Players interact with virtual characters, objects, and data as they move around their real physical location whilst attempting to solve a time travel mystery. This chapter reports on an Italian language learning game, ImparApp, developed with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) TaleBlazer location-based game-authoring tool. Whereas the use of mobile technologies seems to challenge traditional knowledge and skills acquisition, research shows that foreign language study can be enriched through easy access to resources selected to suit individual interests or needs (Kukulska-Hulme, 2013).
Recent developments in mobile technologies have increased the ways in which languages can be learnt, both within and beyond the classroom. The tutor tools allowed the monitoring of how many days learners were active, how many lessons they completed, how many courses they completed, and how many points they were awarded while using Duolingo. A virtual classroom was set up within Duolingo Schools for each participating cohort of students and they were encouraged to use the app on a regular basis. The views of both learners and tutors of their experiences of using the software, and the tutor tools provided by Duolingo Schools, will also be canvassed. The project ran from January to April 2018 and explored whether a correlation exists between regular use of the app by IWLP learners at Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) level A1 of French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, and achieving a high formal coursework assessment mark.
How effective this approach is, however, has never been measured. One way of doing this was to use the language learning app, Duolingo, which helps students to gradually broaden their linguistic, professional competence, and digital fluency through increased learner autonomy. Each module is taught over 11 weeks for a total of one hour and 40 minutes and two of the weeks are used for in class tests, so tutors generally agree that students need to practise their skills outside the classroom in order to pass the module. Coventry University Institution Wide Language Programme (IWLP) offers beginners language learning modules to approximately 3,000 students.
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