Learning Language Grammar with Interactive Exercises in the

Classroom and Beyond

Marina Purgina

, Maxim Mozgovoy

and Monica Ward

School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Aizu, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan

School of Computing, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

Keywords: CALL, MALL, WordBricks.

Abstract: We describe how the principles of gamification, rich learning material, and personalized experience were

used to design WordBricks, a software tool intended to assist learning natural language grammar, which is a

challenging task for learners. We briefly discuss the distinctive features of successful educational software

instruments with a large user base, and argue that the possibility of independent, personalized out-of-class

interaction with an educational tool is nearly essential for success. In addition to these elements, our

application implements a visual grammar formalism that turns solving grammar exercises into a puzzle

game-like experience, attractive for the learners. The results of our ongoing classroom experiments show

that the users of WordBricks score better on grammar tests thus proving the feasibility of our approach.

Subsequent experiments with the Irish language also demonstrated that the students enjoyed playing with

the application, which is important for learners with low levels of motivation and lack of modern

multimedia teaching materials.

1 INTRODUCTION

The primary goal of this work is to report the

intermediate results of our experiments with a

mobile WordBricks application which is designed to

assist natural language grammar acquisition. We are

striving to gamify the process of learning language

grammar, which is a challenging task due to both the

complexity of human language and the difficulty of

turning grammar exercises into fun game-like

activities. Supported with user feedback and

discussions with colleagues, we redesigned

considerably our initial prototype (Mozgovoy and

Efimov, 2013), ported it to a mobile platform, and

reworked the whole concepts of sentence

visualization and the user interface.

WordBricks is designed with the following goals

in mind: a) to develop a “visual grammar”

formalism that expresses phenomena of natural

grammar with simple graphical language of shapes

and colors; b) to provide a “virtual lab-like”

experience for independent experiments with

language constructions; and c) to make grammar

learning a more enjoyable and fun experience.

This work naturally enhanced our understanding

of the principles of language learning application

design, as we had to modify the system several times

in response to user feedback. Our ongoing classroom

experiments show that the students indeed improve

their knowledge of grammar (as demonstrated with

their test scores) and overall enjoy using the

application. Representing grammar constructions in

a simple and intuitive form is important for effective

teaching, so we hope that our experience will be

useful for the interested teachers and learners.

2 FUN AND EFFECTIVENESS OF

EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE

We believe that the most significant factors

contributing to the success of an educational

application are fun (game-like) user experience, high

coverage of a chosen topic, easy translation of game

knowledge into real-world knowledge, and the

support of personalized, teacher-independent

learning. All these goals are very hard to formalize

and achieve, and it is not a requirement to meet all

of them to succeed.

470

Purgina, M., Mozgovoy, M. and Ward, M.

Learning Language Grammar with Interactive Exercises in the Classroom and Beyond.

DOI: 10.5220/0006352804700475

In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2017) - Volume 1, pages 470-475

ISBN: 978-989-758-239-4

2.1 Balancing Learning and Fun

Perhaps the most characteristic feature of a game is

fun or ability to engage people, and this is the reason

why gamification is a commonly mentioned goal of

educational software. Unfortunately, it is difficult to

extract the essence of “fun”, and many edutainment

developers tend to reuse individual salient elements

of game mechanics to make educational software

more attractive. This approach, dubbed “chocolate-

covered broccoli” was widespread in 1980s and still

found nowadays (Chen, 2016). More resent research

efforts aim to decompose games to find individual

“fun factors”, contributing to the overall enjoyability

(Sweetser and Wyeth, 2005). These works often

emphasise relatively subtle factors such as

concentration, challenge or immersion rather than

colourful animation or fun characters. The difference

is exemplified by well-known edutainment titles

MathBlaster and DragonBox Algebra. With regard

to pure game experience (let us ignore the

educational value for now), MathBlaster is often

criticized for simply being a bad game (Bruckman,

1999), while DragonBox algebra is praised by the

press for its high playability (Liu, 2012).

“To engage and entertain the user” can be the

only goal of a computer game, and designing a

successful game still is not an easy task. Educational

software also needs to meet pedagogical criteria in

terms of coverage and deepness of the underlying

materials. Many educational tools (and especially

educational games) are devoted to a single narrow

topic and therefore have strict limitations for

practical use. For instance, DragonBox Algebra is

designed for the sole purpose of practicing linear

equations. Given that linear equations is only a small

part of school algebra curriculum, it is difficult to

expect that educational software can cover the whole

range of topics in near future. Furthermore, game

developers doubt that everything can be turned into

a game. As Zach Barth puts, “they want a game

because games are fun, but they want it to teach all

of their course curriculum which is never going to

work” (Cameron, 2012).

