Gaming Grammar
Gaming Grammar is a digital game designed to support foreign language grammar teaching and learning. Learning grammar is important because it can help us understand how we put words together to make phrases and sentences.
However, many people find learning grammar a bit dull or difficult, particularly if they are learning grammar in a new language. Gaming Grammar makes grammar practice engaging and motivating, through a suite of mini-games practising a range of grammar features in French, Spanish, and German.
The game teaches grammar through listening and reading practice called form-meaning mapping, a research-based teaching approach that makes grammar essential for understanding meaning, in line with the MFL Pedagogy Review recommendations. Each mini-game is based on a spy mission and practises a pair of grammar features. To complete each mission successfully, the player must crack the code by learning how to understand the grammar features.
In 2023 Languagenut acquired Gaming Grammar. The acquisition, which was finalised on Wednesday 21 June 2023, combines Gaming Grammar's research-based teaching approach and content, which is in line with the MFL Pedagogy Review recommendations, with Languagenut's comprehensive resources and global reach.
Professor Emma Marsden said, “Gaming Grammar has been many years in development, and is informed by the expertise of academics and gaming professionals, passionate about inspiring the next generation of language learners.
"By teaming up with Languagenut we can supersize our offering and make the games available to a much wider audience.”
Accessing Gaming Grammar
- Via a web browser (Use Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge) Please note that Internet Explorer is not supported.
- Via the Apple Apps Store An iPad released on or after 2017 is recommended for playing Gaming Grammar. Please note iPhones are not currently supported.
- Via the Google Play Store An Android device released on or after 2017 is recommended for playing Gaming Grammar. Chromebooks are also supported.
Research with Gaming Grammar
As well as supporting teaching and learning, Gaming Grammar will also help us to understand more about grammar learning. The Gaming Grammar team (which includes researchers from the University of York and University of Reading) will be analysing data from the game to better understand the effectiveness of this learning tool for supporting foreign language grammar learning. The research data will include players’ responses and response times while playing the game and information about players’ age, gender, and first language. Any data downloaded for research purposes will be pseudonymised by assigning each player a code number and no identifying information, such as names or email addresses, will be downloaded.