ImparApp: Italian language learning with MIT’s TaleBlazer mobile app

Abstract

Recent developments in mobile technologies have increased the ways in which languages can be learnt, both within and beyond the classroom. Whereas the use of mobile technologies seems to challenge traditional knowledge and skills acquisition, research shows that foreign language study can be enriched through easy access to resources selected to suit individual interests or needs (KukulskaHulme, 2013). This chapter reports on an Italian language learning game, ImparApp, developed with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) TaleBlazer location-based game-authoring tool. Players interact with virtual characters, objects, and data as they move around their real physical location whilst attempting to solve a time travel mystery. This chapter presents data collected through a case study of how learning a language can take place beyond the traditional classroom in new and challenging ways. The chapter summarises the way learning activities were integrated into the app and discusses how the learning challenges were designed across the scenes, episodes and settings. It also presents data collected from the ‘play-test’ sessions and discusses initial findings of the pilot project.