Karelian language and culture:a qualitative user study of mobile and web games

• Main Authors: Arhippainen, L. (Leena), Alavesa, P. (Paula)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2021
• Subjects: Karelian culture; Karelian language; Minority languages; Revitalization; Serious games; User study; karelian
• Online Access: http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2022012610327

Abstract Revitalizing endangered minority languages is important from the perspective of preserving cultural diversity. Games and gamified application can provide ways to support learning minority languages and their dialects. We present user experience insights from a small-scale user study conducted for a selection of freely available Karelian language and culture related games. By sharing our findings, we want to raise discussion about how gamification and serious games can help in revitalizing minority languages such as Karelian language. It is important to find out different ways for co-creation and cooperation in minority language also from the perspective of game development. For this study we recruited five participants, whose age varied between 4 to 72. The reception of games depended on the previous experiences of Karelian language and personal history. We noticed that the expectations for learning games vary with different aged participants.