Designing Learning Games and Tools for Karelian Language - Considerations Based on Beginners' Experiences of Gameplay

Abstract

According to our knowledge, there are only few existing mobile games for learning Viena Karelian dialect and culture. Karelian is classified as a minority and endangered language. Different actions for revitalizing the Karelian language and culture have been made during the several past years in Finland and Russia. However, more effort is needed, especially to developed digital and easily accessible ways to learn and teach Karelian. This paper presents simple games developed for beginners to learn Viena Karelian. We also present findings from a small-scale user study. In addition, we propose a concept idea of the tool for teachers to create simple learning exercises.

Keywords

• gamification
• game development
• minority language
• karelian language
• serious games
• user experience
• viena karelian