In addition, acquired “game knowledge” should

be easily expressible in common real-world terms

and concepts. Recent experiments show that

DragonBox Algebra fails to achieve this goal: while

providing fun and engagement, it relies on a type of

visual formalism that is hard to connect with the

standard mathematical notation. The students who

use far less appealing educational tools score

significantly better on math tests (Long and Aleven,

2014) (Dolonen and Kluge, 2015).

2.2 Games for Conscious Learners

Another important factor is the support of

personalized teacher-independent activities. An

interesting report (Fincher et al., 2012) shows that

cases of teachers actively searching for the ways to

improve their teaching practices (whether it is a new

teaching method or a certain technology) are rare.

The most common source of change is direct

interaction with students, a result of teacher-student

dialogs, and observations of student attitudes and

achievements. This may indicate that educational

software can be targeted at potential learners without

emphasising classroom use or teacher support.

Good examples of such systems, aimed at

conscious learners, are flashcard software Anki and

the Duolingo language learning service. Anki is a

relatively simple flashcard organizer, and can hardly

be qualified as “edutainment”. However, learners

widely recognize it as a significant improvement

over paper-based flashcards; currently (January

2017) the Android version of Anki has millions of

installations, and is rated by around 28 000 users.

Duolingo (available as online service and as a

mobile application) implements some game-like

features, such as the system of ratings,

achievements, and unlockable learning materials, but

arguably is not “edutainment” either. However, with

over 100 million active users, Duolingo is massively

popular (Protalinski, 2015), and characterized by

some learners as “addictive” (Bogdan, 2016).

Neither of these services pretends to be a game,

instead trying to provide a relatively painless and

flexible user-centred learning experience. One of the

key features of such software is mobile platform

availability that turns learning into a leisure-time

activity: even several minutes of free time is enough

to accomplish a simple assignment and achieve

some progress. DragonBox Algebra also implements

this idea of representing the learning process as a

sequence of bite-sized activities; in general, this

approach is a characteristic of modern mobile

games, too. It is also interesting to note that both

Anki and Duolingo rely on traditional models of

language acquisition (flashcards, translation, reading

and listening), so a successful educational system

does not necessarily need to implement certain

“innovative” approaches to learning.

3 GRAMMAR AS A GAME

Our WordBricks system is based on a traditional

approach to learning natural language grammar as a

Learning Language Grammar with Interactive Exercises in the Classroom and Beyond

471

system of explicit rules used to combine words into

sentences. The principal problem we are trying to

address is the non-interactivity of grammar books

and exercises. A learner can see how to use certain

words in certain combinations using the rules

described in the given book section and test oneself

with a set of predefined exercises, but has no chance

to play with these words and rules. For instance, the

learner might want to try to substitute one word with

another, use a word in another context, or combine

two rules to formulate a more complex sentence.

Grammar books cannot provide a feedback loop,

which is essential for language learning: we learn

certain constructions, and then try to use them in

different contexts and with different modifications,

expecting others (the teachers) to correct us when

needed. Furthermore, it is important both to correct

grammatical errors, and to explain which rules are

violated in student-supplied sentences.

Our work is heavily influenced by Scratch

(Resnick et al., 2009), which is a system for learning

the basics of programming. Programming languages

have a grammar (albeit much simpler than human

languages do), so it is essential to understand how

individual instructions can be combined into

complex structures. Scratch expresses grammar rules

implicitly by representing instructions as blocks of

different shapes, so that only matching blocks can be

connected into a single structure. Such a “visual

grammar” is an appealing concept, since it shows

language rules in an explicit graphical form,

immediately understandable by the learners. Our

initial goal was to explore the possibility of

implementing the same concept for natural

languages. The idea to use shaped blocks to illustrate

grammatical phenomena is known (Ebbels, 2007),

but this concept needs a strict description to be

usable in a formal system, such as computer

software.

Having a set of shaped blocks, a learner can

combine them into sentences, and the systems of

shapes and connectors ensures that the resulting

constructions are grammatically correct (see

Figure 1). Unfortunately, words in human languages

may have numerous grammatical attributes (such as

part of speech, gender, person and number), so not

all of them can be encoded in shapes and colors

while keeping the overall picture clean and free from

graphical clutter. Therefore, we had to simplify our

visual grammar, leaving brick shapes as the only

visual clues (our first prototypes had additional

icons), and resorting to textual hints when the users

try to combine incompatible bricks of matching

shapes. Note that the learners also need to

understand sentence structure, since words are

connected according to their roles in a sentence (e.g.,

a subject and an object are linked to a verb, while

adjectives are linked to the corresponding nouns).

Figure 1: Example brickset of WordBricks.

