Blending Video Games Into Language Learning
Around 2 billion people worldwide engage in video games and a similar number of English language learners are anticipated by the year 2020. It can be assumed that many language learners are also 'gamers' and that a language learner may play a video game to learn English. This article focuses on the language learning affordances in offline video games. General game based learning principles identified by Gee are used as the method to identify and classify the learning affordances in a selection of video games. These learning principles are explained and then used to detail general learning opportunities inherent in a variety of video games. It suggests that language learning opportunities on video games are too varied and that the scaffolding guidance of a teacher might be needed. It concludes by proposing that contextualized live video game like immersive experiences could also be conducive to language learning.
Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.