Part I: Shoehorn Approach

I currently have two Japanese language memorization programs on my iphone, one for Kanji and one for vocabulary. Both programs (Japanese Flip and Kanji Flip) feature the same programming feature where when you correctly identify an answer, you see that question less often. However, if you answer a question incorrectly, you would expect to see that question again very soon. It's great except that it's difficult to know what kind of progress you've made. Moreover, it offers little encouragement to come back and continue your work. This is where video games come in... and the shoehorning of those elements come in. The two problems I mentioned are two problems that plague bad games and for those that have those problems solved, elevate the best games. For instance, a sense of progression is often achieved by a leveling system in video games. As you complete tasks, missions, etc, your game character gains experience points and levels up. Sure I'm slowly gaining in my Japanese ability as I use these two applications, but a nice progression bar with information on questions answered correctly would be nice. To bring it a step further, I would like to see abilities added as you level up. For instance, perhaps the player would gain experience point bonuses for each question answered in a row and at level 5, the player gains the ability to skip a question in order to preserve that streak. Another approach would be the inclusion of items. Get to level 2, win a new theme for your application. Get to level 4, win a little piece of candy. Answer ten food vocab questions correctly and you unlock a miniature chibi slice of pizza. Whatever... These types of hooks have been used in RPGs for quite some time with great success. Educational programs should be taking advantage of those ideas as well.