1. Title
No idea yet; perhaps something including "real fun is real learning". I will get it later on
2. Background
Communication nowadays is mediated by virtual channels, which has made possible new
forms of learning and interaction. This fact, in turn, has created new spaces for the development
of identity, and for the connection of personal references with new social tendencies. Of
particular importance is the rise of internet and video gaming as dominant forms of interaction
among teenagers and young people. Through these channels, individuals are able to exchange
different kinds of resources while hanging out in a familiar context, generating an ideal space for
the practice of a second language. In internet, reading and learning becomes a byproduct of
working collaboratively toward common tasks and goals in a socially relevant manner, and
transcends in this way the use of second language learning just as a curricular obligation.
Learning through virtual tools is becoming appealing to teachers and educational planners,
constantly finding themselves striving to present their students with tasks that are both engaging
and meaningfully educational. As such, technology-enhanced learning becomes a valuable asset
towards improving the practice of a second language, or working within a specific domain, in
countries like Colombia, in which contact with foreign cultures and languages is not frequent.
Interestingly enough, parallel research could be established between Finland and Colombia to
observe how cultural practices may differ when mediated by a second language in a bilingual
context, and in what way are the vernacular shifted to suit the needs of online interaction.
I have done previous work using video games as a means to support classroom-based
physics teaching, observing the relationships that exist between types of interaction employed by
students and their performance in open-ended evaluations. I am deeply interested in merging the
benefits of using a digital platform with the potential of collaborative learning in the
development of a second language among virtual communities with diverse cultural
backgrounds. As such, I am interested in the existing relationship between bilingualism,
multiculturalism and video games. I would like to research the use of video games to build
multicultural communities for supporting a second language learning. An initial approach toward
researching about said topic would involve using easily accessible video games, to create
communities in which bilingual interaction is possible. Corredor & Gaydos (in press) studied
how the situated nature of gaming contributes to the development of second language
proficiency in non-bilingual contexts.
The authors observed the incidence of the English
language in common interaction between gamers, and set the potential of MMORPG´s as a
teaching tool in multicultural contexts. (more previous research pertaining to the topic here
briefly)
3. Theoretical framework
(I am centering myself initially in video games and education literature, and then move further
into a characterization of psychological cognitive processes in learning, and psychosocial
processes in second language acquisition and interaction. More to come).
Video game usage as a means to facilitate learning has increased in the past few decades,
together with an augment in research that backs its potential as a valid and meaningful teaching
tool. Contemporary schooling finds itself in the need of presenting pedagogical alternatives with
an increasing level of variability as a response to the wide offer of virtual resources learners
count with currently. These resources allow learner efforts to be refocused from a mainly textbased theoretical approach, toward a systematized study as a complement to traditional text-
based learning, where learner specific potential is exploited in pursuit of practical task
realization. Said tasks work as an educational base for concepts that are facilitated when
presented in a concrete and intuitive fashion.
Evolution of educational video game categories
The use of video games in the educational context is not a new issue. Its evolution begins
with edutainment, which provides a way to develop applications and electronic games which are
attractive to the learner, in such a way that academic achievements can be reached (Okan, 2003).
Edutainment refers to those games developed mainly during the decade of the 80´s whose aim is
to entertain, although educational components are contemplated (e.g. finding the suspect of a
crime based on evidence). Albeit an original proposal at its time, edutainment is the focus of
ample critique regarding, among others, its negative conception of learning as a process that
provides entertaining as a reward if the student is willing to "suffer from some education"
(Resnick, 2004).
Edutainment evolves to serious games, a category that presents digital games used with
different purposes to simply entertain (Susi, Johannesson, & Backlund, 2007). Serious games
introduces the possibility of experimenting with impossible situations in real life as a benefit
(due to safety issues, cost, time, etc.), as well as a positive impact on the development of diverse
abilities in players. Serious games contemplate platforms designed with educational objectives
specifically, being focused on specific contents. Said genre showed less strength in its offer of a
constant and motivating digital experience, although it was more powerful than edutainment in
terms of teaching.
