Developing L2 Sociolinguistic Competence through AR games: ça marche-tu?

The ability to adjust speech registers to situational formality is essential for L2 users to become efficient communicators in a variety of authentic contexts and to produce vernacular speech (Cook, 2002; Dewaele, 2004). This competence is developed through frequent exposure and interactions with native speakers as well as real-life experiences with different social groups (Norton & Toohey, 2011). Classroom instruction and textbooks, however, often fail to portray variation patterns (Dewaele, 2004, Donaldson, 2016). Gamified learning experiences involving real-time interactions may be used to bridge this gap, as they tend to offer more authentic interactions than typical classroom context. In the field of digital gaming, for example, augmented reality (AR) has been used to help develop lexical, grammatical, pragmatic and sociocultural competences (Godwin-Jones, 2016; Holden & Sykes, 2011, 2013; Jhu & Chen, 2017). To our knowledge, however, the potential of AR gaming for the development of the sociolinguistic competence has not yet been explored. This presentation introduces a place-based game, developed using the Augmented Reality for Interactive Storytelling (ARIS) platform and designed for L2 French learners. First, we will discuss the game creation process with a focus on the affordances of ARIS for targeting sociolinguistic variations. Second, we will report the results of a mixed-method feasibility study conducted at a Canadian university targeting the development of the sociolinguistic competence in French. We will present the results of pre- and post-tests, surveys and focus group discussions, used in data collection and analysis. In conclusion, we will discuss implications for L2 learning.