Beyond Hidden Bodies and Lost Pigs: Student Perceptions of Foreign Language Learning with Interactive Fiction

Overall Description

Interest in digital game-based learning (DGBL) from researchers and educators has continued to grow and works such as Gee (2007a), Baek (2010), and Whitton (2010), make a strong case for the potential of video games for learning and how they may be implemented in the classroom. Recent publications on using DGBL for foreign language learning, particularly by De Hann (2005), Purushtoma, Thorne & Wheatley (2009), Reinders & Wattana (2011) and Mawer & Stanley (2011), have shown that despite the existence of challenges, the affordances of video games are in line with modern approaches to language learning pedagogy and are worthy of consideration for classroom application. This case study looks at how the retro video game genre of Interactive Fiction (IF), also known as text-adventures, was used with learners of English as a foreign language in order to provide them with an alternative method of practising reading for fluency in a meaningful, motivating and engaging manner. The research question that guided the study was: “Do learners perceive IF as an engaging way to practise English skills?”