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Journal of Foreign Language Education and Technology, 2(2), 2017
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The Impact of Video Games in the Acquisition of English Language:
The Case of Saudi Youths
Alawi A. Al- jifri (godsnobleknight@gmail.com)
English Language Institute, King Abdulaziz University
Tariq Elyas (telyas@kau.edu.sa)
European Languages Department, King Abdulaziz University
Abstract: Over the last few decades, teaching English has become a phenomenon in
Saudi Arabia, especially to young learners. English is taught as a main subject in
kindergarten and elementary schools. Like any other children, Saudis accept new
foreign languages easily, but they get bored very quickly if the teacher teaches them
using the old conventional methods and techniques. The aim of this paper is to
highlight that games are effective tools when devised to explain vocabularies and they
make it easier to remember their meanings. This paper deals with a literature review of
teaching English vocabulary to young learners using games. Then it discusses the
importance of using games in teaching vocabulary and in what way using them is
helpful. After that it investigates the practical implications of using games to teach
vocabulary that includes the implementation of vocabulary games and some examples
of games that could be used to teach vocabulary to children. And finally it examines
challenges teachers face when teaching vocabulary using games to young learners.
Keywords: young learners, games, vocabulary, practical challenges, practical
implications
Introduction
Since the dawn of the twentieth century, the world witnessed the greatest
breakthroughs in the different fields of science. The human revolution against the
nature of the world went through a number of phases. It started with the agricultural
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revolution (Diamond, 1997), followed by the industrial revolution and culminated in
the form of the informational revolution. With the introduction of information
technology and the invention of computers, humanity paved new ways to enhance
itself in different areas of social, natural and scientific fields such as entertainment,
engineering and medicine, just to name a few. Entertainment via technology took on
different forms, from audible to visual manifestations, with video games following
those trends of leisure enjoyment after the birth of the computer. The main idea of video
games was playing in a virtual environment presented through two dimensional
graphics that are primitive and outdated compared to the highly advanced games of
recent years. The common stereotype among the people is that video games are made
for “entertainment” only (Shaffer, Halverson, Squire, & Gee, 2005), although this may
apply to “old school” video games, the case is entirely different nowadays with the
embedment of different elements such as realistic imagery, compelling storylines,
sophisticated gameplay systems, simulation of social interactivity and etc. These
elements play their role in involving the gamer in learning and acquiring different sorts
of knowledge at the same time in a semi- authentic context, and in a non- systematic
way, promoting the autonomy of learning (Holec, 1981, as cited in Chik, 2014). One of
the aspects of knowledge gained from video games is second language learning and
acquisition, and this is the axis around which this research paper revolves.
Statement of the Problem
The impact video games have on video gamer’s second language, and the ways and
methods they adopt in acquiring the language through video games as well as whether
or not they are natural.
Significance of the Topic
Video games in the field of learning and language learning has been in the spotlight in
the past few decades. These digital worlds that blend fantasy with reality gave the
players an infinite access to different kinds of knowledge. Video games and language
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learning research papers are available at a high proportion, with many empirical ones
that studied the matter scientifically, even though when juxtaposed against other areas
of language research the case might be different. But this area of language and
technology is so limited in the Middle East where the topic was not heeded until
recently, e.g. (Turgut & Irgin, 2008). In the Saudi context, the phenomenon of using
video games as a means of learning is quite rare, and only a few reflective articles as
well as online blogs such as (Maarik, 2012) or (Shammary, 2012) were written to discuss
video gaming potentials in learning efficacy, and it is a golden opportunity for this
paper, in the context of Saudi Arabia, to explore the aspects of video gaming in the field
of English language acquisition, and research it empirically in the hopes of developing a
new method in language teaching using video games. The factors of play and game
have always been part of nature, humans were not around when playing was, and here,
it is feasible to quote Huizinga (1950, p.1, as cited in Stanley & Mawer, 2008) in
highlighting the significance of play against culture:
Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always
presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them
their playing. We can safely assert, even, that human civilization has added no
essential feature to the general idea of play.
