Serious game design for vehicular language learning addressing work needs

Abstract

In today’s open business environment peer communication across borders is the norm. It is commonplace in face-to-face interaction as well as on-line communities that facilitate work related collaboration of cross-border teams. To effectively work in these international surroundings, individuals resort to commonly understood, vehicular languages. In work-related contexts, impeccable use of a language is less important than effective communication towards addressing common goals. This work departs from typical professional language learning approaches by introducing a serious game for building language and cultural communication skills in a lingua franca. The game exposes professionals to typical deployment of a lingua franca by native and non-native speakers. Learners build communication competence through situated learning approaches that draw inspiration from the real world, which is both multilingual and multicultural. At the same time they become aware of the cultural wealth that is manifested in the individualized uses of vehicular languages by individuals with diverse backgrounds. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.