5 Educational Video Games to Practice Spanish
If you love playing video games for hours, it’s time for you to discover video games in Spanish!
We are sure that you will like them, not only because of how entertaining they are but also because they can significantly help you learn Spanish.
And if you are not a regular gamer, you will surely get so hooked on the stories and games that you will enjoy playing and learning a new language while having fun.
Are you ready? Let’s go!
Video Games, an Educational Tool for Language Learning
Learning a language happens naturally and is easier in a natural context, such as when you travel, talk to a foreign person, or play video games.
When starting a game, you will learn the names of the objects, places, characters, missions, etc.
And so, you will feed your vocabulary!
The best of all is that at the same time, you will be able to learn and reinforce your knowledge of grammar since, during the story of the game, texts or dialogues will appear.
While playing, you will read or listen to the words over and over again, so you will associate words with objects. You’ll learn without even noticing it!
Also, you will practice everything you learn in class while you play.
Games with online mode will help you interact with people who speak the language you are learning, making your conversation more fluent while having fun.
Video games effectively motivate students of a foreign language as they reduce the stress of practicing Spanish through real communication with other players.
Read also: 10 Ways Learning Spanish Can Improve Your Child’s Behavior
5 Educational Games in Spanish
No matter what level of Spanish you have or even how old you are, video games are excellent for putting into practice everything you have learned in your lessons.
In this article, we share some Spanish games to meet new people around the world and acquire new language skills while having fun.
Fire up your console, grab your controller, and let’s get started!
1. Pokémon Sword and Shield
Age group: 7 years and up
Proficiency level: Beginner
Available for Nintendo Switch at Amazon
In this game, you will begin your adventure as a Pokémon Trainer and embark on a journey where you will challenge other trainers while unraveling a big mystery.
Many people are familiar with Pokémon, the characters, and the main storyline. And thankfully, it’s not complicated to understand once you start the game.
We started this small list of video games in Spanish with this one because it’s a classic in gaming history, and the game difficulty is easy for any age.
Grammar is very simple; you can read and listen simultaneously. You will find very specific Spanish expressions and wordplays from Spain, but everything else is general language.
The only bump will be for you to understand attack names since they usually don’t have a literal translation.
The text that appears on the screen will help you understand how some words are spelled. You can write them down in a notebook and then practice creating new sentences.
Originally, the game is in English, but you can change it to Spanish in the settings.
2. Fifa 23
Age group: Suitable for all ages
Proficiency level: Beginner
Available for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox. Buy it here.
Everybody knows this game!
Its first release was in 1993, so several generations have played soccer with the most significant leagues, clubs, and players in the world with incredible detail and realism.
The newer version of the game lets you play as women’s club teams for the first time in EA Sports FIFA history, with the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 team, and Ted Lasso’s team AFC Richmond.
This game is famous mainly in the Spanish-speaking community since soccer is very important in the Spanish-speaking culture.
By playing it, you will be able to acquire knowledge about this sport and thus talk with your Latino friends or soccer fanatics and learn more about their sports culture.
In this version of the game, you will be able to change the language of the narrator of the matches. This will help you improve your listening skills and learn Spanish vocabulary.
In addition, the online option lets you to organize multiplayer tournaments with friends, students, or even with people from other countries.
Organize a tournament with your Spanish-speaking students and friends so they can interact or let them meet a Latino friend from another country through FIFA 23 as a final project.
How exciting!
We recommend: Top 5 Spanish Grammar Games to Improve Your Language Skills
3. Guacamelee
Age group: 10 years and up
Proficiency level: Intermediate
Available for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox. You can also buy Guacamelee 2 here.
There is nothing better than Guacamelee to learn about Mexican culture and traditions.
The story tells of La Calaca, the villain who returns to earth to kidnap innocent souls to rebuild his undead army.
In this game, you will learn about the luchadores, vocabulary and characters related to Mexico’s Day of the Dead, music inspired by instruments used by mariachis, and much more.
