Abstract:

Games have been studied by the scientific community regarding the benefits provided, namely the potential for developing several high-order skills. The study of games for educational purposes interests teachers and educators who wish to integrate some of the characteristics of gaming in their classrooms, fascinated by the engaging way in which their students play. Incorporation of gaming or game-like activities in the educational process can be a solution to improve students’ commitment to school-related tasks.

Considering the importance of foreign language learning in the international curricula and the investment in the promotion of the Portuguese language/culture by governmental institutions such as Instituto Camões, the project here presented aims to design, develop and assess a serious game for language learning in the field of Portuguese as Second/Foreign language (PL2/PLE), as a way of providing an extra resource for those teaching and learning the Portuguese language and culture, whether in formal or informal environments.

This project intends to provide both a scientific and a practical contribution in the context of serious games, language learning and design-based research; and the prototype to be developed can constitute an important tool to those learning and teaching PL2/PLE.

Keywords:

Serious games, game design, language learning, development research, design-based research.