Sprachspinat toolkit by Sonja Eisenbeiß

The toolkit is a sustainable, multipurpose textile set designed for creating games for data collection and for pedagogical activities. It contains a cape, reusable hook‑and‑loop mats, attachable strips and shapes, ID holders, connectors and strings. Most materials are upcycled or reused, which makes lamination unnecessary and makes it easy to include and display natural materials such as plants, sticks or stones in games. A description of the toolkit and links to game instructions and research papers involving the games are available on the Sprache‑Spiel‑Natur website.

AI Games by Manar Ali

Participants can play either on a provided laptop or by scanning a QR code. In the game, participants describe a target image so that a vision-language model (VLM), acting as the listener, selects the intended referent from distractors. The linguistic focus is on reference resolution and figurative meaning (VLMs often struggle in this task). This allows participants to see whether the model resolves their expressions correctly and to reflect on the limitations of VLMs.

Linгвиstiks by Nicolas Pommier

Linгвиstiks currently takes the form of 36 wordplays mainly based on four Indo-European languages (French, English, German, Russian) and two alphabets (Latin and Cyrillic). Each card depicts a typographic layout of a wordplay on the front and a brief description on the back, which allows to address various questions regarding linguistics.

Open Science Game by Nelly Söling

Open Science Game is an interactive online game that provides insights into academic work and Open Access publishing. The game guides players through a series of decisions within the academic publishing process, highlighting the trade-offs between financial considerations, ethical questions, and academic reputation. Through a quiz-based format, it aims to foster reflection on Open Science practices and to illustrate different models of scholarly publishing in an accessible and engaging way. The game is openly available on GitHub.

Linguistenspiel by Sebastian Nordhoff

The topic is the journey of aspiring young researchers in linguistics, navigating research, publications, social life and motivation. Victory can be achieved via the formalist route, the typologist route, or by retiring after having trained a sufficient number of disciples. The game is best played with 2-3 players, but 4 players is also possible.

PhonetiX by Angelika Braun

The aim of PhonetiX is to test and enhance the students’ knowledge about phonetics. It is a board game of the Trivial Pursuit type and can be played by up to six students of different levels together. The playing cards are first sorted  into questions of level 1, 2, 3, BKA, “stay abroad”, and event cards, respectively. Each player also gets some “schwa chips” which can be used to “buy” an easier question. Players of a lower semester get one extra schwa chip for each semester below the highest present in the group of players. More information can be found in the Spieleanleitung (in German).

Syntagma by Katja Politt

Syntagma is a choose-your-own adventure book about syntactic analysis. It is designed for either self-study or in-class use. Readers embark on a journey through the mythical realm of Syntagma, where adventure awaits – the only way to be successful at reaching the lair of the Ancient Determinative Dragon is to gather knowledge about syntactic analysis! At different parts of the story, readers can choose how the adventure continues for them, by taking one of several alternative routes through Syntagma, while still being able to complete all the topics. The book is in German and available open access, as a hard copy for sale, and as an interactive webbook through the publisher website.