Augusto Quijano is in charge of all the design of the game. He was born and raised in Mexico, so you will see a lot of colors, jungle animals, farm animals, nature, and Mexican architecture.
With Guacamelee, you will learn many Mexican idioms and how to write them since, though the game doesn’t use any voice actors, there are many written dialogues.
To use this game to complement your Spanish lessons, you can make a glossary of all the new or strange words you know and come up with sentences with them.
Ask your students to tell you about what they learned about the world of the dead and which characters in the game stood out the most.
Have them investigate more about the Day of the Dead and what attributes, characters, ornaments, and decorations they find similar in Guacamelee
Get ready to dive into Mexican folklore!
4. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Age group: 10 years and up
Proficiency level: Intermediate
Available only for Nintendo Switch
Who does not know this fantastic game from the 80s?
Over the years, Link and Zelda have won the hearts of gaming fans throughout The Legend of Zelda series.
In this latest delivery, Link must explore the mysterious floating islands that appeared in the skies of Hyrule using his new abilities and reveal the secrets they contain.
This award-winning game should be on the top of your list if you want to practice your Spanish.
The lengthy dialogues will help you listen to the pronunciation. You can also read the text in Spanish and understand how to use grammatical rules.
As you progress through the game, you will receive clues, directions, and suggestions for actions to take. You’ll also learn how to say “potion,” “sword,” “glider,” and other words often used in this series in Spanish! How fun!
This will develop your bilingual and language comprehension skills as you will associate emotions and intonations with what is happening in the game plot.
We are sure that it is an adventure that you will love!
See also: Top 10 TV Shows Perfect for Kids Learning Spanish
5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Age group: 18 years and up
Proficiency level: Advanced
Available for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox. Buy it here.
The story of Skyrim is based on Nordic fantasy and mythology. Here you control Dovahkiin, who must defeat Alduin, a dragon that aims to destroy the world.
It is classified as an open-world RPG, so, according to fans, you will spend at least 100 hours to finish the game!
It is one of the few video games with audio and subtitles in Spanish, making it an excellent option to work on your bilingual skills.
Skyrim will help you work on your vocabulary skills. Often your character will pass near objects, so you’ll get to see what they are called, plus an action. Don’t be surprised if you can “Robar el pan” or steal a loaf of bread in this game.
You will also be able to practice your listening skills as the game has many spoken dialogues. In addition, you will interact with characters who repeat the same phrase repeatedly.
You will also learn to follow instructions through the texts in missions, their descriptions, and the objectives to be carried out to complete the task.
Although the game focuses on a fantasy world and the vocabulary you learn will not be relevant to your Spanish, it also has a multiplayer option so you can interact with other Spanish-speaking players.
Integrate Video Games Into a Language Learning Routine
We know that you must limit screen time to make progress with the rest of the tasks in your routine, such as work, chores, food, exercise, etc.
So, it is essential to create a list of which games you will use to reinforce learning Spanish and on which days you will play them.
Use a timer to remind you that your time on the console is up at a certain time, and continue with your other activities.
If you are a teacher, you can organize meetings with your students. Here they can their progress in video games and what strategy has worked best for them to meet other Spanish-speaking people.
They can discuss what words or phrases in Spanish they have learned and create a gamer glossary.
You can also ask them to share game techniques, which characters they like to use the most and why, what other games they are exploring to learn the language, etc.
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It’s Time to Play Video Games in Spanish!
There are many video games where you can change the language settings to Spanish and thus increase your interactions with the language.
Remember that all gamers are learning or developing skills while having fun, so you should just enjoy learning while playing.
Talk as much as you can with the people who play online and listen carefully to learn the correct pronunciation and diction of the words.
Playing video games in Spanish, it’s just the beginning of the road to become bilingual.
We also recommend you take classes to learn Spanish to communicate better while you play and add value to your professional and academic experience.
At Homeschool Spanish Academy, our teachers will help you to achieve your learner language goals and to learn video game interactions in Spanish.
With real human connection and innovative, human-centered learning strategies, you can speak Spanish from your first class!
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