Roman Palace: A Videogame for Foreign-Language Vocabulary Retention

Authors

  • Alexia Larchen Costuchen Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
  • Ramón Pascual Mollá Vayá Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
  • Darina Dinkova Dimitrova Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v17i05.27621

Keywords:

serious game, mnemonics, method of loci, vocabulary, memorisation, foreign-language learning

Abstract


The goal of this work was to develop a serious game which would aid in the retention of foreign-language non-contextualized vocabulary items in different age categories. To this end, the loci method was used to enhance visual and spatial memory among the game’s players. The novelty of this proposal lies in the combining of mnemonic strategies with the environment of an exploratory video game. Structurally, this project consists of three main pillars: pedagogical foundations, the development of the serious game, and the evaluation of the game's efficiency through qualitative and quantitative study. The 3D game was developed through the Unity game engine in its version 2020.3. The prototype’s efficiency was assessed quantitatively in an experimental group of 21 participants who were compared with a control group of 27 participants. All the data were displayed in R Studio using the ggplot2 library. The study was complemented with qualitative findings collected through semi-structured interviews with a group of 7 participants. The experimental method proved to be more efficient and more entertaining than the conventional method used in the control group.

Author Biographies

Alexia Larchen Costuchen, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

Alexia Larchen Costuchen is a Ph.D. candidate at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. She is a member of the GIEL research group (GIUV2013-081) at the University of Valencia, Spain, and a visiting researcher at University College Dublin. She is currently participating in gamification and game-design projects in several European countries.

Ramón Pascual Mollá Vayá, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

Ramón Pascual Mollá Vayá holds a degree in Computer Graphics and a PhD in Computer Science. He is an associate professor at the Department of Computer Systems and Computation (DSIC) of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). His teaching career spans more than 20 years, during which he has held the posts of UPV communications director and UPV-RTV director, among others. He has been teaching subjects related to computer graphics, animation, video-game development, and programming to degree and master’s students of comput-er science as well as to students of the master's degree Artificial Intelligence, Pattern Recognition and Digital Imaging; the animation master’s degree Anima-tion: Art & Industry; and the master's degree Multimedia and Visual Arts. He has collaborated on 7 books, 27 public research projects, 6 corporate research pro-jects, 14 journal papers, and 26 conference papers. His current research focus is on real-time computer graphics (video games) and simulation.

Cover iJET Vol. 17 No. 05 (2022)

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Published

2022-03-14

How to Cite

Larchen Costuchen, A., Mollá Vayá, R. P., & Dinkova Dimitrova, D. (2022). Roman Palace: A Videogame for Foreign-Language Vocabulary Retention. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 17(05), pp. 87–102. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v17i05.27621

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 05 (2022)

Section

Papers

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Copyright (c) 2022 Alexia Larchen Costuchen, Ramón Pascual Mollá Vayá, Darina Dinkova Dimitrova

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