This is a wonderful paper, with well-documented research and significant potential societal implications in those locations where it is applicable. One of the authors’ theses is: “We believe [English as a second language (ESL)] learning games on cellphones can potentially address the challenges, especially when the cellphone is the fastest growing technology platform in the developing world that is reaching even the poor population.”

Kam et al. propose a receptive-practice-activation cycle as a key technique in developing such skills, and they demonstrate its utility in their study. After explaining the methodology, they use the work from five field studies to document the worthiness of their hypothesis and the format utilized. This research report describes an interactive parrot game, which was one of three response games the authors developed to teach the English alphabet on cellular phones. The original design of the parrot game went through two additional redesigns, and the research results are documented in this report.

This study and research report document extremely well the quality of the authors’ research and the merit of their findings, despite at least one minor grammatical error. Not only is there a fine bibliography, but Kam et al. point out which references were most helpful in developing their research and results, and gave the most meaningful insights into their work as it developed.

One of the authors’ most interesting conclusions is: “In particular, it appears that maintaining a distinction between learning and fun to some extent is necessary for effective designs.”

I recommend this paper to anyone with an interest in this or related topics. Although I have no real expertise in this particular subspecialty, I believe this research work might also have utility in countries with a more moderate background in technology, but with poorer populations, perhaps even including areas of the US.