Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is twofold: (1) to review the benefits of digital game-based language learning (DGBLL), specifically massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), and (2) to present research investigating the design elements of MMOs that can be beneficial for second language acquisition (SLA). Data were gathered from volunteer ESL learners playing the MMO Guild Wars 2 over the course of four weeks. The findings from the research indicate that MMOs with design elements like Guild Wars 2 are beneficial to SLA primarily because they provide opportunities for interaction in the target language through participation in collaborative problem-solving gaming tasks. The results of the research presented in this chapter show (1) that the requirements of input and output for successful gaming allow for a type of interaction in which the focus on language form leads to modified-output, (2) that players have opportunities to negotiate input as a means of completing in-game tasks, and (3) that in-game tasks resemble well-designed classroom instructional tasks believed to be beneficial for SLA.
TopIntroduction
Digital game-based language learning (DGBLL) has continued to receive much attention in the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) over the past several years. This attention appears to correlate with the immense growth of the digital game industry. In 2019 alone, two billion gamers spent over 150 billion USD (Wijman, 2019), and in order to reach a global audience, game developers often release games in several languages. The option for games to be played in multiple languages has provided opportunities for meaningful target-language interaction and access to rich sources of second language (L2) input for learners who choose to play games (see Reinhardt, 2019). In this chapter, the term L2 is meant to indicate any language other than a learner’s first language and includes foreign language contexts as well. The term L2 gamers (Reinhardt, 2019) has been used to refer to individuals who engage in gaming specifically to develop an L2, and L2 gaming refers to the process itself. In addition to online games that connect L2 learners to native speaker communities around the world, there are offline single player games that can provide meaningful L2 interaction. Games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim, both of which can be played in nine different languages, offer vast virtual worlds with hundreds of realistic automated characters that are voiced by real-world professional actors and actresses.
Support for second language acquisition (SLA) through L2 gaming has been found to be generally favorable in the current DGBLL literature. In a meta-analysis of DGBLL, Dixon, Dixon, and Jordan (in review) aggregated the effects reported in both published (e.g., journal articles) and unpublished (e.g., theses and dissertations) research. They found that, for between-group designs, DGBLL had a small to medium effect (Cohen’s d = 0.50) and a medium effect for within-group designs (d = 0.95). These effect sizes were interpreted based on Plonsky and Oswald’s (2014) effect size benchmarks in L2 research. Dixon et al. also found that games designed for education and those designed for entertainment both had positive effects on SLA. Further, Dixon et al. found that educational games were less effective than entertainment games. That is, entertainment games had larger effect sizes than games designed specifically for education. Researchers have hypothesized that entertainment games are likely more conducive for L2 development because educational games can lack authenticity and meaningful L2 engagement (Thorne, Fischer, & Lu, 2012; Reinhardt, 2019). Given these findings, DGBLL research can gain insight and direction through investigations into the L2 learning potential of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) designed for entertainment, which was the aim of the research presented in this chapter.
MMOs are played online with hundreds of gamers around the world participating in massive shared virtual spaces. In a scoping review of L2 research on MMOs, Jabbari and Eslami (2019) reported that this genre of games can provide L2 learners with lower anxiety, higher motivation, increased willingness to communicate and risk taking in an L2, among other benefits. In an earlier qualitative synthesis of MMO L2 research, Peterson (2016) reported that DGBLL researchers often frame their studies around cognitive and sociocultural theories and that MMOs can allow L2 learners to collaborate, socialize, and co-construct meaning in an L2, framing L2 development and use around the sociocultural interpretation of Vygotsky’s (1978) zones of proximal development (p. 1184). While such findings do appear to have created some warranted excitement for L2 learning through MMOs, issues around the current literature’s generalizability have been raised. To this point, Reinhardt (2020) warns of the limited generalizability that the current DGBLL research may be facing:
Many L2TL (second and foreign language teaching and learning) professionals, educators, administrators, and researchers alike, may not have adequate knowledge about how games are designed – in particular, how game mechanics, titles, and genres differ and relate to one another … especially if they have little situated experience playing games themselves. The claim may therefore be taken at face value, and the danger of an unqualified claim is that it does not explain exactly what it is about MMOs that makes them effective, and therefore what might be replicated in educational games or the design of gameful L2 learning environments (p. 1).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Form-Focused Feedback: Feedback from which learners are readily able to detect discrepancies between their own language and target language norms. This awareness allows learners to modify their existing second language knowledge.
Game Mechanic: An individual design element of a digital game that, together with other game mechanics, make up the overall player experience. Game mechanics can determine the actions that are possible for the player to take and can also determine the degree of language interaction required for completing game objectives and engaging in a game’s narrative (see Reinhardt, 2019).
Socio-Affective Strategies: Learning strategies that assist learners in working together cooperatively to solve problems, check learning, model language, obtain feedback, or offer suggestions.
Negotiation of Input: A process wherein learners come to an understanding through face-to-face interactions. Inn L2 gaming this process occurs when L2 gamers use environmental input to come to an understanding within the group.
Digital Game-Based Language Learning (DGBLL): The application and use of digital games for the purpose of developing a second language (L2).
Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOs): A term often used to refer to a genre of digital games. Games in this genre are typically played online with a large number of other players in real-time in a shared virtual environment. These games often include options to play competitively or cooperatively with other online players. Communication among players can occur through text messages or voice chat with voice chat being more popular in recent game developments.
L2 Gamers: Language learners who choose to play digital games in an L2 with the specific aim of improving their L2.