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Digital Gaming in the Language Classroom

Designing Effective Curricula

Digital Gaming in the Language Classroom cover

Digital Gaming in the Language Classroom

Designing Effective Curricula

Description

This book examines how single-player role-playing digital games can promote foreign language acquisition and looks at how they can be integrated into the curricula of foreign language classrooms.

As the commercialization of digital games continues to expand and accelerate, some research in digital game-based learning has shifted from creating digital games with pedagogical applications to adopting commercial off-the-shelf digital games for pedagogical purposes. Relevant literature has continually identified massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) as a specific genre which may benefit second language acquisition (SLA), primarily through a sociocultural perspective whereby language learners interact with linguistically more capable peers within the context of the game. However, there is a gap in research regarding whether these benefits to SLA are limited to social gameplay mechanics.

Wrobetz addresses this gap in research by using the smartphone edition of the single-player role-playing game (RGP) Life Is Strange in a mixed-methods study, measuring vocabulary acquisition and long-term retention from gameplay relative to controls. The author also examines how the perception of both smartphone gaming as a language-learning tool and the target language culture shifted throughout the study.

This volume helps guide future research in digital games-based language learning to broaden the scope of games identified as being conducive to SLA. It also outlines how to structure formal foreign language curricula around the use of a single-player RPG to achieve the most desirable pedagogical outcomes.

Accessibility Information

Additional accessibility information

  • EPUB 3.0
  • Conforms with the requirements of EPUB Accessibility Spec v1.1
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Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Terminology
1. Introduction to Using Digital Games in Education
2. Game and Platform Selection for the Foreign Language Classroom
3. Life Is Strange as a Language Learning Tool
4. Life Is Strange as an Instructional Medium
5. Effects of the Life Is Strange Curriculum
6. Considerations of the Life Is Strange Curriculum
References
Appendices

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Jan 22 2026
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 240
ISBN 9781350415959
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 10 bw illus
Series Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Kevin R. Wrobetz

Kevin R. Wrobetz is Associate Professor at Kobe Ga…

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