Innovation

“There is no golden key to succeeding with gamification in teaching, but that gamification is rather one of several aids in the teacher’s toolbox” – Emmanuel Acquah, PhD, Åbo Akademi University

about-sprok

SPROK is currently being developed at Åbo Akademi University and Novia University of Applied Sciences in Finland, and the first prototypes are under construction.

Intended for school-aged children (approximately 7-12 years old) who want to learn a new language, SPROK is monolingual – i.e., the player can learn a new language without using a different language than their own.

It is targeted to be used as a part of teaching methods in elementary schools, featuring a teacher backend that allows the teacher to check the students’ learning progress within the game.

The gamification for the school curriculum is now a logical part of our educational processes.

student-teachers-at-a-school

“The gaming industry has managed to combine several motivational factors for learning, something that pedagogy could also improve on.”
– Adam Palmquist, PhD, University of Gothenburg

SPROK’s design encourages development by strengthening language skills.

Our goal is for SPROK to become a core teaching material both for preparatory classrooms for newly immigrated students, and for second language teaching.

We work differently in creating a game with user-centered design that relies on the curriculum for preparatory teaching and language learning for immigrants.

Workbooks and SPROK are both intended for in-class and homework usage. This is why it must be accessible on mobile and desktop devices. This design makes it well suited for private consumer use as well.

university students hanging

SPROK in brief

“A good game is often made up of four cornerstones:
a clear goal, clear rules and boundaries, feedback, and the opportunity for social interaction.”
– SPROK development team

SPROK is…

A fun and safe digital game that helps immigrant children integrate into the linguistic and cultural environment of their new home country. It provides a research-based, efficient, and engaging tool to learn a new language.

Monolingual — meaning it uses the target language to teach itself. This means it can be used in classrooms without a base language, making it suitable for immigrants and native students.

Culturally relevant and context-based learning innovation. Conversational skills are taught via contextually relevant interaction in the game environment. These will be adapted to each language’s culture and environment.

Developed with a teacher-driven design, offering feedback for teachers so they can better understand students’ language progression. Teachers will also be able to use it as an assignment, making it easily integrated into lesson planning.

Created according to CEFR standards. European-based standards for in-game progression means that it can be used to teach multiple languages throughout Europe.

How SPROK Works

“It’s not just educational but designed to be fun.”
– SPROK development team

Our Impact

“Language is a gatekeeper. Acquire it and it opens every door into a culture.” – Emmanuel Acquah, project leader

The gaming industry has succeeded well by interdisciplinary involving motivational psychology, cognition, and neuroscience to make us motivated.

Schools in turn need to get better at language teaching and learning — starting from basic education.

Does it have to be difficult to learn something new? Successful learning is more about motivation and feedback — something that helps the educational process.

Increasing motivation and engagement with teachers and everyone involved in instructional design is important.

By using gamification, teachers can raise students’ motivation.

In Finland, as elsewhere in Europe, there is a call for the integration of children in the “immigrant classroom”, fostering values related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

In the future, the game can be used internationally amongst everyone who wants to learn a foreign language.

students-walking