PLOTLearner’s Persuasive Achievement: Force, Flow and Context in Technology for Language Learning from the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

Using B. J. Fogg’s Computers as Persuasive Technology (2003), this paper presents the achievement of PLOTLearner in terms of persuasive functions, intrinsic motivation and potential outcome for learners. First, it refines persuasive principles as persuasive content, force and outcome, applying Speech Act Theory. The persuasive principles subdivide into enablement and motivation, plus four orders of enhancing persuasive force. Secondly, Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of intrinsic motivation in flow developed into a new RAMP model inspired by Andrzej Marczewski, driving persuasive learning into a flow towards Relatedness through Autonomy and Mastery, once there is a commitment to Purpose. Third, the four core contexts for PLOTLearner are four expanding spaces which are learning objects. self-direction of learners, institutional facilitation, and social world.The strength of this open source technology is its ability to be repurposed to any corpus, language and learning culture. This is also its weakness, because flexibility calls for well-trained facilitators of persuasive learning.