Tablet Detectives: Teaching Narrative Fiction through a Digital Framework

Abstract

In second language (L2) writing courses, learners may be intimidated at the prospect of writing their own creative fictional narrative, often leading to writer’s block that can limit their in-class writing time. In order to counteract this writing delay, the researchers designed and created a cooperative digital game to use as a narrative framework, anticipating that learners would respond positively to the collaborative nature of the game, the novelty of its implementation (tablet computers) in a reading and writing course, and use the story to scaffold their own creative writing projects. The game was developed through two iterations that resulted in various changes to both the story and gameplay mechanics. The results of a final survey indicated that university L2 writers not only enjoyed playing the game as a way to practice reading and writing, but that most learners were also able to begin producing written text relatively quickly after completing it.