On Wittgenstein"s "One of the Most Fundamental\ud Language Games�

My interest in this topic springs from the controversy that\ud Wittgenstein"s language games have sparked in gametheoretic\ud approaches to logic. Hintikka (1996) has argued\ud that semantic games and language games share a mutual\ud concern on how language and the world are related. Such\ud links are codified in the practices of language games, and\ud are operationalised in semantic games by the mathematical\ud theory of games

Games in the language classroom: the 'when' & the 'how'

I love playing games in my classes; as far as I’m concerned, games can play a range of roles in the language curriculum. Nevertheless, you’ll find that, traditionally, games have been used in the language class merely as warm-up activities at the beginning, fill-in activities when there’s that extra ten minutes towards the end of class, or often as not as a bit of fun lobbed randomly into the curriculum to spice things up and motivate or energize a tired class. While I don’t have a problem with any of these approaches, I increasingly feel that games can and should constitute a more substantial part of any language curricula. Indeed, games are a tremendously flexible way of achieving all kinds of objectives: games can be used either for practicing particular language items or skills, or in practicing communicative language production. Likewise, games can also be used as a means of revising and recycling recently taught language

Working in the dark

Professional engineers work as experts who influence the work of others. They rarely have direct contact with the products of an enterprise. They work with analogues such as graphs, algorithms and simulations, and engage in discussions in specialized languages, which develop alongside the technological changes they promote or oppose. The engines of linguistic development are metaphors and analogies, however there is no system for creating them. Some metaphors and analogies become so familiar that they are treated as literal terms or literal explanations and become embedded in engineering language games. The field of electrical engineering offers hosts of examples. Students wishing to practice in engineering will need to become fluent in the language games of the profession. The haphazard evolution of language games offer students little help. As with acquisition of any language, repeated rehearsal is vital and practice in playing specialised language games is a primary part of engineering education

Thinking in Chinese vs. Thinking in English: Social Preference and Risk Attitudes of Multicultural Minds

This paper investigates whether language priming activates different cultural identities and norms associated with the language communicated with respect to social preference and risk attitudes. Our contribution is on identifying the conditions where there will be language priming effects. We conduct economic games with bilingual subjects using Chinese and English as instructions. It is found that language priming affects social preference, but only in context involving strategic interactions. In social preference games involving strategic interactions, e.g., the trust game, subjects in the Chinese treatment are more trusting and trustworthy. In individual choice games, such as the dictator game, there is no treatment difference. Further, we also find that language priming affects risk attitudes. Subjects in the Chinese treatment prefer to pick Chinese lucky numbers in Mark Six lottery. These findings suggest that the effect of language priming is context dependent.language, bilingual, biculture, social preference, risk attitudes

Language & Video Games: A Cross-Genre Approach

Online multiplayer games are often thought to promote "toxic" or negative language due to their competitive nature and need for cooperation from teammates. This study will investigate language patterns of players from different genres and aims to provide insight on how game characteristics may influence general language use in online communities.Psycholog

Using games in the language classroom

The justification for using games in the classroom has been well demonstrated as benefiting students in a variety of ways. These benefits range from cognitive aspects of language learning to more co-operative group dynamics. The benefits are as follows: Affective: - games lower the affective filter - they encourage creative and spontaneous use of language - they also promote communicative competence - games are both motivating and fun Cognitive: - games reinforce learning - they both review and extend learning - games focus on grammar in a communicative manner Class Dynamics: - games are extremely student centered - the teacher acts only as facilitator - games build class cohesion - they can foster whole class participation - games promote healthy competition Adaptability: - games can be easily adjusted for age, level, and interests - they utilize all four skills - games require minimum preparation after the initial development stage You can successfully use games in many ways, such as for a quick review, after material has been covered or as a cool-down activity at the end of a lesson to practice what has been covered (as well as to inject an element of fun). You could also use a game to practice specific new language in groups or pairs for a limited time, as a short introduction to new vocabulary or a concept, as a prompt for writing work, even as a link into a new part of the lesson. Games may even be used merely to change the pace of a lesson