Keyword: «visual novel»

The issue of teaching foreign language business communication to IT students is a quite challenging task due to a lack of organizational and methodological resources allocated to minor disciplines within curricula, as well as current educational trends: digitalization and the evolution of student-centered approaches. The purpose of the study is to test the effectiveness of the visual novel as a tool for teaching business communication in the context of the previously noted current trends. The research method is experimental learning based on gamification. Visual novels can be a useful tool for developing communication skills. Compared to conventional interactive classes, visual novels have a number of advantages in terms of educational process organization. They do not have such restrictions as the complex and time-consuming preparation of lessons, limited classroom time, the need for a certain number of participants, etc. Responding to modern education trends and social demand they not only productively implement the ideas of alternative teaching methods, but also create environment that evokes an emotional response in a certain target group, stimulates learning motivation, and makes it possible to demonstrate the importance and continuity of business communication in a time perspective. Since IT training in most cases does not include business communication course, it can be included as a part of other discipline and/or a module, and it was decided to conduct the training within a basic EFL course. At the current stage of the experiment, there is generally positive dynamics. The prospect for further development of such educational resources can extend to specialties for which business communication is not one of the core activities, as well as transferring into a public format.

Visual novels are becoming increasingly popular by combining elements of books, comics and film into one interactive genre. They appeal to audiences because such games allow them to influence the development of the story and are not solid, dry text. More and more independent developers are interested in creating their own game of this genre. This article presents the basics of visual novel development using the Ren'Py framework as an example.