5 best games for learning English

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you like computer games, you can combine business with pleasure: play and learn English. The process is guaranteed to be addictive, especially if you choose the right game.

Foreword

Let's explain right away:

• we talk about the most common games, and not specially created for learning English;
• our arguments and recommendations are correct only if you play with the original voice acting and interface;
• games are useful for English, provided that you already have at least basic knowledge of the language. It's impossible to learn English from scratch solely through games.

Why games are good for your English

1. Games combine business with pleasure

This is not a school lesson where you are forced to read boring texts and it is not clear why to conjugate verbs. The game has a clear goal - to infiltrate a military base, eliminate a criminal, and solve the riddle of an ancient pirate colony. For the sake of such heroic accomplishments, it is not too lazy to sit and figure out what exactly they want from you in an incomprehensible language. Pause the game and look for translations of unfamiliar words. More importantly, the successful completion of the task evokes positive emotions in the player and encourages the continuation of the game and, as a result, further study of English.

2. Games teach you new words

New vocabulary constantly sounds in dialogues and flickers in the inventory. Words are easy to remember because of their frequent repetition, and also because they are really needed here and now.

3. Games are interactive

Unlike a movie or a TV series, in the game you willy-nilly have to interact with other characters: follow their instructions, select lines in the dialogue branches. Having performed any action, you immediately receive a response, including a verbal one. Shot with a pistol on a busy street? Hear the cries of "Call the cops!" Rolled right at the feet of a striker during a football match? The commentator will exclaim: "Oh, what a terrible foul!" In addition, games usually take much longer than films, on average 10-15 hours. Therefore, it is easier for gamers to get used to the pronunciation and voices of the characters, to begin to understand them better.

4. Games are varied

Medieval conflicts, futuristic wars, detective investigations, criminal showdowns - the list of stories goes on. The language in such games is very different: the accents range from the English uneducated peasants from The Witcher to the Californian dialect of teenagers from Watch Dogs 2. Sometimes even the grammar differs: somewhere the book language of kings using difficult English tenses prevails, and somewhere informal a street language that ignores even basic rules.

What games should you play

The last of us

The award-winning and critically acclaimed Naughty Dog title is a must for anyone learning English.

The voice acting is performed at the highest level, so the characters sound like real people. All the nuances of live speech were taken into account: accent (Joel is from Texas, so he speaks with a noticeable southern accent), shortness of breath (if the hero just fought off the zombies with difficulty, you will hear out of breath), diction (if the hero is talking to himself, then does it illegibly). You will hear real speech that is very different from what you hear on the tutorial tapes.

In addition to high-quality voice acting, The Last of Us has many interesting colloquial expressions, for example:

• Mumbo Jumbo - Chinese diploma;
• Now we’re talking - that's better;
• No sweat - do not sweat.

GTA 5

Why exactly one fifth? First, because it has three playable characters, which means three language samples. Secondly, GTA 5 is a game on a huge scale, in which you will encounter a lot of minor characters with different accents and language features. Franklin, by the way, speaks the so-called ebonics - American street slang used by some blacks and recognized as an equal language variety.

The game has a radio with its own talk shows, television, the Internet and even cinemas. However, be careful: the heroes of GTA 5 use an indecent amount of swearing. It is certainly useful to know them, but it is better not to use them.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The final part of Geralt's adventures is interesting in terms of the diversity of the English language. Most of the characters in the game speak with a British accent, but Geralt himself sounds like he's just returned from the United States. There is a lot of text in the game: descriptions of spells, potions, weapons, options for answers in dialogues. You will have something to read in English!

Heavy rain

Real interactive cinema. True, this game will not let you completely relax: it has a lot of dialogues in which you need to quickly choose the appropriate answers. Possible answers are usually one word. However, do not hesitate to pause the game and look into the dictionary: the cost of a mistake is too high, because any of the main characters can die.

The language in the game is simple and not very varied, so Heavy Rain is a great choice for beginners.

The Wolf Among Us

Telltale's games are cinematic stories with free choice. Their gameplay is reminiscent of Heavy Rain: action scenes are interspersed with branched dialogue. Telltale has released adaptations of Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Batman and several other games. However, we recommend the most interesting and mature of their creations - The Wolf Among Us.

The story of the werewolf Bigby, who lives in a harsh, albeit fabulous, world, is told in simple human language, and thanks to the style of comics, you can always understand what is happening on the screen.

Useful Tips

1. Play thoughtfully and actively: try to understand the plot, do not skip videos, check the meaning of unfamiliar words.

2. It is best to play in English those games that you have already played with Russian localization. This way you will remember what it was about at one point or another, and it will be easier for you to understand the original text.

3. If it is very difficult for you, you can use Russian subtitles. This will help you stay on top of what is happening and recognize the translation of unknown words. Be careful: localization is not always verbatim, some original phrases may not be translated very close to the text.

4. Most importantly, games alone will not help you speak English as well as a native speaker. A balance must be struck between the traditional academic approach (group sessions, grammar exercises, and so on) and the entertaining one. Therefore, games can only be viewed as a nice additional tool for language practice.