Abstract:

Australia recognises the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees and continues to provide settlement and migration support and services to many new arrivals. Migrants and refugees arriving in Australia have diverse backgrounds, varying in their origin countries, languages, age, education and English language proficiency. Many continue to experience difficulties integrating in their new communities.

It is important to create opportunities for everyone to learn and perform well in school and the workplace. Language barriers could lead to challenges and disadvantages. Learning the pragmatics of the English language enables learners to interpret contextual meanings of specific words uttered by native English language speakers during conversations.

Educational games not only encourage social interaction, it also fosters a welcoming environment that enhances student learning and workplace experience. An educational card game called Mind You! was originally developed as an intervention strategy specifically for international students in Australia. It was designed to help non-native English speakers practise formulating sentences with pragmatic markers.

A subsequent study was conducted with a local community of immigrants from various cultural backgrounds in South Australia. They participated in the original version of the educational game, offering feedback on their gameplay and learning experiences. They also requested additional topic and situation cards that reflect the everyday routines and challenges new migrants face when arriving in Australia or a new country, such as securing employment or building friendships.

This paper details the design process for the migrant version of Mind You!. It explains the rationale behind creating this version that was informed by feedback from migrant learners who played the original game. The discussions will highlight to educational game designers and language teachers the significance of tailoring their designs to specific learner groups when developing educational games for learning and practicing the use of English pragmatic markers in conversations.

Keywords:

Game-based learning, cards, English, languages, pragmatics, education, development.