Finally, smart gaming introduces the possibility of modifying the environment players
are immersed into in such a way that abilities that can be extracted to the real academic context
can be put in practice (Young, 2010). In smart gaming, typically negative factors in video games
related to content are left aside (e.g. explicit violence), and learning and drilling are emphasized
in a language that can be easily handled by both teacher and player. Smart gaming aims at
current tendencies in digital education that contemplate video games as powerful educational
tools when located within adequate instructional conditions and supported with other type if
pedagogical intervention.
Use of video games as alternative teaching tools
New technologies offer a wide array of advantages in learning. Some of them are
introduced here. First, they allow an immersion in a new world at such a level that it introduces
a new form of interaction (Steinkuehler, 2006). Reaching such an immersion in a learning
context as provided by video games is an advance in terms of teachers´ classically evasive goal:
achieving a level of engagement such that it feels familiar and interest toward the content and
practice are spurred. This way, utilizing a video game that allows the player an unprecedented
control, and allows the player the option of moving freely and taking decisions that challenge the
player´s capacities, enables the player to face problems from different perspectives and feel the
need of solving them using advanced processing strategies (Griffiths, 2002).
On the other hand, video games enable teaching processes to be focused on specific
abilities related to concrete areas of performance (e.g. mathematics, vocabulary) in specific age
intervals (Jaipal & Figg, 2009). Some of the abilities facilitated by an educational video game
practice are spatial visualization, reaction time to stimuli, and viso-motor coordination (Griffiths,
2002). Meaningful advances can be reached by introducing the student in specific practice
contexts in regards to information seeking and processing, and swift decision taking - in a way
that transcends the possibilities of achieving it within the traditional classroom (Steinkuehler &
Williams, 2009). Additionally, video games allow a development in abilities such as real-time
problem solving with an employment of failure in a safe context as a feedback tool, and in
language skills derived from the need of discussing and sharing information, give and follow
instructions, answer queries, etc. (Griffiths, 2002). Video games result profoundly useful by
presenting the student feedback such that it enables him to be aware not only his mistakes, but
also of his potential. James Paul Gee introduces the digital game based learning (DGBL)
highlighting its benefit in presenting a myriad of possibilities associated to learning and potential
development in the player, by means of presenting varied levels of demand according to
performance (Gee, 2005b). Players acquire the power to define the final stages of the problem in
games that present open-ended tasks. They present a new way to evaluate learning, traditionally
done within the classroom with close-ended tasks that lead to a single result (or truth). This
difference allows an impact on students with different learning styles, and may be a potentially
useful tool for school use (Pretz, Naples, & Sternberg, 2003). Additionally, open-ended tasks
enable the development of synthesis skills and exploration for situations of students in which
employing closed-ended tasks (e.g. multiple choice) applied in traditional school systems does
not result effective for learning.
In parallel to this, learning centered in an open narrative in some video games enables the
possibility of developing identity in the player at multiple levels. The player is introduced into
the virtual world the game presents, and must learn how to move freely within it and adapt to its
rules to be able to grasp its logic fully it and be accepted by other players. Thus, the experience
of being within the culture is modified for the player (Steinkuehler, 2006). Through situated
learning, a deep immersion into the game can be exploited (Gee, 2005a), enabling doing and
creating (in opposition to teaching through abstract representations). The video game achieves
making the environment in which the player is introduced to be as real as possible, thus
mediating between scientific and mental models. A greater compromise with the task is thus
achieved (without causing an excessively high pressure on the player, which facilitates learning).
Additionally, the fact of knowing that their own acts entail an impact on the virtual world
contributes to build agency in the person (Gee, 2003).
Squire (2002) states that video games function as possible spaces for exploring,
inhabiting and dominating experience trajectories that form the base of new abilities, ideas, and
identities.
Thus, employing the video game can not only be directed toward reinforcing
classroom learning, but also toward empowering the development of students in external
contexts both informal and collaborative. Success in this in-depth immersion is related to the
fact that the virtual world, and particularly that games with a massive player participation
(MMOG), have become gradually fundamental spaces of everyday interaction.. The concept of
third place (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006) justifies the role of the video game in social life of
teenagers in contemporary society. The authors state that the virtual third place is a space that
enables tension-free interaction in neutral ground, which is acquiring a more relevant role in
contemporary societies than "third places" in the real world. Participation in games as third
places becomes fundamental for defining individual identity (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006).
