Escape games

I tried an Escape game, which you may find here. I personally love Escape games. I used to play such games for hours on iPad. But the games I played were in Chinese, so I never realized how they could be connected to language learning and teaching. 

I have played the game twice, each time for around one hour. Here are some features of the game that I summarized :

1. Finding clues. The clues are the most important information the player should get to finally "escape" from the room. Clues are spread out across several rooms, sometimes hidden somewhere or sometimes logically connected (the player has to decode one before he/she can go on and decode another). 

2. Making sense of the clues. Clues are, most of the time, seemingly irrelevant to each other. The play must find the links between clues so that they can make sense of the clues. For example, to get one piece of puzzle, the player must break a balloon to get the piece of paper. How to break a balloon? The player may think about finding something with a sharp end. The only thing that is sharp in the room is the thumb-pin. So the player may go and click on the pin. Otherwise, the player wouldn't be aware of clicking on the pins. 

3. Finding the code to the lock and get out of there. After collecting all clues and making sense of them, the player would be able to find the ultimate information, the code to the lock, so that he/she may get out of there. The player will have a huge sense of achievement after he/she hears the opening of the door. 

How can we connect these features to language teaching and learning? What surprises me is that the instructions given in the game are a lot like the ones in Chinese, simple and communicative. Here I would analyze the language in the escape games in the following ways: 

1. Reading is the essential part of the game. No opportunity to speak or write anything. Players have to understand all the clues before they can win the games. 

2. To go deeper in reading, we can see that the texts include many indicators on lexical, syntactic and sometimes pragmatic levels. When players click on the image of a chair, if there is no clue there, it would simply say "it is a chair". If there is some clue, it may say "Check if there is anything else there". Sometimes, the system would post things like, "I already have one" or "A balloon!Yeah!" Information as such may not have direct clues, but players may infer from such messages and get other clues. 

3. The language used in the games is communicative, or dialogic. Players are not just following orders or instructions. They can establish a context with the system language. It is what I believe the most important language feature of escape games. 

Teacher's role: The teacher would play the role of the system language, giving clues and establishing a contextualized conversation with students so that they may learn things while trying to escaping from the rooms. 

Students' involvement: I strongly believe that escape games would be a huge magnet to students. Students, especially teenagers, love playing the detective roles to tell others how smart they are. They will surely get involved. However, to win the games, they have to understand all clues in English, so such games are challenging on both detective level and language proficiency level. So they must motivate themselves to learn. 

How to use it in classroom: I would use it as a peer game. Students can get into pairs and play it together. Students' different knowledge base may enhance each other. They can use dictionaries, but they can't go right to the walkthrough. The Teacher may have a pilot game with the entire class using a computer and projector first. The Teacher shall go around the classroom and inspire pairs who get stuck in the game. The game can't be played by images. Students must have access to computers. So I think the games can only be used in lab classes. 

How to use the walkthrough: It is the trickiest part. Follow the walkthrough, and all problems would be solved in one second. The teacher shall not use it in class. Actually, the main goal of playing the game is not to win it but to help students learn language during the process. After going back and forth looking for clues, students may have already learned a lot. The walkthrough may be given to them by the end of the class so that they can check by themselves. 

Language performance indicators: ESL 1.5-8.1.1.2.
Students read, gather, view, listen to, organize, discuss, interpret and analyze information related to academic content areas and various sources.