Role of Video Games in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching - Literature review Example

Role of video game in learning and teaching foreign language Name: Institution: Role of Video Games in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching The learning process has become the central point of interest in education psychology. Education psychology is interested in the way in which one acquires, organizes and deploys any skills or knowledge that they have acquired. From this, as postulated by McNeeley, (2007), it is evident that the process is only complete if there is a situation of experience, there is an appropriate environment relative to the learning subject and there are conditions supportive of the learning process. Additionally, from the learning, one acquires an amount of knowledge and skills, organizes them mentally and utilizes them to handle tasks. The continuous nature of the learning process and its dependence on various factors including environment and subject of learning makes it difficult to have a single general definition of the process. This learning and teaching environment, when it comes to learning a foreign language, constitutes of various factors and video games have had evident impacts in learning. According to Chen and Ting-Yu (2013), games that are suitable to facilitate learning of foreign languages should be such that the learner is provided with abundant language input. This means that the game should be designed such that it is intensively engaging the attention of the learner. In this perspective the players of the game, who are also the foreign language learners, do not only hear spoken words but also read subtitles displayed on the screen. This helps them know the spellings of particular words and their corresponding pronunciations. The graphical and sound effect of the games that makes it engaging ensures that the player's attention is attracted to the elements of the game including the pronunciations and spellings. As such, the game should be easy to operate yet with abundant language input with demanding tasks so that the student-player is directed to read texts closely so as to solve puzzles in the game. The above mentioned are just but some of the desirable contents of video games that would make the viable for use in learning or teaching a foreign language. With these elements, use of video games in learning would not be such a controversial feature in the education system. Nevertheless, it does not beat the fact that use of video games in learning has continued to increase in popularity especially in Europe and the United States of America. Chen et al. (2013) present the idea of video games is such a way that even though it is being practised in these regions, it is still under investigation and intensive research as well. Therefore, in contrast with the previous insinuation that id desirable elements are put into the games then video games become essential for learning foreign languages, this perspective holds that use of video games has certain disadvantages that must be carefully analyzed during implementation. This view holds that the desirable contents of a video game impact the learning process positively yet there are some inevitable negative effects of these games. Such negative impacts include addiction and lack of self-regulation on playing time, increased aggressive thoughts and developed antisocial nature amongst others. So now, the above premises of the first argument present that one of the desirable feature of a video game for learning a foreign language is the game being engaging and mind activating. The second argument looks at the possible negative effects of this as being addiction and lack of self-regulation on playing time. To start with, deHaan (2005) concurs with the two arguments that video games have tremendously grown in popularity and in his background research he finds that 11 to 16 year olds played video games for a period of 30 minutes to an hour every day. More importantly, deHaan (2005) is of the idea that use of video games in learning and teaching a foreign language should not be because of the desirable contents of because it is a good area of conduction research. The perception is that this will require a restructuring of the content and design of games, which will then scrap out the very feature of games that have made them as popular as relatively known. Instead, video games should be celebrated and appreciated when used to learn and teach foreign languages because they are abreast with technological advancements. This is a vital aspect because technology has adversely impacted today’s society and it has shaped our perception of the environment. Given that most of the video games are made for native speakers, it becomes a limiting factor but since, again, most of them are translated in sound and the subtitles, the situation is basically taken care of. Technology defines how much industrialized a region is and so its inclusion in a game tell the player how much the creator of the game has gone or grown technologically. One should understand, by now, that this argument is on the basis that learning a foreign language is like learning the cultural content of the region from where the game originates. Thus, technological advancements appreciated in the game by the creator helps the player understand better the culture and industrialization of the native speakers of that language since technology directly influences these two. Also, deHaan (2005) introduces the idea of games of being repetitious, which is an important component of general learning process. Repeating increases familiarity, not only with the game but also with the pronunciations, wordings, spellings and contexts in which they are used. Repetition and enhance comprehension of the contexts in which certain words and phrases are used helps the learner to decode other contexts with similarity to the ones observed in the game. In more details, acquiring language knowledge in one context and applying it in an other contexts is a show of how much and fast the learner is able to decode semantic, lexical and syntactic items gradually in that order, since language continuously develops and changes even with the natives. In response to Chen’s view that gaining self-control over addiction to the game, which is actually quite a complex issue, deHaan’s argument is that more time should be spent on playing video