Purpose of the Research
This paper intends to conduct a research to explore the impact of video games on the
acquisition of the English language of five young male- adults in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia,
who command an advanced level of English, associating it to the constant exposure to
video games, what ways and methods did they use to understand the language, that is
English, and to understand whether these individuals mastered the language via video
games naturally or systematically.
Research Questions
This research paper has three questions to address, and they are as follows:
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1) How did video games impact English as a second language of five male Saudi
video gamers?
2) What ways and methods did these Saudi individuals, as video gamers, adopt to
acquire the second language while playing video games?
3) Are these ways and methods natural or systematic?
Literature Review
Video Games’ Significance in Learning
It is undeniable that those video games have become an inseparable part of children
and adults’ leisure- time activities, and that they have become their virtual world where
they find themselves taking the roles of different identities and learning different skills
(Shaffer, Halverson, Squire, & Gee, 2005). Individuals who play these games are in
reality involved in a strenuous process to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, reach new
levels and reach the game’s end. It is a challenge between the player and the game itself.
Gee (2005) alleges that learning by doing, in an entertaining fashion, is more effective
than simply acquiring the facts without practicing them, and video games actually
involve the gamer in practicing certain skills in order to reach new horizons in the game
while the gamer’s enjoyment is at its hights. In a semi- ethnographic study carried out
by Steinkuehler (2010) on a young adult student known by his online nick-name
“Julio”, it was found that Julio’s digital reading literacy acquired from video games, and
video game fan- based online sites was as high as that of advanced- level reading texts,
and that Julio tends to loose interest and achieve lower marks in conventional advanced
reading exams, because he is not involved in a computer game. Thorne, Black and
Sykes (2014) posited that learning a second language in school is confined by the
settings of the school itself, limiting the breadth of language use, and that online
gaming with its online communities provide a greater opportunity to learn, acquire and
practicing the second language.
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Video Games & Language Learning From an Empirical View
Numerous researches were conducted to examine and scientifically explore the impact
of video games on language learning. According to Chik (2014) after researching the
effects of commercial video games and their associate online communities on a sample
of 153 Chinese undergraduates with a medium English level using various data
instruments from stimulous recall to individual interview sessions, the research’s
findings concluded that video games enhance learner’s autonomy and provide the
learner with a variety of ways to practice the second language within and without the
video game (Chik, 2014). Reinders and Wattana (2014) confirmed that while the 30 Thai
students they interviewed and presented them to a pre- gaming questionnaire, initially
showed a lack in willingness to communicate and poor linguistic command, they
significantly overcame these boundries after playing an online video game that enabled
them to establish textual as well as oral communications with other gamers as shown by
the post- gaming questionnaire and interviews. Another study (Peterson, 2011)
observed seven adult female Japanese EFL students playing a massive multi- player
online role playing game (MMORPG) with four of them being beginners in that game
and the other three relatively experienced. The study asserted that the four beginners
suffered from second language command problems, and poor communication skills at
first, but the difficulties dissipated as they gradually immersed themselves in the game.
The experienced individuals projected instant engagement through the second
language and ease of command in their interaction with other players. Both groups
adopted distinct learning strategies and returned positive feedback after a post-
interview and using discourse analysis (DA) as a primary source to understand the
textual communications among the participants. Although the majority of the video
games- related language learning studies relied heavily on conventional research
instruments, e.g. pre/ post- interviews, observations, questionnaires and etc, in another
study, conversational analysis (CA) was the foundational tool utilized in understanding
the interaction between a number of Finnish teenagers, who were playing a role playing
game (RPG) called Final Fantasy 10, by Marsh and Tainio. The analysis of the teenagers’
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conversation among themselves and interaction with the game showed that they tended
to use other- repetition as resource of participation in the video game, and led them to
master different features of the game’s language- English (Piirainen-Marsh & Tainio,
2009).
