This research aims to explore English language learners' (ELLs) gaming practices in a location-based mobile game. Informed by Swain's (2000) languaging, ELL's gaming dialogues emerged during the gameplay are examined. Study participants include 3 focal groups who are undergraduates. The study reports that participants practice language-related and place-related dialogues during the gameplay. While language-related dialogues are carried out to clarify in-game narratives and solve language problems, place-related dialogues emerge when participants initiate community explorations for the gameplay. How to design game tasks for L2 learning and community explorations will be discussed.
In recent years, location-based mobile games have gained growing attention in the field of second and foreign language (L2) education (Godwin-Jones, 2016; Reinhardt & Sykes, 2014; Sykes, 2018). Harnessing features of handheld devices, location-based mobile games integrate the physical world and the virtual world with an attempt of enhancing learner experience and meaning making in situ (Holden & Sykes, 2011; Thorne & Hellermann, 2017). Players use a physical public space, such as a museum or a town, as the game board, and move around the assigned geographical locations in reality via context awareness technologies, to gather real-world materials, items and clues, while solving problems or completing AR/multimedia-mediated missions in the virtual gameplay. How L2 learners interact with the affordances in the game, make sense of the language/cultural/social materials around them, and work with their peers for L2 learning through location-based mobile games are worth investigating.
This research project aims to explore English language learners' (ELLs) gaming practices in one type of virtual-physical games, location-based mobile games. Informed by Vygotskian sociocultural theory and Swain's (2000) languaging, ELL's gaming dialogues emerging during the mobile gameplay will be closely examined. Study participants include 3 focal groups of English language learners who work collaboratively for the English game quests. Data collections include audio and video recordings of group gaming collaboration and gaming dialogues. The study reports that participants practice language-related and place-related dialogues during the mobile gameplay. While language-related dialogues are carried out to clarify in-game narratives and solve language problems, place-related dialogues emerge when participants initiate community explorations for the gameplay. How to design game challenges/quests to engage L2 learners in L2 learning and culture explorations will be discussed.
