Utilizing Narrative Grounding to Design Storytelling Games for Creative Foreign Language Learning

Foreign language students must learn to use language creatively to overcome knowledge gaps and keep readers or listeners interested. However, few tools exist to support practicing this skill. Therefore, we set out to explore design of storytelling games for practicing creative language use. Through an iterative design process, we identified narrative grounding (establishing common ground for collaborative narrative) as key to student engagement and learning. However, designing games for narrative grounding while keeping the game flexible enough to easily accommodate teacher goals is challenging. Considering this challenge, we designed a collaborative storytelling game where students help scaffold the narrative and teachers can easily integrate language goals with "language cards". In an in-classroom evaluation with 36 students, we show the importance of narrative grounding for learning. Qualitative evidence also suggests narrative grounding makes the game more engaging for players. We conclude with discussion of design implications for digital language learning tools.