For this same reason, students begin to outline their disciplinary interests by developing hints of
possible professional selves that will define the student´s future paths (Beier, Miller, & Wang,
2012). Thus, early exposition in boys and girls to video games with positive roles toward critical
areas of scientific development (such as mathematics) and social development (such as language)
acquires importance.
Pedagogical concepts underlying video games and learning
The following pedagogical and psychological concepts underlie learning within video
game contexts. As mentioned earlier, video games have a positive effect in the learning process
in that they possess certain characteristics that allow students not only to experience a space
where they count with an unprecedented freedom in academic practice, but also to allow them to
develop in contact with an environment with an increasing importance in human interaction.
(in here Im gonna introduce SRL applied to digital learning, collaborative learning, some psycho
development perspectives on learning, and more).
4. Aim and objectives
- Observing how different types of interaction employed within online gaming contexts (e.g.
MMORPG´s, discussion boards, forums) generate a sense of community mediated by
multicultural variables. Assessing how characteristics of online video games assist language
acquisition. Like game complexity (difficulty of obstacles presented, character development)
and fun as predictors of broader language learning? Humorous content correlates with language
learning?
P2P interaction with native speakers vs interaction with foreign speakers.
Accomplishment and teamwork as predictors of language learning? Emotionally loaded games
as predictors of language learning (and other content-wise like violent, educational, real-time
strategy)? Engagement?
- Determining benefits and risks of learning a second language in bilingual communities
producing non-standard language practices (e.g. code-switching, abbreviated language), and
observing the incidence of gaming in said practices.
- Observing emergent social and intellectual activities undergone commonly in the midst of an
online gaming context (e.g. collaborative problem-solving, literacy practices, identity
construction, situated meaning). Potentially ethnographic. Nice!
- Strengthening the conception of diverse learning environments as more open and culturally
sensitive.
5. Research methods
Data recollection could be conducted via observant participation, online interviews and selfreports, and online questionnaires evaluated mainly qualitatively using both codification of
interactions and interpretation of explicit learning outcomes to determine the advantages and
challenges of participating in gaming contexts when trying to develop second language mediamediated literacy. Likewise, game forums and other contexts of player interaction will be
followed according to set standards for data collection. (still dont have the full scope of it, as it
will probably be mostly qualitative. I know I want to delve deep into interactions and selfreports of fun, etc.) Participants will be X people for which English is not their mother tongue
who have played or are currently playing one of the games to be analyzed. (Perhaps determine
an age interval? Educational level? Gender?)
6. Timetable
(No idea initially. Since all the data is going to be gathered online, there is no limitation as to
when can it be done. I will develop a tentative theoretical framework first in probably 2 to 3
months, and then start with data collection. Hopefully by September data will be ready, and
analysis will begin. I expect to finish the thesis by December 2015 in its initial phase, and then
proceed to polish it.)
7. Expected results and possible risks
Results from the present study will further broaden perspectives on the effectiveness of using
video games and other digital social media as a crucial means to strengthen second language
acquisition, while providing insights on the appearance and treatment of non-standard language
practices in video game contexts. This way, effort can be placed in designing educational
serious video game content in such a way that language development potential is maximized
while keeping the platform attractive enough for players to have legitimate fun in its practice.
Likewise, an evolution of contemporary language practices can be observed and attributed to
interaction types within video game contexts. (more to come; the possibilities are broad)
8. Ethical issues
As participants will probably (and preferably) be over 18, there will be no need for informed
consents. Nonetheless, if there are underage participants, informed consents will be provided to
caretakers online, as all the data will be gathered in online contexts. Also, potential participants
will be informed of the research purpose of the present study and of their participation, and data
anonymity will be recorded in the presentation prior to interview and questionnaire filling.
(more on this also later, when I realize more potential implications to the research)
References
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