Despite the fact that the majority of these empirical studies crystalized the effect of
video games, and espicially the modern online- based ones, on the learning of the
second language, a study that was written and conducted by deHaan, Reed and
Kuwada (2010), indicated that video gamers tended to be distracted from learning
vocabularies while playing a music video game with 80 female adult undergraduates
devided into groups of 2 where one individual plays the game and the other watches. It
turned out that the individuals who kept watching the game actually managed to
acquire a greater number of new words as opposed to the players, who were under a
potential cognitive load (deHaan et al., 2010) while playing the game. It also showed,
after conducting a vocabulary- recall test two weeks after the gameplay, that both the
players and watchers forgot a significant number of vocabularies pertaining to the game
in question. This paper in particular could be criticized for using a music- based video
game where the gamer is most concerned with physical choreographic activities as well
as repetition of song lyrics at the same time which actually affect the gamer’s language
learning chances. It should also be noted that most games that caught the interest of the
other studies were MMORPGs, where the games are more often story- driven, require
language- based communication in the form of text or vocal ones as well as interactivity
with members of online forums related to the MMORPGs as indicators of authentic
contexts of language use, while choreography or any other physical activities are non-
existent in those games.
Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition
Also known as Krashen’s Monitor Model.In the late 70s, Krashen presented in a series
of articles the aspects of his theory, which he later on expanded it into a series of books
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during the early years of the 80s (Mitchell & Myles, 2004, p.44). The theory is based on
five main hypotheses. The first hypothesis is the Acquisition- Learning hypothesis. The
idea of this hypothesis is that a difference between learning and acquisition exists.
Language acquisition occurs in a naturalistic environment whereas language learning
occurs in classroom environment. The second hypothesis is the Monitor hypothesis.
This hypothesis is concerned with the second language user’s monitoring of his/ her
spoken language. Monitoring happens when the language is learned, not acquired, and
people who usually prioritize fluency over accuracy have a lower monitoring activity.
The third hypothesis is the Natural Order hypothesis. The Natural Order hypothesis is
basically, as Krashen (1985, p. 1, as cited in Mitchell & Myles, 2004 p. 47) puts it:
We acquire the rules of language in a predictable order, some rules tending to
come early and others late. The order does not appear to be determined solely by
formal simplicity and there is evidence that it is independent of the order in which
rules are taught in language classes.
The Input hypothesis comes next in line. This hypothesis is associated to the Natural
Order hypothesis in the sense that we as language learners acquire the language either
by understanding verbal messages or receiving comprehensible input (Johnson, 2004, p.
57). The essense of this hypothesis is that it occurs along a developmental continuum
known as i+1. i is the previous input we already possess of the language and +1 is the
new input. The input increases gradually from i+1 to i+2 to i+3 and so on (Mitchell &
Myles, 2004, pp. 47- 48). The final hypothesis is the Affective Filter Hypothesis. The
Affective Filter Hypothesis is the notion that a language learner’s mind has supposedly
a filtering device that when active, due to learning anxiety such as fear for example, the
input received by the learner will not be settled in his/ her mind as a result of a highly
active filter. The lower the filtering of the input is, the higher the learning of the
language input and vice versa. According to Krashen (1982, p. 31 as cited in Mitchell &
Myles, 2004, p. 48):
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The Affective Filter Hypothesis captures the relationship between affective
variables and the process of second language acquisition by positing that
acquirers vary with respect to the strength or level of their affective filters. Those
whose attitudes are not optimal for second language acquisition will not only tend
to seek less input, but they will also have a high or strong affective filter- even if
they understand the message, the input will not reach that part of the brain
responsible for language acquisition, or the language acquisition device. Those
with attitudes more conducive to second language acquisition will not only seek
and gain more input, they will also have a lower or weaker filter. They will be
more open to the input, and will strike ‘deeper’.
Nevertheless, Krashen’s Monitor Theory was criticized for being vague, inaccurate and
difficult to empirically measure or understand. Johnson (2004, p.49), Mitchell & Myles
(2004, pp. 45- 49) and others cited in the aforementioned references enumerated their
arguments on how the Monitor Model, or the Input Theory is not viable in the
classroom due to the lack of concrete data that prove, for example, whether the learner’s
filter while receiving comprehensible input is indeed active or not. This paper will
attempt to base video gamers’ experiences with video games in mastering English on
Krashen’s Theory.
