, which gets its name from the Blackfoot word for 'speak', is to create a game that reflects Blackfoot culture, is inhabited by Blackfoot characters and requires the player to learn the Blackfoot language in order to play and win the game.

Dr. Jim Parker, a professor of computer science at the University of Calgary who works in the Digital Media Laboratory, came up with the idea for the I'Powahsin Project when he realized there was a dearth of Native characters in video games, even though there were probably plenty of Native stories that would translate well into games.

Parker talked to some people in the Native community about his idea and it soon became clear that creating a Native-themed game could accomplish much more than just providing entertainment. With input from Elders and other members of the Native group represented in the game, it could also help preserve Native culture and language.

When he took his game idea to a group of Blackfoot people in southern Alberta, they were a little hesitant, at first, to support a project that would encourage children to spend more time playing video games, Parker said. But by the end of his presentation, that hesitancy was replaced by excitement.

"Because what we're doing here is using something that the kids do anyhow, but we're incorporating a lot of stuff that the Elders would like to see. And so usually we can convince people that this in not such a bad thing," he said.

Part of what makes the game a good tool for teaching language is that learning the language isn't the focus of the game, it's just part of what has to happen to win the game.

"They have to learn the language so that they can accomplish other things, and if you do it properly it's integrated into the game seamlessly," Parker said.

"Games are about learning, always. Video games are all about learning the rules to the game and how to get to the next level. And when someone has finished the game, its because they've learned all that game can teach them. Usually those things are trivial things, they're not important. But in this case, one of the things that they'll come away with is the knowledge of their language and that is a part of the game play. "

The story for the game sees a young Blackfoot man setting out with his best friend on a quest. In order to marry the woman he loves, he must improve his standing in the eyes of the woman's father by launching a horse raid against the Crow.

Throughout the game, the player will be given information and instruction in Blackfoot. Each time he or she demonstrates that they understand the words they will receive points. Each time they fail to demonstrate comprehension or if they need the words translated, they will lose points.

"It's an amalgam of a collection of war stories to make it fairly typical of the kind of Blackfoot war story that might be historically passed down," Parker said. "So it's not any particular one. It is made by some of the people at Red Crow to be typical."

The goal of the project all along, Parker stressed, was to have as many of the components of the game provided by the Native group being represented in the game.

"You have to have a look and feel of a game that is indicating its origins," he said. My goal from the very beginning was to have Native musicians and Native artists working on this so that the look of the game, the sound of the game, was very much what they felt comfortable with."

Parker hopes the level of involvement of Native people in the project will be reflected in the game and will allow the Native children playing the game to take ownership of it.

"I want them to see their faces in the game rather than Japanese and European and other folks," Parker said. "I ant them to see their culture, their faces, their Elders, their parents."

The game is being designed to be played on a Gameboy game system. The technology needed to create the game is pretty much in place. The next step is to go to Red Crow College to record the Blackfoot speakers for the audio of the game. Parker hopes that will be completed by the end of January.

Once the audio portion is completed, Parker and the rest of the team working on the project will create a five to 10 minute demo of the game to give people an idea of what the final game will look like. That demo will be available for download on the Digital Media Laboratory's Web site (www.ucalgary.ca/~jparker.I'powahsin/index.html). It will also give Parker something concrete to show in his quest for the funding needed to be able to complete the game.

The completed game, in turn, will help Parker attract funding for an even more ambitious project, Turtle Island, Parker's vision for a multi-player online role playing game that will simulate North American Aboriginal cultures as they existed a thousand years ago. Like the Gameboy game, the goal of Turtle Island is to allow Native players to see their culture represented in game form, and to aid in the preservation of Aboriginal language and culture.

Parker's work on the Blackfoot language game has attracted interest from other Native groups who would like to see their language and culture reflected in a similar game. While the same technology could be used to create such games, each new game would need a new script that reflects the culture of the group in question.

"So it's more involved than just adding another level. It's profoundly connected to the culture of the group, and I think that's what makes it work," he said.

"We don't want to take any ownership of that material ... we want the story to be theirs, we want the art to be theirs, we want the entire cultural unit to be something that they're happy with."

With so many Aborigial languages threatened with extinction, both across Canada and around the globe, Parker would like to think this game project could help to stem the tide.

"I don't want to make too much out of this," he said. "If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But I don't think that's going to happen. I feel strongly that this is going to encourage people to learn these languages. And it might save one. That would be great."