games just like one would on books. Making the use of video games part of a learning process requires that it should be treated in the same way as the other contents of the curriculum. Ideally, the more time spent on the video games, the more the player gets to learn and master the language used in the game. The player gets to familiarise with language more in terms of use, context, register, pronunciation and cultural aspects. Subsequently, instead of worrying about the time spent on playing the pedagogical video games, concerned authorities should be much more concerned with how much control the player gets to focus on the main aim of playing the game. Gaining control to understand that learning the language is more important than completing the game’s stages facilitates the player’s acquisition of mastery in that language. With these, one appreciates the three postulations do not state it evidently but they seem to agree commonly that learning process including of foreign language is a cognitive process. Generally, learning is a persistent changing process in a student’s performance potential that results from experience and situational interaction with the world. In as much as the behaviourist learning theory dominated most of the learning, teaching and practising schemes, and the cognitive theory proved effective as well. Different from the behaviourists’ theory, in Social Cognitive Theory, the learner is viewed as thoroughly integrated with the environment within which the learning occurs. The learner is more active and interacts with the environment, their behaviour and cognitive response to enhance learning. Their belief to accomplish self sufficiency therefore, makes it possible to for them to observe and work with the learning models. In their explanatory literature, the behaviourists’ theorists assumed the probable essence of mental processes and its contribution to the learning process. Contrarily, cognitive psychology focuses on the study of people’s thinking prowess, understanding and knowhow. The cognitive theory emphasizes on learning how people comprehend and represent the outside world by their thinking and within themselves. The cognitive theory of learning points out that the ways of thinking potentially influence behaviour. It requires that one not only learns and acquires information but also remembers the same. Cognitive theory looks at the transfer of information from the sensory memory to the working memory to the long-term memory. It focuses on gaining and maintaining the learner’s attention by engaging their mental abilities. There are a number of strategies that fuel learning via cognitive processes (Ormrod, 2008). Such processes are cues, questioning, organizing, note-taking and virtual field trips. Cognitive theory of learning shows that an explanation of the different processes concerning learning is possible by analyzing the mental processes first. After this, analysis of others like external factors can then follow. Effective cognitive processes make learning easier and so information can be withheld for a longer time. Different perceptions are accorded to the issue of video games in learning foreign languages. In a view by Chen et al. (2013), teachers and students should take advantage of the fact that playing games an enjoyable experience and they have great potential for language development and maturity. In as much as video games have negative effects as well, such are not related to the impacts that they have on one’s language prowess. The idea is that it would be worrying if the negative effects of video game conflicted with and limited the impacts that they have of enhancing language development. But in this case, the negative effects of video games affect other aspects of life other than language prowess. In any case, the positive impacts of video games are seen in improvement of receptive language skills and vocabulary in terms of word pronunciation. On the matter of positive effects, Chen and Ting-Yu (2013) suggest that these positive influences of video games are not effective by themselves. For that reason, during the video games complementary tools like note-taking enhance the effectiveness of the games. This is in response the aspect of trying to ensure that focus is maintained on the main aim of playing the video games. Including note-taking in the gaming session ensures that the student does not only hear and read the words as is on the screen but they get to remember them, take note the contexts in which they are used and in conjunction with other words. Taking notes of particular identified elements of the game are related to language learning facilitates understanding of the language not just as a subject but as culture as well. The other complementary requirements to capitalize on the positive impacts of video games include the willingness to improve in other languages and language skills and attitudes towards the chosen game adventure. A common perspective is that the field of adult education psychology is full of many learning theories, with some dating a number of years in the past yet still in use today. Most of them are based on research to validate their competency and practicability. If there is any theory behind the use of video games in learning foreign languages then it must be that the learner has freedom of choosing what they learn out of the video games. However, the learners, with whatever level of freedom of choice, remain responsible for those choices that they make. The current researches on the subject of video games focus on the inner state of the individual and their ability to make right observations from which they develop themselves linguistically. Reference Chen, H, H. & Ting-Yu, C. Y. (2013). The impact of adventure video games on foreign language learning and the perceptions of learners. Interactive Learning Environments, 21(2), 129-141, DOI: 10.1080/10494820.2012.705851 Chen, H, H., Chen, M. P., Chen, N. S. & Yang, C. (2013). Pre-Service Teachers’ Views on Using Adventure Video Games for Language Learning. Kaohsiung. 125-130. deHaan, J. W. (2005). Acquisition of Japanese as a Foreign Language through a Baseball Video Game. New York: New York University. McNeeley, S. R. (2007). Theories of Learning. Retrieved from http://web.utk.edu/~rmcneele/classroome-mail:rmcneeley@acs.ac Ormrod, J. (2008). Human Learning (5th Ed.). New Jersey, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. Read More