Assignment PaperPost Activity: Instructional CD Review

Name: Franco, Chrysia Rosalinda B. Date: July 27, 2009 INTRIST Section: S21

Merriam-Webster’s spell jam game is a game wherein the player will play against the computer or another human player. The game consists of spelling skills and vocabulary skills suited for the elementary students. Elementary students will not have difficulties in trying to spell the words. In fact, they will also learn new words and their meanings.

Educational value in this game is highly recognized than the entertainment value. Educational value may be recognized in their features, like the spelling, vocabulary, history of the word and how the word is used in a sentence. If the player can’t hear the word, he or she can ask to repeat the word. Hearing the pronunciation of the word will teach the student on how each word must be pronounced. Next, if the player can’t still hear it, he or she may ask for the meaning of each and the history or how the word should be used in a sentence. If you do not have these skills, you will probably lose in the game. One thing that is very good in this game is that when you ask to repeat the word, the player in the game uses magic words. The sentences, “Can you please repeat the word” and “Can you please use it in a sentence” are sentences that are very polite. Elementary students who play this game will learn how to be polite.

On the other hand, Entertainment in this game is still valued but the features are more on educating the person. Entertainment in this game is recognized via the animations, sounds and colors. Animations can be seen when the player will be put on the stage to spell a word, when he or she spelled it wrongly and the like. Playing this game with sounds is must, because if you play this without it, you won’t be able to spell it correctly and you will lose. The player should also know to read the words because other features need this kind of skill. This game having too much color is very entertaining for the elementary students.

For logical version of this kind of game, I would suggest to make a Filipino version of this game. Having the localized version of this game is appropriate for kids in elementary students who have Filipino subjects, since they are the real target of this kind of game. This is logical for the elementary students because there are Filipino words that are not easy to understand and must-to-know words for the Filipino elementary students. It may not be as easy as the English words but the basic language that the Filipino students must know is their own language which is Filipino. As a college student, I could say that there are still Filipino words that I do not know, words that are already ‘buried’ and not used all the time. Being a Filipino, we must know our own culture especially the language culture. I wish that if the localized version of this game will be made, magic words will still be there.