Massively Multiplayer Online Videogames (MMOGs)
- This question looks long, but it’s a friendly one, I think!
On page 11 of Steven Thorne’s (2008) article, he opens section 2.2 with the following statement, “the use of Internet technologies to encourage dialogue between distributed individuals and partner classes proposes a compelling shift in L2 education, one that moves learners away from simulated classroom-based contexts and toward actual interaction with expert speakers of the language they are studying.”
- After reading about the naturally occurring interactions that MMOGs, like World of Warcraft or Lineage, elicit from the players, such as scaffolding and apprenticeship between players that are literally from all over the world, how do you think that engaging your language learners in game play within virtual worlds like these would affect the student’s language learning experience? More specifically, do you think playing in a virtual gaming world can be an immersive experience in terms of foreign language use? How so? Do you think the process of enculturating the players into the game and negotiating meaning through language can inform the players about the real cultural background of their co-players in some way? Or is intercultural competence left out completely?
- On page 19, Thorne (2008) states that “MOO use in L2 education is still frequent (e.g., Schneider & von der Emde, 2000), especially by practitioners of a variety of intercultural L2 education called tandem learning . . . However, social and role-playing MOOs, especially in comparison to their considerable popularity in the 1990s, have been largely replaced by massively multiplayer online videgames.” Before taking this class, had you (as teachers) ever heard of a MOO or an MMOG? Is it really true that MOO use in L2 education is really popular?
- Ravi Purushotma (2005) shares an example about changing the coding in her internet browser, so that her German vocabulary words (and an associated picture) flash on the browser in place of the advertisements. She refers to this as a virtual “flashcard”. Would you consider this virtual language immersion? Do you think this is an appropriate or inappropriate level of rote memorization? How do you feel about memorizing vocabulary in general? Do you think it’s necessary in a language classroom?
