Josip Farkaš's page

It's like they know it's my birthday :')

Huzzah!

Ah, finally, I've dug up some reports a few years ago on a couple of artifacts of dwarven origins that might have been lost in that area. Torag willing, we might even stumble upon them.

Stumbled upon this one a bit late, but reading this, and the Liberty's Edge one I'm smelling a conflict between them and the Sovereign Court. Primarily due to the secret ex-noble thing from the previous post. It would be awesome to see a mission in which the SC players would have to gain the alliance of said ex-nobles while LE would have to thwart them.

I don't really have anything definitive to offer as source material for your project.

I do, however, think it is excellent of you to take on this "quest" simply because it helps to elevate the reputation of roleplaying games as not only a positive influence on youth but also as a legitimate educational resource.

Good luck!

(Actually... allow me to revise. My wife has written a story set in a dystopian future. The central character IS a roleplayer and his roleplaying experience IS central to his character development and the story. One of the tag-lines for the story is, "What could you gain from gaming?"
Rather than link here in a manner that might be regarded as "hijacking" or "spam," I'll instead invite you to check my profile for details on where to find it free-to-read online. Various entries of her accompanying blog also have a number of researched insights that could be relevant and the story itself might offer you some other creative perspectives. Perhaps that could be helpful?)

Thanks, I'll certainly look into it :D

imho, playing games should never be seen as "enough" to replace actual study, so I'd suggest treating p&p rpg as such. Like music and film, it has the benefit of capturing the interest of people, thus making the learning of the language less of a chore. It also helps with the vocabulary due to introducing you to events that require differnt words than those learned in early classes.

in respect to your original question: there's a thread of these boards, concerning Gary Gygax's thoughts on what makes a good roleplayer. That might be an extremely good read.

As I said, I'd probably end up using it as a supplement. I'll try to dig out the threat, thanks :)

Odakle si?

Osijek :D

The multiple intelligence theory is largely outdated and has shown to have no effect on test scores. We all have all of the intelligences listed there (and the new ones they keep adding) to some degree.

The basis for MI, though, is that of "engagement". The more students are engaged, the more they learn, apply that knowledge and recall it later. Try the "Gamification of the education and instruction". Your experiment could include aspects of this idea and possibly increase engagement, thus learning. Just my 2cents. I've incorporated these techniques with varying success in my classrooms. One thing for sure, gaming/fantasy language increases vocabulary and RPG's are great for higher level thinking - you need to read, understand, apply, synthesize, judge results, re-read, research, apply math, creativity... good luck and good planning!!

I didn't go into much detail there, but that's what I'm actually aiming for, since pretty much every intelligence can be applied in some way if you're creative enough, it'll make learning more engaging and thus increase the interest to learn. The focus of the MI aspect of it is exactly what you're saying - different people are more/less interested in different things, and RPGs can cover a lot of ground here. I'll see what I can do about the book.. It's highly unlikely I'll be able to get it from the local library :P

What I'm saying here is that you're not going to get much thesis material from the boards on this topic, because you're going to find it hard to find someone who intentionally chose gaming as a language teaching aid compared to other means of interaction, or self teaching through means such as Rosetta Stone.

You may find people who used gaming to teach group interaction, but that's starting with the common communication skills i.e. language and grammar to begin with.

You'd be surprised how much I already got from here ;) As well as from /rpg, /TEFL, /education on reddit. Regarding your debate with necromental; whatever floats your boat man. It's as simple as that, as long as something is keeping you interested, and you're paying attention, both can be good enough. I actually started with English the exact same way. I watched CN for hours on end, and I'd say it got me pretty far :P For kids you want things to be flashy and colorful, while adults will prefer something more serious. Also, regarding what you mentioned earlier:

For the most part, roleplaying games don't by themselves help in teaching the language any more than any other form of casual immersion does. If anything, it may confuse the issue due to the concentration of gamer-specific slang which isn't used in general life. If you're looking for examples of people intentionally structuring games to facilitate language learning, that's going to require casting a much tighter net.

You're forgetting about the communicative aspect, problem solving, social interaction, possible cultural aspects, etc. These are all invaluable when it comes to teaching and learning a language. If a word or phrase is too complicated for the age/proficiency level, I'm pretty sure I can allow myself the lenience to do without it ;) Also, just because I'm posting on a Pathfinder forum, doesn't mean I'm only focusing on fantasy. The title is PnPRPGs, not fantasy PnPRPGs. This replies to what Christopher Van Horn said as well :)

Magician - An RPG that teaches you Korean.

It's an RPG designed specifically around the goal of teaching you a language, while still being an actual RPG. It uses a magic system built off language, which is a pretty common theme in fantasy literature. You build spells by speaking phrases/sentences. Mind you, my knowledge of this game is purely second-hand, so I don't know specifics, but I figure it's probably right up your alley.

Already go that tip from someone on reddit, but thanks, I'll definitely look into it.

