Hi all, I need some creative advice here. My wife's nephew (14yo) is coming to live with us and just started school. He is a bright kid but unfortunately he barely speaks English (although improving) and he needs a bit of help on that department. Luckily for him I am gamer so we share an interest. He played various games like Portal 1&2 and both recent Tomb Raider and the issue is that the game doesn't require him to understand English that much. The puzzles, hard as they are, don't require much comprehension, so he just plays them through without caring for the story. And that's an issue. I have games other games like Bioshock Infinite and Dishonored where the story is amazing. But I can see that you can just fly through them without caring about it. Can you guys recommend any appropriate games that absolutely require comprehension to complete? not just go to the next map marker. (no COD, GTA, horror please, but also I don't care about 18 ratings when they make no sense, like TR) Thanks for any help
A mmo game ? World of Warcraft ? All quests are in English from what I remember, even playing on a Russian server the game is in English. He will also meet other players who speak English. If your looking for games. Easier way is just to send on a language course he can have it done in under 50 weeks.
Bioware games always need a lot of speaking/reading to move the plot forward. There is a website/app called Duolingo that might be of use to him. It's free and runs game-like language lessons, you haven't said where he's from but they cover a bunch of languages to English.
The Witcher 3 would make sense for the sheer weight of English dialogue. As long he avoids the brothels in the game then you should be golden!
Thanks for all the answers: I will look into MMOs, thing is I was always a bit wary of them as they are so addictive. But you have a point in which if he is forced to interact with others it could help. His mother tongue is Turkish. That said, he is already doing extra English tuition to bring him up to speed. I was just wondering if there was a way to help him via videogames. I am thinking about Telltale Walking Dead series. Not totally sure it's entirely age appropriate, it's pretty gory but I wouldn't class it as "horror". Will also check out Duolingo as suggested...
People that I know that speak English as a second language often cite things like music and movies as helping them to learn English. So those would be my recreational go to's rather than games. That being siad, there are lots of interactive story type games, but those seem to be more of a niche and probably won't appeal to the regular gamer. What about LA Noire as a game. I don't think its that adult from what I recall and has good amounts of dialogue.
Any online co-operative/team-based game where he could speak with a group of friends and practice talking in English with them. League of Legends/DOTA Path of Exile Overwatch Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator Borderlands 2 Starbound/Terraria Almost any story-driven adventure or roleplay game would have lots of dialogue to help him practice the language.
I'm sorry but hands-off approach won't work imo. You have to sit down with him and intensively read with him and have him write. Reading you can gloss over the words, but writing you HAVE to commit brain to 'paper'. At the least subscribe him to something that's bite-size and interesting so he reads everyday. I left university with shite English, but 10,000 words a writing/reading week for ~2 years later and (an editor who threw things at me and swore like a sailor I'll admit) I got significantly better. You need to treat him by his English ability age and work up from there.
Not a game itself, but maybe voice chat with a clan/guild/group? I know a lot of people through gaming who speak English as a foreign language and their fluency astounds me! Like anything it's practicing that improves your skills, it's why so many native English speakers are poor at languages, we're able to be lazy and just speak our mother tongue!
I would also recommend MMO. You are right they can be addicting, but then anything can, but if you are going to play too so that you can play together, then as long as you are confident in your own willpower, it should not be an issue as game time is restricted to when you are on with him (which is a natural limitation in an MMO when you have a hunting buddy - so rather than it being an enforcement of rules, it is just the courteous thing to do to ensure you do not out level each other). In the various games I have played I often ran a Guild and we had people from all over Europe. It was amazing to see their progress with the language - both written and on the headset. Whether it be from the clarity of speech or something as simple as far less filler words being used in place of correct ones (one friend used the word 'thing/things/thingy' when trying to describe almost everything because she could never remember the English word, but regular interaction on the headset quickly found her dropping the filler for the correct term). The real interesting thing was how quickly they progressed too - amazing how easy it is to learn in an environment where learning is not the actual aim but a side effect (especially helpful for people who struggle to remain interested in a learning environment). Course, I should not be surprised - back when I started MMOing was before voice chat was a thing and it single handedly brought my typing skills from non-existent up to a point where I can comfortably type away swiftly at work and write far too long a response to threads on forums
I'm amazed that nobody's mentioned interactive fiction. Entirely text-based, available free of charge in many cases, and you can even play 'em on your smartphone through an SMS-like interface. Great way to tweak language skills.
What about something specifically made for learning? I've been using Duo Lingo to learn Spanish and German. It requires a different motivation being it's not a game but I've had success getting better with both languages using that.
I think the problem with those kind of things is it tends to only work if it is something you yourself are truly interested in (so, most frequently used by grown ups that are no longer in education so choose to learn due to wanting to). At 14, he no doubt already has school, he also already has extra tutoring by the sounds of it, so I would imagine the last thing he would want is an additional learning process. There is risk he'll be flooded with education and start resenting it all and lose interest.
+1 for any MMO. I know of lot of people I played with didn't know English, but picked it up from playing MMOs, and most importantly, talking to other players, both by text and voice (for trading, asking for help, recruiting, chatting with guild etc). Most of them now speak better English than the majority of English people. Not sure if that says more about them or us though... I played Monster Hunter Online for a while (which is only released in China and entirely in Chinese), and started to pick little bits up without even trying. The most important thing is that it's a game he likes, at which point it won't feel like a chore.
