Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T07:15:19.079Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Play to Learn, Learn to Play: Language Learning through Gaming Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2013

Dongwan Ryu
Dongwan Ryu*
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Albany, USA (email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many researchers have investigated learning through playing games. However, after playing games, players often go online to establish and participate in the online community where they enrich their game experiences, discuss game-related issues, and create fan-fictions, screenshots, or scenarios. Although these emerging activities are an essential part of gaming culture, they have not attracted much attention from researchers and only a few empirical studies have been done on learning through beyond-game culture. Language learning in particular has not been extensively researched despite the proliferation of game players who speak English as a foreign language within this community. To address how non-native English speaking (NNE) game players participate in language learning through game play and beyond-game culture, three generations of activity theories and a multiple-case study design were employed in this study. The asynchronous computer-mediated discourses were repeatedly reviewed, and email interviews with participants were conducted over three stages. The discourse analysis of interaction data and interview scripts showed how participants were engaged in language learning through gaming culture. First, words or phrases used in game play could be learned while playing games. Second, sentences or discourses could be practiced through interaction with native or more fluent peers in the online community after playing games. Third, these two types of engagement in gaming culture were closely related to influencing language learning through repeated practices and collaborative interactions. In conclusion, language learning through gaming is appropriately understood when ecological perspectives are adopted to look at both sides of gaming culture.

