Digital Games in Language Learning

Frederick Cornillie

 

Positive attributes of digital games:

Games and simulations can enable experiential and discovery learning, transform drill-based learning to context-based acquisition and lower affective filters;

Goal-directed tasks/quests in digital games enable task-based language teaching;

Increased needs for collaboration encourage the development of collaborative social relationships and collaborative learning;

Masking the identity of the learners reduces anxiety and encourages greater risk-taking and creative use of language;

Cohesive and meaningful contexts create situated and immersive learning experience.

COTS = Commercial off the shelf games
MMPORGS = Massive multiplayer online role playing-games

Learning from COTS

Studies have found that playing commercial video games are beneficial to vocabulary learning and for improving listening and reading ability, but not for enhancing speaking and writing skills due to the fact that stand-alone video games do not offer communication opportunities and usually demand physical responses, rather than spoken and written output, for game procession.

Example Games

Little Alchemy  
GeoGuessr 

Papers please

Stop Disasters Monkey GO Happy
ESL Games Plus

MarkSharks