David Neville, assistant professor of German and director of language learning technologies, presented on “Digital Game-Based Learning: Immersive Approaches to German Language and Culture” at the 2009 Spring Conference of the North Carolina Chapter of American Association of Teachers of German (NCAATG). The NCAATG seeks to promote and improve the teaching of German in North Carolina, to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas among teachers of German, and to promote a sense of joint effort and a spirit of cooperation and fellowship among its members.
In his presentation, Neville described the advantages of digital game-based learning (DGBL) for second language acquisition, citing it ability to support open-ended exploration, student learning communities, situated cognition, and transferable mental schemata. In addition to showing how language instructors can get involved with developing their own instructional games, Neville also reported on his own efforts to create a 3D action-adventure game that teaches German language and culture to beginning university students.