Interactive role playing and games

Zapdramatic is a website that has a number of cartoon style and real film footage interactive role plays and simulations.  The viewer watches and listens to a story and makes choices about what the characters in the drama should do at certain points in the narrative.

http://www.zapdramatic.com/

Inside the Haiti Earthquake uses real photos and film footage from the 2010 disaster. The simulation can be acted out from the viewpoint of an aid worker, a survivor or a journalst. At various points in the film/ photostory the viewer must make choices as to what to do which then affects what happens next.

http://insidedisaster.com/haiti/experience

Inside the Haiti Earthquake.

Whilst neither Zapdramamtic or Inside Disaster is not designed for language learners and does not have specific language learning activies I feel that it has enormous potential for higher level students.  In terms of language points that could be exploited as a result of playing the simulations, conditional sentences and language are an obvious area. Discusssions about which choices to should generate a lot of spoken English from learners, especially the langauge of negotiation.

Unfortunately, much of the site is now a pay zone.  In addition to Inside the Haiti Earthquake which is free there is a 10 episode interactive mystery called Ambition which is well worth looking at and is also currently free.

This posting is a deviation from the normal ones as the sites mentioned here are not specifically designed for English language learners and learning. However, I feel that the potential for language learning offered by interactive simulations and games is enormous.

A final note. The content of the simulations means that they are probably not suitable for younger students.