The resulting system has two primary flaws. First, it

judges the compatibility of words on the basis of

their grammatical attributes, while ignoring

semantics. Grammar books, however, often rely on

semantical categories, for example, to describe the

choice of “a” vs. “the” or of present perfect tense vs.

past tense. Second, the system of bricks and

connectors is hard to adapt to non-projective

dependencies that rarely appear in English, but may

constitute up to 25-27% of constructions in some

languages such as Czech and German (Havelka,

2007).

Our current system does not emphasize game-

like features. It allows the learners to load bricksets,

which correspond to certain sections of a grammar

book, and to freely experiment with them. There are

plans to introduce scores and progress indicators and

other explicit game-like elements in future versions

of WordBricks.

4 CLASSROOM EXPERIMENTS

We consider the idea of “visual grammar” to be

applicable to a variety of languages, so WordBricks

is designed as a language-independent application

with interchangeable sets of rules and exercises.

Internally, they are stored in a human-editable XML

format, which allows us to quickly add and modify

exercises and grammar rules.

We conducted the first experimental study with a

group of 21 Japanese-speaking computer science

students enrolled in an elective English grammar

course (Park et al., 2016). The students were divided

into two groups, where the first group G1 (the

control group) studied two grammar-related topics

using a conventional textbox (Murphy, 2012), while

the second group G2 relied exclusively on

WordBricks, understanding the rules of English

grammar by playing with shaped words and sentence

CSEDU 2017 - 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

472

elements. For both topics, the WordBricks group

(G2) showed greater improvement, based on

comparing results with a pre-test and a post-test. The

average score of the WordBricks group (G2)

increased from 15.90 to 24.20 points (out of 30

possible) for the first grammar topic, while the

average score of the control (textbook) group (G1)

increased from 15.18 to 21.00. Subsequently we

conducted a similar experiment with a group of 16

students, where the average score improved from

17.13 to 20.69 for the control group, and from 17.94

to 20.31 for the WordBricks group (see Table 1).

Table 1: Results of the quantitative experiments.

Exp.

No.

Test

type

Group

size

Mean

score

Std.

dev.

pre-

test

G1 11 15.18 5.04

G2 10 15.90 4.43

post-

test

G1 11 21.00 5.80

G2 10 24.20 4.02

pre-

test

G1 11 6.00 2.72

G2 10 4.20 2.57

post-

test

G1 11 9.18 4.17

G2 10 11.60 2.84

pre-

test

G1 8 17.13 3.80

G2 8 17.94 4.64

post-

test

G1 8 20.69 2.91

G2 8 20.31 2.83

These results show that the application can be as

efficient as a textbook, at least, in some

environments. In addition, we collected student

feedback relating to usability the application and

enjoyment of their experiences. As one might

expect, we had some sceptical comments from the

students who were already sufficiently proficient in

their understanding of the rules of grammar and

needed to polish certain subtle points, rather than

playing with the basic sentence elements. Some

students also genuinely prefer books to any types of

mobile applications. However, many remarks were

enthusiastic, mostly from people who like computer

games and technology in general (e.g., “I like

fiddling with a tablet”, “WordBricks is like puzzle

games, and I enjoy to study and play games”.)

5 THE CASE OF IRISH

As we already mentioned, one of the principal

challenges of educational software is to have a

balance between entertainment and sufficient

educational value. We believe that WordBricks has

the potential to become a balanced system that

implements most basic grammar rules while

attracting the users with puzzle-like interaction.

Game-like aspects are especially important for

the learners with low motivation to study, and can

help to keep learner interest at an acceptable level.

Currently we are conducting experiments with

integrating WordBricks into Irish language classes

in the Republic of Ireland. In addition to the task of

adapting WordBricks to a language with a very

different grammar compared to English, we have to

deal with limited learner interest in the subject itself.

Irish is a compulsory subject in schools, but the

attitude towards the language is a complex issue.

The vast majority of people in Ireland are first

language (L1) English speakers, with only a very

small minority (3%) using Irish as a community and

household language (Government of Ireland, 2006).

These Irish speakers are bilingual (Irish/English) and

there is no communicative need to learn Irish

(Watson, 2008). Most Irish school children attend

English-medium schools, with only 6% attending

Irish-medium schools (Gaelscoileanna, 2016). While

the overwhelming majority of population of Ireland

(82%) believe that Irish should be taught in schools,

only 43% think that Irish is more important than a

foreign language. Many parents would like to see

their children learning a ‘useful’ foreign language

such as Chinese or Spanish. Furthermore, only 29%

of population believe Irish language education

should extend as far as to include some subjects

taught in Irish (Darmody and Daly, 2015).

Consequently, many learners tend to struggle

both with the language and with lack of motivation;

furthermore, parents often cannot help their children

with Irish as they are not proficient themselves or

have never learnt the language themselves (this

especially concerns immigrant parents). The

resources available to learners generally fall into two

categories: high-quality language resources with

limited interactivity or ‘fun’ resources that may have

inaccuracies. For example, the government-

supported organization Gaelscoileanna Teo provides

a website, irishforparents.ie, intended to support

parents whose children attend Irish-medium schools.

