Online learning activity (Ch2)

“Word Games” from “East of the Web”

Goal:

Some games for the players to practice the word spelling.

Presentation:

There are night games: Cryptoquote, Multi popword, Eight letters, Multi eight letters, Difinetime, Popword, Storyman, Word search, Codeword.

Cryptoquote is for players to uncover the codes of one quotation by selecting the alphabets for each code. There are different quotations changing day after day.
Multi popword is for players to drag the letters-which are next to each other-to create a word. The longer the word is, the more the point you will get.
Eight letters, as the name, players have to reconstruct the eight letters into some meaningful words in a limited time. The longer the word is, the better point you will get.
Multi eight letters is just like the previous one, but players have to compete with other players.
Definetime has four choices for players to define the meaning of the words it gives.
Popword is like Multi popword, but when players are creating the words, some letters are falling down at the same time so that if one letter reaches the top, the game will be over.
Storyman has lots of topics to choose from and players have to reconstruct the words related to the topic in a limited time.
Wordsearch also has the topics but use different ways for people to play with. Players have to drag the adjacent letters to create all the words in the bar.
Codeword is like the word guessing. Players try hard to guess the five letters to create a meaningful word, and the system will inform the situation of the selected letters and their positions each time.

Appropriateness:

Cryptoquote, Storyman and Wordsearch are more suitable for the native speakers or the sophisticated EFL learners, because those games involve something about the culture or life, like classical quotation, fictions, movies, etc. However, the rest is nice for the learners who just want to increase the competence of spelling.

Outcomes:

I think there’s no additional document helpful for the learners.

Evaluation:

None. But correct answers can be found immediately in each game.

Notes:

Quite interesting. Especially Cryptoquote and Storyman, Cryptoquote provides lots of quotations with its origins, which can help learners to understand more beyond the language itself. Storyman also can let the learner pick the different topics, like Lord of the Rings, Greek mythology, and Beatles songs, etc.

However, the degree of the words or the answer is basically difficult for the EFL learners. Take me for example, sometimes I even feel nervous and frustrated due to the limited time, and in Storyman, I can’t even offer most of the correct answers.

But I think those night games are just for fun. I can’t judge it as a wonderful learning webpage, but indeed it is really interesting to play with the words and knowledge. As to the function, I think the sense of interest is deeper than what learners absorb from the games.