Phoneme Showdown! – Using Games to Improve Learning Motivation for Linguistics Students

Abstract

Researchers in the field of linguistics use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as a universal reference to specific speech sounds in human language, which helps them communicate new findings in cross-linguistic contexts. However, the IPA chart is quite extensive, and learning the symbols on this chart may seem boring or difficult to newcomers. Existing resources for studying the IPA online usually serve as reference sheets or simple quizzes. In this paper, I describe the creation of a prototype for a game which both improves learning outcomes for linguistics learners and motivation for learning. I describe the development and architecture of the prototype, and discuss possible improvements and connections to educational research.