The Gap, the Hypothetical & Theoretical Framework
There is an unequivocal agreement among the studies reviewed above that video games
are indeed an effective way to assist one in learning the language. It is also a fact that
the current wave of researches in this particular area intend to deduce or induce an
entertaining factor, that is video games, from and into the second language classroom
so as to motivate learners’ willingnness to master the second tongue. However, the ends
justify the means, and if learners develop the awareness that video games are being
used in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, for example, for the sake of
learning specifically, the motives for a natural mastery of the second language will
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diminsih. This research paper is concerned with language acquisition, not language
learning. Language acquisition is spontaneous, but language learning is methodological
(Krashen, 1982). Hypothetically speaking, video gamers are playing video games for the
sake of entertainment, first and foremost. This means that their motive to progress in
the game, albeit, in the case of Saudi gamers, the game’s language is foreign, is
exceptionally high, taking into account Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis, that their
filter while being exposed to the target language, English in most cases (Chik, 2014), is
low. In addition, computer gameplay is a continuous process. Gamers usually spend
several ours per day interacting with their favorite console games, and this means the
language’s input is also continuous (Krashen, 1982), resulting in a non- stop exposure to
the target language.
Krashen’s Monitor Theory of SLA (1982) will form the theoretical bases of this research
paper. The Acquisition- Learning Hypothesis, the Input Hypothesis and the Affective
Filter Hypothesis will be the principia used to gain an understanding of how the
participants acquired the English language while playing video games.
Methodology
Research Method
This is a qualitative research paper, and it is constructed using the interpretive
paradigm. The methods are based on previously used data collection- instruments of
other topic- related papers. The research paper will rely on two main instruments for
data collection. One is the usage of interviews. Sorensen, Holm and Mayer (2007) used
interviews with children to acquire data from the children’s experience with Serious
Games- produced video games for educational purposes. The interviews and focus
group discussion will be used to shed light on the impact of video games on English as
a second language’s acquisition as well as the ways and methods the participants used
in acquiring the second language while playing the video game. The data will be
accumulated via these tools using smart social network applications. It was deemed
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wise to make use of the Whatsapp application for mobile phones and smart tablets to
collect necessary information about video games and second language acquisition by
forming an online group specifically assembled for both interviewing the participants
as a group and individuals.
Research Instrumnets
Interviewing the participants using an online social network application is utilized by
using Whatsapp. Whatsapp is the research’s choice of data collection- tool. The
application is used to assemble a group consisting of five participants who are
‘hardcore’ video gamers, and exceptionally good second language users. The researcher
used the questions to gain information from the participants as both a group and as
individuals. The questions ranged from general, video game- related questions to
English language learning experience and video games as an ‘inadvertent’ tool that
assisted them in mastering English.
Participants
The participants are five Saudi males working for the English Language Institute at
King AbdulAziz University. Four are teaching assistants in their late twenties, and one
is a lecturer in his early thirties. All five command an advanced level of English in all
four language skills as well as a good expertise in language teaching. They were
approached and chosen for their keen interest in console or “commercial” video games
since their childhood, and all of them concurrently agree that video games had the
primal effect in developing as well as refining their second language use.
Data Collection
The participants were brought together as a group in a famous smart phone/ tablet
social network application called Whatsapp. They were presented to the nature of the
topic, and were told of the purpose of conducting this study, and after gaining their
consent, they were presented to a couple of initiating questions about their history with
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video games, and why they became obsessed with them. To keep the privacy of those
participants maintained, their names will not be disclosed, but they will be referred to
usign their first name- initials and a serial number as a reference code.
The participants are A1, 27 years, a teaching assistant at ELI, KAU. K1, 26 years old, a
teaching assistant at ELI, KAU. H1, 27 years, a teaching assistant at ELI, KAU. A2, 27
years, a teaching assistant at ELI, KAU, and S1, 34 years, a language instructor at ELI,
KAU.
The questions were presented in graded fashion. In other words, the first group of
questions explored the participants’ background with video games, the second group
was about their experiences with learning English at school, the third group drew info
from the partcipants about the games that prompted the participants, or forced them, to
use English, the fourth group created a scope about the ways the participants used to
understand the game’s language, the fifth group approached the usage of educational
video games, the other questions garnered answers from the participants about the
reasons educational video games are not as popular as commercial ones, some insight
about MMORPG and the use of English, garnering info about video game- related
complementaries and recommendations for making a successful English language-
learning specific- video game.
