The topic of this article is how games can help students advance their linguistic skills in learning another language.
The authors claim is that students could use games to “learn to play” as they call it, and can make learning a whole new language easier than just attending a classroom.
The counter claim is that learning grammar or real world conversations are a lot more harder to learn in a game, as many of them have made up words and fake scenarios.
3 pieces of evidence:
1. A 2017 peer-reviewed study published in CALICO Journal found that of young Danes who played video games in English, those who did so regularly outside school scored higher on English vocabulary tests than their peers who did not.
2. This shifts kids’ focus from “learning to learn,” as in a classical school setting, to “learning to play”. It makes sense that “the very things that we can’t drag out of students in school are the kinds of things that they’re doing for fun on their own in online extramural environments,” says Steven Thorne, a professor of second language acquisition at Portland (Oregon) State University and of linguistics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
3.
4. But, combine a quality, communication-dependent game like “World of Warcraft” – Dr. Thorne’s choice – with the 15 hours a week kids spend gaming, and learning will come out of that, he says.
