Assessing Aptitude for Learning with a Serious Game for Foreign Language and Culture

The Tactical Language and Culture Training System is interactive environment for learning foreign language and culture, designed to help people quickly acquire spoken communication skills. It is a serious game, combining interactive game experiences as well as interactive lessons. As part of our research, we wish to understand what individual learner characteristics predict successful learning with this approach, and investigate whether the approach can be improved so that a wider range of learners can learn effectively with it. This paper reports on an experiment, to assess which learners learn most effectively with TLCTS, and attempt to identify the individual factors that predict successful training with TLCTS. A group of US Marines participated in a session of focused training with Tactical Iraqi, an Iraqi Arabic course designed for military use. Performance scores and interaction logs were analyzed to determine which learners were most successful, and why.