Crossing the River: deployment of an outdoor language learning game

Abstract

Outdoor school games are an entertaining way of promoting experiential learning through an activity-based learning (ABL) approach. This thesis presents a new outdoor game called “Crossing the river” and its deployment for integration into the language curriculum of the comissioner, Humak University. The game’s goal consists in accumulating the maximum number of points through collecting letters (leaves) from the river (path) and forming words with them in a crossword field. The participant can collect a letter if he or she is successful in crossing the river stepping only on the leaves, which are disks set on the ground. In sum, the game is a combination of crossword puzzle and hopscotch, aiming at conciliating learning a foreign language with body mobility and awareness, teamwork, strategic thinkning and promoting outdoor wellbeing. Each section in this thesis addresses the game by its design, goals, rules, methods for facilitating learning, and results observed by empirical tests deployed with Humak and Høgskulen i Volda students. The results of the game deployment were evaluated through a survey conducted with 21 participants from various classes across both universities. Statistical analysis of the responses indicates that Crossing the River is a promising tool for diversifying language class activities. It effectively supports vocabulary learning and practice without placing excessive physical or mental demands on participants. Additionally, the game fosters the development of body awareness, teamwork, and strategic thinking. Finally, an alternative play mode called "All Four Crossing” was introduced to offer a more challenging version of the game.