Closing remarks
This document presented a report on siLang evaluation activities that conducted during the project implementation period. The document offers an insight on the direction, development, and results of activities that started early on at the project implementation period and continued until the end of the project implementation period. The discussion demonstrates that the validation process was concluded with success at all sites foreseen at the project proposal as well as additional sites spanning a total of 10 countries. The groups that participated in the evaluation process include:
- Higher education students at Tallinn University in Estonia
- Welding professionals at EWF in Portugal
- Adult trainees at the House of Brazil in Lisbon
- Higher education students at HIST in Norway
- Professionals and higher education students at Universita degli Studi Gu-lielmo Marconi, in Italy
- Professionals in Greece
- Professionals and higher education students at the University of Thessaly
- Students and language teachers at the University of Gothenburg in Swe-den
- Professionals in engineering jobs in Switzerland
- Language students in Cyprus
- Welding professionals in Spain
- Welding professionals in Romania
- And more …
The siLang intervention aims at reinforcing language competence relevant to the workplace through serious gaming by promoting situated language training that familiarizes learners with cultural, societal, and work aspects in various contexts.
A significant number of users took part in the evaluation activities. The feedback gained from the participants in the study demonstrates high relevance and ac-ceptance of siLang outcomes. Results demonstrate that the siLang learning methodologies, serious game and educational activities are well accepted by the target sector. The general impression of students and language teachers is that siLang fills a gap in language education by addressing communication in vehicular languages and exposing users to the diverse uses of a lingua franca.
The diverse pronunciations of non-playing characters were considered an innovative aspect of the siLang serious game that is linked to the way language learners will hear a foreign language used in the real world. Specifically, language instructors pointed to the fact that they were not aware of similar applications and as such the siLang serious game adds direct value to their instructional practices.
The participants in the evaluation studies provide positive input on the value-adding character of the siLang serious game for practicing language skills in to rich cultural and work related contexts. More precisely, the siLang intervention was considered as a useful tool for practicing communication in English in international and multicultural professional settings. The situated environment implemented in the game received positive comments as it allowed the establishment of links with the reality.
The siLang serious game was considered easy to use enabling learners to focus on the game plot and the integrated learning tasks. In addition the provision of immediate feedback through the characters of the games and the reflection of their choices in the game plot were also commented positively by the participants.
The feedback generated by the two experts confirms evaluation findings and ensures the efficiency, relevance and quality of siLang outcomes and methodologies.
The siLang evaluation activities introduced a discussion in relation to the future direction of the project activities. A key direction is the expansion of the siLang software for addressing specific needs for language and cultural communication of specific economic sectors, such as HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, and cafes), the health sector, engineering sectors, and more. Future implementations may further introduce additional nationalities for non-playing characters, thus enriching the international experience gained by game players. Finally, potential future directions include the development of related tools for addressing the needs of additional target and age groups, including younger learners in school education.
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