English spelling is probably the worst nightmare of anyone involved in adult literacy – teachers and learners. The biggest challenge for any learner is to find out how they can learn: which strategies might work for each individual. i like spelling games, but i’ve yet to find the perfect example.
Recently
Sometimes we use games like Text-Twist (variants on Yahoo Games and Facebook) or Bookworm (ditto). There’s the same frustration of working with a machine, of course, and I’m suspicious of some of the words.
My personal favourite is an old version of Larry Parker’s Hangman 1.0 that used to be freeware and/or $15 US shareware. It’s an old dos desktop game from the late ’80s (I think) for VGA. But it has six word lists to choose from, all of which can be edited – by learners, quite easily – to create individualized spelling lists. (Putting it on multiple classroom desktops yields even more lists.) The hint function – which can also be edited – avoids the difficulty of words-without-context.
There are many other versions of hangman out there, but I’ve never seen one that was as flexible. Sadly, like many great DOS driven learning or text-based games – remember interactive fiction!?! – it seems impossible to find on the web nowadays.
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Text Twist is an exciting game and it is also educational. this game can also help in spelling and vocabulary.;,~