Data Analysis
The data collected from the online focus group/ individual interview is segmented into
three main pillars based on the principles of three out of five hypotheses that constitute
the theory of Krashen’s Monitor Model or Theory of SLA. The three hypotheses chosen
and on which the analysis of the interview data is based are the Acqusition- Learning
hypothesis, the Input hypothesis and the Affective Filter hypothesis. What follows are
interpretations and implications of the data provided by the participants who acquired
the English language via video games.
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The Acquisition- Learning Hypothesis
Krashen (1982, as cited by Mitchell & Myles, 2004) elaborated on the difference between
acquisition and learning, and that is acquisition is a natural process, while learning is
classroom- governed. Any kind of natural mastery of a skill (and language is a
construction of different skills) stems from a need growing inside the individual. A
need to enact something in order to achieve something of a greater importance, that is,
in this paper’s own wording, the essence of motivation. Motivation is defined by Cherry
(2013) as:
… the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal- oriented behaviors.
Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to
reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge.
Drawing on Cherry’s definition of motivation, it is unequivocal that all participants
agree on the fact that they played and still play video games today for an intrinsic need.
When asked about the reason they started palying video games, S1, H1 and A1 agree
that “killing time” was a major reason that initiated them to play video games, and H1
as well as A1 added that they wanted to have “fun”. A2 said that “getting a PlayStation
is much easier than travelling to Disney land”, meaning that access to sources of fun
and entertainment were limited during their childhood, and video games compensated
for that lack of entertainment- resources. All participants started their video game spree
in the late 1990s, while S1 started in the late 1980s. This means that their interaction
with video games came a long way, and their interaction with the second language,
English, occurred at the same time they played their first video game, since the majority
of those commercial off- the- shelf (COTS) video games were presented in English
(Chik, 2014, p. 85).
So two major factors worked as an impetus to play video games. The amplitude of time,
and the fun factor. In order to fulfill these two ultimate goals, the gamers face numerous
obstacles from defeating enemies to solving riddles and puzzles, and while they are in
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the process of defeating an enemy, for example, instructions are being given to them in
English to do so. Solving a mystery or a riddle involve a lot of critical thinking and
constant exposure to English, that is the means of communication in the majority of
video games of past and present. While the gamers are playing the game, they read a
conversation between the characters of the game, such is the case with Role Playing
Games (RPG), or hear it via voice- overs (action games, football, etc.). For people who
do not speak English as their mother tongue, hearnig and understanding the game is a
daunting feat, but people such as K1, used to hold a note book and a dictionary near
him, and whenever a new word or expression is read or heard in the game, he will refer
back to the dictionary, write down the meaning in his note book and carry on with the
game. A1 said that he usually tries to guess the meaning of the new word from the
context, which, according to him, “worked like a charm”, where it was mentioned or,
like K1, refer to a dictionary. In both cases, referring to a dictionary or guessing word
meaning, the player is completely involved with English, in terms of thinking, guessing
and responding, and are improvising their own techniques in understanding the
language, while all of this is happening without an extrinsic effect or motivation being
put on the player.
It is clear then, that the interaction with the game’s language is stemming from a
natural, and ungoverned motives inside the player’s mind that is pushing him to learn
the language as a means to achieve an end, and that end is the “euphoric” feel a palyer
savors after completing the game or defeating an enemy.
The process can be summarized in the following diagram:
Figure 1. Video Games and Language Motives.
ample time, lack
of
entertainment
(natural motive)
play VGs (e.g.
Metal Gear
Solid), having
fun and
spending time
listen to
conversations,
read
instructions (all
in English)
acquisition of
the second
language occurs
naturally
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The Input Hypothesis
This is the core of Krashen’s theory and after which his theory was named. The Input
Hypothesis is heavily reliant on what Krashen (1982) called comprehensive input.
Comprehensive input refers to the amount of linguistic addition of the second language
on the learner’s current linguistic state. Krashen used the i+1 symbol to explain the
learner’s current input “i” , and the new one “+1”. The more the learner’s input of the
second tongue expands, the greater the number is, i.e. moving from +1 to +2 to +3 and
etc.
