Digital Gaming in the Language Classroom: Designing Effective Curricula

<p><b>This book examines how single-player role-playing digital games can promote foreign language acquisition and looks at how they can be integrated into the curricula of foreign language classrooms.</b> <br><br>As the commercialization of digital games continues to expand and accelerate, some research in digital game-based learning has shifted from creating digital games with pedagogical applications to adopting commercial off-the-shelf digital games for pedagogical purposes. Relevant literature has continually identified massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) as a specific genre which may benefit second language acquisition (SLA), primarily through a sociocultural perspective whereby language learners interact with linguistically more capable peers within the context of the game. However, there is a gap in research regarding whether these benefits to SLA are limited to social gameplay mechanics.<br><br> Wrobetz addresses this gap in research by using the smartphone edition of the single-player role-playing game (RGP) <i>Life Is Strange</i> in a mixed-methods study, measuring vocabulary acquisition and long-term retention from gameplay relative to controls. The author also examines how the perception of both smartphone gaming as a language-learning tool and the target language culture shifted throughout the study. <br><br> This volume helps guide future research in digital games-based language learning to broaden the scope of games identified as being conducive to SLA. It also outlines how to structure formal foreign language curricula around the use of a single-player RPG to achieve the most desirable pedagogical outcomes.</p>

ISBN-13: 9781350415928