Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T06:55:28.091Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Recurrent languaging activities in World of Warcraft: Skilled linguistic action meets the Common European Framework of Reference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Kristi Newgarden  and
Dongping Zheng
Kristi Newgarden
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut (email: [email protected])
Dongping Zheng
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii (email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this study of affordances for second language (L2) learning in World of Warcraft (WoW) group play, we compared three gameplay episodes spanning a semester-long course. Applying multimodal analysis framed by ecological, dialogical and distributed (EDD) views (Zheng and Newgarden, forthcoming), we explored four English as a second language learners’ verbalizations and avatar actions. Players learned to take skilled linguistic action as they coordinated recurrent WoW gameplay activities (questing, planning next moves, traveling, learning a skill, etc.). Frequent activities matched Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) speaking proficiency descriptors, used widely in L2 teaching and learning (L2TL), providing evidence that players engaged in the types of communicative activities interaction-oriented classroom approaches develop. However, in the WoW context, interactions were not planned, but emerged as players dynamically directed the course of play. Furthermore, modalities of avatar-embodiment and conversing over Skype allowed players to flexibly integrate language and actions to co-act toward game goals, discuss non-game topics during play, or demonstrate comprehension with avatar actions alone, an affordance for less verbal players. This research builds on previous work (Zheng, Newgarden & Young, 2012) relating WoW’s multiplayer activities and L2 learners’ skilled linguistic actions. We refer to Chemero’s (2009) model of the animal-environment system to explain how L2 learners develop abilities to take skilled linguistic action by acting on affordances in WoW. The EDD framework presented may enable other researchers to account for more of the complexities involved in L2 learning in multimodal, multiplayer virtual environments.

Keywords

multimodalitymultimodal and dialogical analysisskilled linguistic actionavatar-embodimentCEFR
Type
Regular papers
Information
ReCALL , Volume 28 , Special Issue 3: Multimodal Environments in CALL , September 2016 , pp. 274 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning 2016 

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

Cambridge ESOL (2011) Using the CEFR: Principles of good practice. http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/126011-using-cefr-principles-of-good-practice.pdf Google Scholar
Chemero, A. (2009) Radical embodied cognitive science. Cambridge: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chik, A. (2014) Digital gaming and language learning: Autonomy and community. Language Learning & Technology, 18(2): 85–100.Google Scholar
Council of Europe (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre_en.asp Google Scholar
Cowley, S. J. (2012) Cognitive dynamics: Language as values realizing activity. In Kravchenko, A. (ed.), Cognitive dynamics and linguistic interactions. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 1–32.Google Scholar
Gee, J. P. (1990) Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses, critical perspectives on Literacy and Education. London: Falmers Press.Google Scholar
Gee, J. P. (2008) Video games and embodiment. Games and Culture, 3(3–4): 253–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodges, B. H. (2009) Ecological pragmatics: Values, dialogical arrays, complexity and caring. Pragmatics & Cognition, 17(3): 628–652.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linell, P. (2009) Rethinking language, mind, and world dialogically: Interactional and contextual theories of human sense-making. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.Google Scholar
Maturana, H. and Varela, F. (1998) The tree of knowledge. Boston: Shambala Press.Google Scholar
Newgarden, K., Zheng, D. P. and Liu, M. (2015) An eco-dialogical study of second language learners’ World of Warcraft (WoW) gameplay. Language Sciences, 48: 22–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, D. S. (2010) Second language pragmatic socialization in World of Warcraft. (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Panichi, L. (2015) A critical analysis of learner participation in virtual worlds: How can virtual worlds inform our pedagogy? In F. Helm, L. Bradley, M. Guarda and S. Thouësny (eds.), Critical CALL – Proceedings of the 2015 EUROCALL Conference, Padova, Italy. Dublin: Research-publishing.net, 464–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, M. (2012) Learner interaction in a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG): A sociocultural discourse analysis. ReCALL, 24(3): 361–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, M. (2013) Computer games and language learning. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piirainen-Marsh, A. and Tainio, L. (2009) Collaborative game-play as a site for participation and situated learning of second language. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 53(2): 167–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rankin, Y. A., McNeal, M. K., Gooch, B. and Shute, M. W. (2008) User centered game design: Evaluating massive multiplayer online role playing games for second language acquisition. In Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Video Games. New York: ACM, 43–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rankin, Y. A., Morrison, D., McNeal, M. K., Gooch, B. and Shute, M. W. (2009) Time will tell: In-game social interactions that facilitate second language acquisition. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games. New York: ACM, 161–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, E. S. (1996) Encountering the world: Toward an ecological psychology. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Reinders, H. and Wattana, S. (2014) Can I say something? The effects of digital game play on willingness to communicate. Language Learning & Technology, 18(2): 101–123.Google Scholar
Ryu, D. (2013) Play to learn, learn to play: Language learning through gaming culture. ReCALL, 25(2): 286–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, E. (2010) Mind in life: Biology, phenomenology, and the sciences of mind. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Thorne, S. L., Fischer, I. and Lu, X. (2012) The semiotic ecology and linguistic complexity of an online game world. ReCALL Journal, 24(3): 279–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Lier, L. (2004) The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wigham, C. R. (2012) The interplay between nonverbal and verbal interaction in synthetic worlds which supports verbal participation and production in a foreign language (Doctoral dissertation). Clermont-Ferrand: University Blaise Pascal. https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00762382v2 Google Scholar
Woods, D. and Fassnacht, C. (2012) Transana v2.53 [Computer software]. Madison: The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.Google Scholar
Zheng, D. P. and Newgarden, K. ( forthcoming) Ecological, dialogical and distributed language approaches to online games and virtual environments. In Thorne, S. L. and May, S. (eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education (Vol. 9: Language, education and technology) (3rd ed.). Boston: Springer.Google Scholar
Zheng, D. P. and Newgarden, K. (2012) Rethinking language learning: Virtual worlds as a catalyst for change. International Journal of Learning and Media, 3(2): 13–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zheng, D. P., Newgarden, K. and Young, M.F. (2012) Multimodal analysis of language learning in World of Warcraft play: Languaging as values realizing. ReCALL, 24(3): 339–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zheng, D. P. (2012) Caring in the dynamics of design and languaging: Exploring second language learning in 3D virtual spaces. Language Sciences, 34: 543–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar