Ben Pearson is an LTS graduate student originally from Salem.  Ben will graduate in summer 2015.

What is your MA project?

My project is a materials portfolio on how to use certain board and card games to teach negotiation skills to ESL learners. Essentially, this portfolio will give teachers some fresh ideas on how games can be used to teach and some sample activities to try out for themselves.

What inspired you to choose this topic?

One of my hobbies is playing analog games of all different kinds, but I was not sure if that could transfer over to a very robust MA project. I was taking a course on pragmatics at the time and one day the class discussed how games can offer several opportunities for learners to engage in authentic discourse and practice speech acts in a safe, fabricated environment. However, I noticed that there was a large amount of research done on digital games, not analog. From there, I knew that my topic could fill a gap in the research out there as well as give me a chance to bring one of my favorite hobbies into my work.

What has been most challenging about doing the project (or what advice would you give new LTS students about the project)?

One of the more challenging issues that I have run into is not getting sufficient needs analysis data for my project. I have not received as many responses to my survey as I would have liked, so I am now trying to get in touch with students that I have taught in the past to see if they would be willing to help me out. My advice is to manage your time effectively when it comes to your project and to have plenty of backup plans ready if anything goes wrong.

What do you like best about your project?

It gives me a chance to flex my creative muscles which have admittedly atrophied due to different obligations and assignments which require more linear thinking. I also like the idea that someone else could continue the work of my project in the future and create some activities based off of new games that have not been created yet.