Exploring learners’ perceptions of the use of digital letter games for language learning: the case of Magic Word

In this paper, we present two versions of a learning game designed according to a strategy focusing on trying to suscitate a playful attitude on the part of the learner. The game's modalities could be described as stemming from the well known example of Boggle. The avatar chosen both exists as a commercial off the shelf game and as a learning game. We explain in this paper how the two versions respectively tackle two different aspects of language learning. We carried out an experiment in which students are confronted to both versions, we study their perception of both game contrastively, in order to prepare for the development of the next versions of the game.