FUN FOR
LEARNERS
Examples of
gameplay from The
Language Magician
(above and below)
26 The Linguist Vol/59 No/3 2020
thelinguist.uberflip.com
FEATURES
How a gaming app is providing motivational assessment
for language learners in primary schools. By Lorna Price
M
ore and more countries are introducing
language learning in primary school. One of
the reasons behind that move is to promote
positive attitudes to language learning at an early age.
But while research suggests that motivation for language
learning is generally high among young learners, there is
still room for improvement. Suzanne Graham et al found
that instilling in learners a sense of progress is very
important for motivation, both in primary school and as
they move into secondary school.
1
Their findings have
been a key underpinning for the Goethe-Institut's new
tool: The Language Magician.
Assessment, if of a formative, diagnostic kind, could
give learners that crucial sense of progress when
approached in the right way. Language assessment that
is constructive and maintains the motivation of learners is
not, however, necessarily easy within classroom-based
early language education. Reporting on their 2019
research on The Language Magician,
2
Louise Courtney
and Suzanne Graham state that there is a need to
employ assessment methods which, as well as being
viable and reliable for a range of learners, protect rather
than diminish motivation. That goal is especially
important in the UK, where declining numbers are opting
for GSCE and A-level languages.
3
In March 2018, after three years of continuous
development, The Language Magician – an educational
videogame project produced by the Goethe-Institut
London in strategic partnership with nine partners in the
UK, Germany, Italy and Spain – was launched. The scope
of this Erasmus+ project was to create a free assessment
tool that would provide diagnostic information on pupils'
language proficiency in the areas of vocabulary, listening,
reading comprehension and writing, without them
noticing that they were being tested, and at the same
time engage them and let them have fun learning
foreign languages. Versions were created in English,
German, Italian, Spanish and French.
The storyline of the game centres on a young magician
striving to liberate his animal friends from the curse of
the evil magician Winivil, who has transformed them into
doorknockers. Learners can free the animals when they
A magic wand for schools?