Two other notions were associated to this hypothesis (Mitchell & Myles, 2004, p.165):
First, when a learner starts speaking the language, this means speaking is the
outcome of the input, and not a cause.
Second, if the input is comprehended and enough amount of linguistic data is
provided, the learner will naturally acquire the necessary grammar.
After warming up the discussion with the video gamers, a question regarding their
experience with English prior to their confrontation with it via video games showed a
slight contrast in their responses. They were asked about how well did their English
develop while taking classes at school. S1 said that English classes were “good to a
degree”, while A1, H1, A2 and K1 agreed that the classes were “below average” or even
“secondary”. K1 agreed with the rest that the teachers did not provide them with
enough English (i.e. input), but the books were helpful. That was the case with them
during their primary school days, but the situation drastically changed when they
started playing video games that were story- driven and required deep thinking to
stratigically defeat enemies or solve mysteries. A1 and H1 concurred that by the time
they reached intermediate school, they were able to mark their peers’ English home
works instead of the teacher, since their constant exposition to a substantial amount of
comprehensible input triggered their second language acquisition. These phenomena
lead to the following conclusions:
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Teachers in both primary and intermediate schools did not present their English
classes using English as the medium of communication at least for the majority
of the class’s duration. This is due to their limited mastery of the language, as A2
alleged that “Quite honestly teachers were trying their best to push themselves to
use english the entire class but they were under- qualafied to say the least”.
Even though the textbooks were all written in English, the problem solving,
grammar teaching and vocabulary explanation occurred in Arabic (the mother
tongue), with the comprehensive input being almost static, and linguistic
development followed a slow pace. K1 claimed that “the books helped.
Teachers? Not so much. I’ve always felt that I was better than my teachers”.
Due to the constant exposure to the content of story- driven games such as Metal
Gear Solid (Konami, 1998), Grand Theft Auto (Rockstar Games, 2002) or Chrono
Cross (Squaresoft, 2000) at an early stage of the gamer’s cognitive development,
at the age of 10 in the case of K1 who played such games in the late 1990s early
2000s, the gamers were able to self- educate themselves in the realm of language
learning without following a systematic method in doing so. A2 added that “I’m
self educated to some extent”.
The gamers did not only play a specific game once and went to another one after
finishing it, rather, some of them, H1 in particular, claimed that he played and
completed a survival horror game, Silent Hill (Konami, 1999), seven times since he first
had the chance to play it. This means that when the game is entertaining in terms of
atmosphere, gameplay, story and other game features, the player will find himself
compelled to play it again to “re- live” the experience again. Here, the i+1 hypothesis
gains the highest prominence. When the gamers start playing their new video game,
they need to familiarize themselves with the characters, the setting and the world in
that game, for example. This familiarization includes knowing the characters’ names,
the history of their world, and the mysteries they are going to solve. As they progress in
the game, their second language starts developing via reading texts, such as the
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conversations in Chrono Cross (Squaresoft, 2000), or vocal dialogues in Metal Gear
Solid (Konami, 1998). These texts and dialogues serve crucial elements in the games
such as finding a specific item, receiving story- developing information, instructions
about a new mission and ideas about an enemy’s weak points in order to defeat it. The
first time they experience and receive such information, linguistic input is naturally
acquired in simple forms, such as names of vaccines (Resident Evil, 1996) or different
types of weapons (Metal Gear Solid, 1998) or even exposition to literary custom plays
of Shakespearean nature, such as the one in Chrono Chross (Squaresoft, 2000), where
the shakespearean language is used to deliver the play. This initial input will not be
necessarily understood from the first time. However, in the case of H1 who played
Silent Hill (Konami, 1999) seven times, A1 who finished Resident Evil (Capcom, 1996)
ten times or K1 who completed Chrono Cross (Squaresoft, 2000) several times, the
comprehensive input is incrementally rising from understanding the main terms of the
game. The first time it is played, to realizing the main ideas of the story, when the
player is familiarized with the game’s world, to reaching the hidden meanings of some
statements made by the fictional characters when the player has become completely
involved with that game and ending with a semi- encompassing comprehension of
minute linguistic details in these games. