Animal Crossing and literacy
Posted on: January 8, 2009
Chris Dawson blogged about how a Wii game, Animal Crossing, might promote basic literacy.
[Link to Animal Crossing website]
Using his children as examples, he shared how his 6-year-old wanted to read more as a result of playing this game. I can relate to that because I play games on the Wii with my son and he has to read to understand instructions on screen too. And like Chris, we read to (and with) our son before bedtime too.
I share his optimism and his view that any game that gets kids to want to read more is a good thing. I think that does not matter if the reading material is on paper or on a screen, although they are likely to read more on the latter in their lifetimes. And it helps that the game is kid-friendly in that it does not “involve blood, gore, sex, or drug use”.
He also recognised that the game was not designed specifically for reading, but was a happy coincidence instead. I like the fact that kids can interact with their peers over WiFi. They might then practice their literacy skills in social contexts. These are what games are good at: Informal learning opportunities rooted in engaging experiences. The concepts, skills, and even perhaps the values that the games promote can transfer into other contexts.
The educational gaming sessions that I will facilitate at the MxL will begin in about a month, but I do not have copies of Animal Crossing. Does anyone have a copy or know of generous sponsors? 
3 Responses to "Animal Crossing and literacy"
2 | heroonthebeach
January 8, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Oh yes Dr. Tan, the comment was posted by Andrew Chong. I got myself a WordPress account now, so I might be posting more using th is.
3 | ashleytan
January 8, 2009 at 8:29 pm
@Andrew… who’s there on the beach.
Welcome fellow WordPress user! I only started using WP last year and I wish I had much earlier. It has lots of nifty features. But I find its online interface sometimes takes a while to load, so I use an offline editor (Windows Live Writer).
As for games and literacy, I think that the “tricks” might become more mainstream the more digitally connected kids become. Then we might wonder how we ever managed by just reading to them at bedtime!
January 8, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Thanks for this post, Dr. Tan. I’ll be looking out for it.
We’re finding ways to help my Primary 2 cousin read. He really can’t sit down and read a book, but he can rattle off and pronounce all the names of the Pokemon characters so well. Reading habits really need to be cultivated from young.
But I think you highlighted an important point about informal learning opportunities. Reading is really a lost ‘art’ amongst many secondary school kids today, not just reading online but sustained reading. I can see games as being a very good way in which to ‘trick’ students to read if you integrate the games with different sorts of texts which they need to learn in order to master the game.