Keywords

gaming culturebeyond-game cultureecological perspectivesactivity theoriesa multiple-case studycomputer-mediated communication
Type
Research Article
Information
ReCALL , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , May 2013 , pp. 286 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Androutsopoulos, J. (2008) Potentials and limitations of discourse-centred online ethnography. Language@internet, 5(8): 1–20.Google Scholar
Ang, C. S., Zaphiris, P.Wilson, S. (2010) Computer games and sociocultural play: An activity theoretical perspective. Games and Culture, 5(4): 354–380.Google Scholar
Arnseth, H. C. (2006) Learning to play or playing to learn – A critical account of the models of communication informing educational research on computer gameplay. Game Studies, 6(1) http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/arnsethGoogle Scholar
Bampton, R.Cowton, C. J. (2002) The E-interview. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 3(2) Art. 9. http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/848/1842Google Scholar
Baran, B.Cagiltay, K. (2010) The dynamics of online communities in the activity theory framework. Educational Technology & Society, 13(4): 155–166.Google Scholar
Blin, F. (2004) CALL and the development of learner autonomy: Towards an activity-theoretical perspective. ReCALL, 16(2): 377–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boellstorff, T. (2006) A ludicrous discipline? ethnography and game studies. Games and Culture, 1(1): 29–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canagarajah, S. (2007) Lingua franca English, multilingual communities, and language acquisition. The Modern Language Journal, 91: 923–939.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creswell, J. W. (2007) Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches. CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Denzin, N.Lincoln, Y. S. (2000) Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Ellis, R. (2005) Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language: A psychometric study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27: 141–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engeström, Y. (1987) Learning by expanding: an activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit.Google Scholar
Engeström, Y. (2001) Expansive learning at work: toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1): 133–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gass, S. M. (2003) Input and interaction. In: Doughty, C. J. and Long, M. H. (eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 224–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gee, J. P. (2007) What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gee, J. P. (2008) Good video games + good learning. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.Google Scholar
Gee, J. P.Hayes, E. R. (2010) Women and gaming: The Sims and 21st century learning. New York, NY: Palgrave/MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasu, M.Engeström, Y. (2000) Measurement in action: An activity- theoretical perspective on producer-user interaction. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 53: 61–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herring, S. C. (2004) Content analysis for new media: Rethinking the paradigm. In: Proceedings of the 2004 New research for new media: Innovative research methodologies symposium. Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 47–66.Google Scholar
Jakobson, M.Taylor, T. L. (2003) The Sopranos meets EverQuest: Social networking in massively multiplayer online games. In: Proceedings of DAC 2003. Australia: Melbourne, 81–90.Google Scholar
Kaptelinin, V.Nardi, B. A. (2006) Acting with Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lantolf, J. P.Thorne, S. F. (2006) Sociocultural theory and the sociogenesis of second language development. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Long, M. H. (1996) The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In: Ritchie, W. C. and Bahtia, T. K. (eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition. New York: Academic Press, 413–468.Google Scholar
Mann, C.Stewart, F. (2000) Internet communication and qualitative research: A handbook for researching online. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meskill, C., Guan, S.Ryu, D. (2012) Learning languages in cyberspace. In: Yan, Z. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Cyber Behavior. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 1136–1144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nardi, B., Ly, S.Harris, J. (2007) Learning conversations in World of Warcraft. In: Proceedings of the 2007 Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science. New York: IEEE Press.Google Scholar
New London Group (1996) A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social features. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1): 60–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pennycook, A. (2007) ‘The rotation gets thick The constraints get thin’: creativity recontextualization and difference. Applied Linguistics, 28(4): 579–596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, M. (2010a) Massively multiplayer online role-playing games as arenas for second language learning. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 23(5): 429–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, M. (2010b) Computerized games and simulations in computer-assisted language learning: A meta-analysis of research. Simulation & Gaming, 41(1): 72–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, M. (2011) Digital gaming and second language development: Japanese learners interactions in an MMORPG. Digital Culture & Education, 3(1): 56–73.Google Scholar
Rankin, Y. A., Morrison, D., McNeal, M., Shute, M. W.Gooch, B. (2009) Time will tell: In-game social interactions that facilitate second language acquisition. In: Conference proceedings for the 4th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. New York, NY: ACM.Google Scholar
Reinders, H.Wattana, S. (2011) Learn English or die: The effects of digital games on interaction and willingness to communicate in a foreign language. Digital Culture & Education, 3(1): 4–28.Google Scholar
Ryu, D. (2011) Non-native English speakers’ multiliteracy learning in beyond-game culture: A sociocultural study. Journal of online learning and teaching, 7(2): 231–243.Google Scholar
Seay, A. F., Jerome, W. J., Lee, K. S.Kraut, R. E. (2004) Project Massive: A study of online gaming communities. In: Proceedings of CHI 2004, ACM: New York, 1421–1424.Google Scholar
Seidlhofer, B. (2005) English as a lingua franca. ELT Journal, 59: 339–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, K. (2005) Changing the game: What happens when video games enter the classroom? Innovate, 1(6) http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=82Google Scholar
Squire, K. (2011) Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Stake, R. E. (2006) Multiple case study analysis. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Steinkuehler, C. (2006) Why game (culture) studies now? Games and Culture, 1(1): 97–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinkuehler, C. (2007) Massively multiplayer online gaming as a constellation of literacy practices. E-Learning, 4(3) http://www.wwwords.co.uk/ELEAGoogle Scholar
Steinkuehler, C.William, D. (2006) Where everybody knows your (screen) name: Online games as “third places”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(4) article 1. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/steinkuehler.htmlCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinkuehler, C., Black, R.Clinton, K. A. (2005) Researching literacy as tool place and way of being. Reading Research Quarterly, 40(1): 95–100.Google Scholar
Thorne, S. L. (2008) Transcultural communication in open internet environments and massively multiplayer online games. In: Magnan, S. (ed.), Mediating discourse online. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 305–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorne, S. L., Black, R. W. (2007) New media literacies, online gaming, and language education (CALPER Working Paper Series, 8). University Park, PA, The Pennsylvania State University, Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research.Google Scholar
Thorne, S. L.Lantolf, J. P. (2007) A linguistics of communicative activity. In: Makoni, S. and Pennycook, A. (eds.), Disinventing and reconstructing languages. Multilingual Matters Ltd: New York, 170–195.Google Scholar
Thorne, S. L., Black, R.Sykes, J. M. (2009) Second language use socialization and learning in Internet communities and online gaming. Model (974): 802–821.Google Scholar
Williams, D., Ducheneaut, N., Xiong, L., Yee, N.Nickell, E. (2006) From tree house to barracks: The social life of guilds in World of Warcraft. Games and Culture, 1(4): 338–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yin, R. K. (2009) Case study research: Design and methods (4th Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar