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One of the programs I had on
my first computer was called “Colossal Cave,” later “Adventure.” I spent a
lot of time looking for ways to use it in language teaching, but couldn’t get
past the one- or two-word commands (north, south, enter, take key, etc.).
London Adventure circa 1985 provided a gaming element and language learning,
where users had to use appropriate requests in order to buy the items they
needed in a limited amount of time. Other CALL software creators have found
ways to add gaming elements to almost all software, including (or especially)
drills. An individual may be competing against a clock, against his/her best
performance, or against another user or team. Research on games in education
is extensive. Dixon discusses mainframe-based word games on PLATO (Dixon,
1981). Randel et al. (1992) present a review of research on educational games
from the early 1980s in Simulation & Gaming, a journal dedicated
to that topic for over 30 years. Virtual worlds are an emerging area
for gaming, with some good results in EFL settings (Hannson, 2005).
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