Urban explorations for language learning: a gamified approach to teaching Italian in a university context

The recent technological developments and widespread use of mobile technologies challenge traditional knowledge and skills, with language learning increasingly taking place beyond the language classroom in learners’ own environments. The paper presents the ImparApp study that focuses on a pervasive and gamified approach to language teaching and learning. The study investigated language learning with mobile devices as an approach to augmenting language learning by taking learning outside the classroom into the real-world context. The paper reports on the design, development and testing of an introductory Italian Language Learning game, i.e. ImparApp, that is developed with the use of MIT’s TaleBlazer authoring tool. Preliminary findings of the pre-pilot of the game prototype are drawing on data collected through participant observation of a play-test session followed by a focus group interview. The paper contributes to the field of mobileassisted language learning with insights on pervasive and gamified approaches to teaching and learning a foreign language.