Current researches, in the area of using electronic gaming in the classroom, focus on selecting and implementing pedagogical strategies to support its integration in the classroom (Dipietro et al. 2007). I found a Video Games Lesson on the site of English as 2nd Language, which is a good example of implementing classroom activities to reinforce learning outside the game. It is designed for intermediated/advanced ESL learners.
The special aspect of this lesson is that it doesn’t teach students how to play some video games; rather, it aims to help students learn English by talking about their favorite video games. In other words, the teacher provides some meaningful classroom activities to support students’ language development outside of the game.
The outline of the lesson is as follows:
1. Have students read the short video game advertisement.
2. Discuss new words and other related vocabulary.
3. Ask students to get into small groups of three or four and fill in the vocabulary tree for video games.
4. Ask each student (or group of students) to write a description of one of their favorite video games using the vocabulary in the vocabulary tree. Ask students to NOT use the name of the game. Make sure to point out that directions should be given in the imperative voice (i.e., Open the door, go to the chest, get the gold, etc. NOT You must open the door, you must then go to the chest, you must get the gold from the chest, etc.)
5. Have students read their game descriptions to the class. Ask the other students to guess which game is being described.
All kids like playing video games. Learning language around a topic that students are interested in must result in an unexpected positive language outcome.
Another possible positive outcome of this lesson, which I think is the most important thing, could be students’ critical interpretation, analysis and evaluation of video games they discussed. Reeves & Nass’s (1996) media equation tells us some bad influences of computer games on people’s real life, as discussed in my previous post. Especially kids, they are more likely to confuse between the content in the game and their everyday lives. Throughout this video games lesson, the teacher has the opportunity to guide and scaffold kids to critically access, analyze, and evaluate the video games. Therefore, students will build on a critical understanding between the media and real life, preventing from the possible bad impacts of video games.
If I were the teacher of this video games lesson, what I would do to improve the lesson are:
1. Selecting appropriate video games for students to discuss. I hope the game have a great amount of English text shown and spoken in the course of the game, in order to enhance students’ language development during playing games.
2. Asking students what language skills they’ve learnt from playing the game (such as new vocabularies, new sentence structure, etc)? Do they have any language barriers to flow in the game? If so, what are they?
3. Asking some questions to help support kids’ critical understanding of the video game itself, such as “What is the purpose of the game?” “Who is the target audience?” “What do you think the violence aspect of the game?” etc.
My concern is whether or not this kind of lesson would reduce students’ motivation of playing video games. I guess students might become aware that they are being coerced into “learning” in the lesson. However, Prensky (2001) suggest that learning can only be enjoyable when it is unconscious. Therefore, I am afraid that once I ask students to play video games, they will think of “learning”. Gradually, they will lose interests in playing the video game, or gaining higher and higher affective filters when playing the game. That’s a bad thing.
Therefore, I would like to explore the studies on discussing some bad sides of follow-up activities outside of the game.
References:
Dipietro, M., Ferdig, R. E., Boyer, J., & Black, E. W. (2007). Towards a framework for understanding electronic educational gaming. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 16(3), 225-248.
Prensky, M (2001). Digital Game-Based Learning. McGraw-Hill Education
Video Games Lesson. About.com: English as 2nd Language. Retrieved on April 9, 2008, from http://esl.about.com/library/lessons/bl_videogames.htm.
2 comments:
Hey Jiao,
I'm not as sanguine in belief that learning by coercion doesn't work as long as the students are aware that they understand the context of the learning technique itself. When I took some courses as an undergrad in psychology, since the whole field is about misdirection and learning skills by process of "learning within learning" I think students would still feel the sense of creativity and implementation of structure and appreciate the technique as to how it applies to the course material.
As long as the students enjoy playing the games and learning the appropriate skill sets and expand their knowledge base, they should become self-aware of the benefits and broaden their vocabulary by sharing their experiences. Maybe a control video game may be used for all students to compare and contrast thoughts and ideas, while all children choose a game of their liking. This way the results of the class data itself may be measured against the control variable and the students reflections on their own choice of videogames.
As a result which variable generated the greater discussion, control or independent? How did students react when playing the game of choice vs. the game required? Which analysis allowed students to expand their thoughts/vocabulary and explore new boundaries both cognitively and emotionally?
These are just a few proposed examples in addition to the design and structure you provided as well which certainly covers the most critical aspects of vocabulary and perspective analysis.
Best,
Ben
Hi Jiao,
The information in "Video Games Lesson" is very useful to supplement students' gaming experience. As we discussed before, video/computer games are not sufficient for language learning. Though langauge learning may occur when kids play some games, there is few games that provides opportunities for kids to practice all linguistic skills. Therefore, some instructions are very necessary. Similarly,in one of my former posts,I reflected on one article in which the ESL teacher created some learning activities to maximize ESL students' learning opportunities after they play games.
It's good that you use Krashen's affective filter to address your concern about the balance between gaming and learning. It is a question how the teacher can use kids' gaming experience without diminish their interest in games to engage them in language learning and foster their critical thinking skills. You asked good questions. I believe research-based studies are needed to address these issues.
I believe you will integrate gaming in your future teaching. I'm looking forward to seeing how it is going and hearing your further thoughts.
Thanks for sharing the good teaching strategies and your insightful thoughts!
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