In this thread I've seen several studies posted and I have personally offered to connect him with someone in the language education field with multiple years of experience using games as a language tool. What more could someone posting in a random thread on the internet hope to get for their thesis?

Also, immersion doesn't mean what you think it means.

Also Also, you should read threads before making blind judgements about what you think you will find in them. Your lead off sentence is patently false. It was false before you wrote it.

And I'll make sure I let you know if I do take up the offer :3 If nothing else it might be some sort of questionnaire, but we'll see when the time comes. My main focus for now is gathering resource material.

Morgrym, I know that the Defense Language Institute uses a lot of games and a lot of roleplaying (though not a lot of roleplaying games) in their teaching of language. You might check with them to see if they have any materials available for scholarly review.

There's also the Center for the Advanced Study of Language (CASL).

Both organization focus on promoting fluency in very short time frames. Both use a lot of "role playing" as a form of linguistic interaction. DLI, at least, does a lot of "story-telling" which could easily be applied to RPGs.

Good luck!

This is a new one for me, thanks! The problem I have with the traditional roleplaying used in classrooms is that I always found it stale, unimaginative, highly artificial, and lacking any real involvement (the ones found in books at least). This is from my days as a learner of course.

In case anyone's interested, here are the links to the reddit discussions

Also, please, if you know anyone that might be in any way interested or could contribute, do let them know, every bit of info helps :) Thanks everyone!

In all seriousness, Morgrym, you have very good English. :-)

After so many years of learning, it damn well better be ;)

http://theflatearthsociety.org

Found out that thing existed just a week ago. I excremented building material.

Seeing as how this is getting quite the attention, I thought I'd elaborate on what I'll be trying to do with the thesis. In one of my classes we mentioned something called the Multiple Intelligences Theory (http://bit.ly/1jP5GKd) and the way in which adhering to as many aspects of intelligence can greatly influence the learning process.
The first thing that came to mind that had most, if not all, intelligences wrapped in a neat package were role playing games. I could go on about PnPRPGs are connected with each, but then I'll leave that for when i start writing. This sparked the initial idea for the thesis, and I just started building up from there. This was then followed by Rebecca Oxford's taxonomy of language learning strategies, which does make sense, since the two do go hand in hand.

Now, don't get me wrong, this is still very much in its initial phase, but I'm hoping to do as much of the reading as I can as soon as possible, because the thesis isn't going to base itself completely on theory. The hardest, but possibly the most fun, aspect of it will be the experimental part. My mentor and I agreed that we need to test the theory. I'll get two groups of English learners, all of the same proficiency level and age (hopefully), and have one group learn English the classical way, and the other the PnPRPG way. My initial idea is 12 to 15 year-olds, because I think they would be proficient enough to use the language to a certain extent, while still having a lot to learn. I'm still at odds with myself on whether they should only be learning English through the games, or if I should use them as a supplement. I'll probably end up with a bit of both, explaining what needs to be explained the old-school way, and using the game for examples, practice and revision.

I'll do my best to answer any questions anyone has, even if I am a day or two late. If people are interested enough, I'll find a way to document how things are going when we start the experimental part, and of course, I'm open to any advice/criticism anyone has. I'm still thinking of a way to progressively track the learners progress, probably through some kind of a questionnaire. Also, in case anyone was wondering, my first language is Croatian, but the thesis itself will be in English. This is all still highly theoretical, and I'm aware that a lot of people might be skeptical, but I do firmly believe there is a lot of sense behind what I'm trying to do here.

The thesis isn't due for more than a year, but this will require a lot of work and preparation, so I decided to get a head start. Anything and everything related in any way to the topic is welcome, from links to theses. In case anyone is wondering, my first language is Croatian, but the thesis itself will be in English.

Thanks for everything so far, as I said, anything and everything related to the topic in any way will be helpful :)

Greetings oh wise and all-powerful messageboard. I come to you seeking aid. The grandmasters of the University, in which I am studying the art of teaching the glorious language that is English, have entrusted me with a quest of the greatest importance. To write the thesis of all theses, one thesis to rule them all, to boldly thesis where no thesis has thesised before! Through long and arduous contemplation and consultation with my mentor, we have agreed that the topic shall be the implementation of joyous activities involving presuming the roles of creatures and persona other than oneself through the media that is the quill and parchment in the process of transferring the knowledge of the English language. Here is where I require aid! If any of the good souls that dwell upon this place has any ethereal connectors to a scroll or tome of ancient knowledge or research regarding the said topic, I would be eternally grateful to anyone who provides me with the materials I need.

the tl;dr/wtf are you talking about version:
I'm writing a thesis on the application of PnPRPGs in teaching English, and would be thankful for any possible research material in any way connected to the topic. Anything related in any way helps :)

Her storyline requires an adventure module :o
It's compelling, and gives a chance of trying naval combat without having to play an entire adventure path