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Dear colleagues, 
It's the time of year when I take stock of what has worked well for us
in the language resource center and what has not.  I thought I would
share a "find" with you.
 
One of our goals is to provide as many informal learning opportunities
to our international and language students as possible, i.e., our campus
is small enough so that we like to encourage them to "hang out" and mix
in the FLLRC  With this in mind, I've been purchasing a number of video
games; there was an interesting journal article on this topic: Ravi
Purushotma; Language, Learning & Technology, Vol. 9, 2005.
 
We have had great success with the Japanese game, Operator's Side
(Lifeline in English), a VOICE-ACTIVATED playstation game. This is an
anime type game, where the student has to save the life of a young
woman.  Lots of great vocabulary--directions, parts of the body. We
always gather a big crowd when we have a game going.  
 
It takes patience to setup the installation: 
1.  You have to order the game in Japan with USB mic/headset, which can
only be delivered to a Japanese address. One of my Japanese students
brought it back after our semester break.
2. You should purchase an American playstation 2 and get a get a Swap
magic CD with slide tool. We got ours at the following address:
 
http://ebayhotbuy.com/xcart2/product.php?productid=16166
<http://ebayhotbuy.com/xcart2/product.php?productid=16166&cat=250&page=1
> &cat=250&page=1
 
3.  We have compiled a list of commands that are used in the program;
this is written in Japanese, also includes a phonetic transcription and
an English translation to get less advanced students started.  PLease
feel free to email me if you would like a copy. I don't think I can
attach it to this email, otherwise I would.
 
Mary Toulouse
Director of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Resource Center,
Lafayette College
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