Its resources are of high quality, but for the most

part, static (although it has some interactive

vocabulary activities). WordBricks aims to provide a

high-quality, linguistically accurate resource that is

also appealing to learners. The Irish WordBricks

application is suitable for both traditional learners

(i.e., school-going children) and parents/adults.

The initial version of the Irish WordBricks

application deals with some of the basic constructs

of Irish that learners must master, yet find difficult

due to the fact that they have a different structure

Learning Language Grammar with Interactive Exercises in the Classroom and Beyond

473

than English. Most classroom-based teaching of

Irish follows the traditional model of books,

workbooks and teacher-led activities. These teaching

methods can have an impact on the motivation to

learn Irish (Hickey and Stenson, 2011). In recent

years, there has been greater emphasis placed on oral

and aural aspects of the language, but for students,

the lessons tend to be of limited interest and not

particularly enjoyable.

The Irish WordBricks application enables

learners to construct their own grammatically correct

sentences in Irish. It helps to reinforce the different

word order in Irish, as the learner cannot make

incorrect sentences, as only correct blocks will fit

into the required part-of-speech holder. For example,

“I have a hat” is “Tá hata agam” in Irish (literally,

“Is a hat with me”), and learners can find this

structure difficult, especially as they may try to map

the Irish words onto the English sentence structure

(see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Irish ‘have’ construction in WordBricks.

The initial version of Irish WordBricks has been

trialled by both parents and young learners. The

young learners reported that they enjoyed using the

application and they found it easy to use. They

thought it would be useful for learning Irish.

Without prompting, one young learner suggested

that there could be more vocabulary words so

students could make more interesting and longer

sentences (the initial version included a limited

vocabulary so that learners could focus on structure).

The young learners suggested that the application

could be used for learning various types of

sentences. When asked if they would use the

application out of school, they said they might and

that they would like a new topic each week.

Initial feedback from parents has also been

positive. Parents whose children attend an English-

medium participated in an Irish course for parents.

Some parents had spent 13 years learning Irish (in

both primary and secondary school), but had very

limited mastery or recall of the language. There were

also several immigrant parents who had never

studied Irish before, but they were usually multi-

lingual and were comfortable with other languages.

The parents enjoyed using the application and

thought it was a very good idea to have such an

application for Irish. Several parents reported that

they struggle to help their children with their Irish

homework and have tried in vain to find something

useful for them as parents to either revise their

knowledge of Irish or learn it from scratch in the

case of immigrant parents. They thought the

application would be very useful for their children

and would like their children to use it at home.

Several primary school teachers also reviewed

Irish WordBricks. They have extensive experience

of teaching Irish and are very aware of the need to

use modern tools and techniques in (and outside) the

classroom. They were positive about the application

and thought that it would be a useful tool in their

classroom. They liked the interactive element of the

application and thought it would appeal to their

students. Even though Irish WordBricks was initially

designed for a single user in an independent learning

situation, the teachers plan to use the application in

the classroom with their students. They will ask

students to form sentences using the classroom

computer so that all students can see and become

familiar with the grammatical structure being

studied.

The next version of the Irish WordBricks

application will incorporate new constructs

requested by the primary school teachers. It will be

deployed with students between 10-12 years of age,

and the application will be used during their normal

Irish language lessons. Our preliminary experiments

showed that both parents and children enjoy playing

WordBricks and think that such game-like approach

is helpful for them to deal with beginner topics. In

our turn, we are working to keep WordBrick

exercises consistent with actual school curriculum

and provide a practical instrument for the needs of

teachers and learners alike.

6 CONCLUSIONS

Designing good educational software is a complex

task that can be accomplished only if several goals

CSEDU 2017 - 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

474

are achieved. First, the educational system has to be

attractive, which may require gamification in some

cases, but at least it requires a pleasant and smooth

user experience. Interacting with a good program

should be a joy on its own. Second, it has to include

learning materials of sufficient quantity and quality

to justify the use of software rather than the

traditional medium. Third, it should provide a

personalized and teacher-independent experience.

Observations show that the learners, not the

teachers, often become the early adopters of new

technologies and new ways of learning.

We are trying to design a software tool for

practicing natural grammar rules based on these

principles. We introduce subtle gamification with

little visual effects but with a deeply integrated

model of user interaction; we are working on the

implementation of a sufficient number of

grammatical rules for novice learners, and have put a

heavy emphasis on independent, out-of-class

activities for learners. The preliminary experiments

conducted in Japan and Ireland are promising,

making us believe in the potential of such an implicit

game-like approach to the learning of natural

language grammar.

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