With Trivialang, the CIM enters the world of game-based learning

Recently launched, Trivialang is a free mobile app for students of English, French and German, which has been developed by the UOC Centre for Modern Languages in conjunction with Oberta Publishing.

Trivialang is based on the concept of game-based learning. Basically, the idea is that learner motivation, attention and engagement is enhanced through competition, which results in increased retention. This point is especially crucial in the case of language learning. In addition, as it is a mobile-based app, Trivialang allows users to play, practise and learn outside the confines of the classroom. And as the matches are short, it is ideal for short periods of “down time”, such as when players are on the train, underground or bus.

To create the game, a team of 12 English, French and German professors wrote a total of 15,000 questions organized in four categories. In this sense, it is similar to the well-known Trivial Pursuit, but the categories in Trivialang are:

• Grammar: tenses, pronouns, prepositions, word order, etc.
• Vocabulary: nouns, verbs, expressions.
• Communication: dialogues, communicative situations, formal vs. informal language.
• Culture: cultural aspects (art, music, literature, cinema, etc.) related to countries where the language is spoken.

Each question has four possible answers. Users must read the questions to answer them or, in some cases, they must listen to small excerpts of audio to practise their listening skills. At the end of every game, users can see how they and their opponents have answered, along with the correct answers so that they can see exactly where they went wrong.

Come on! Are you ready to give it a try?

Trivialang is available from Google Play and iTunes.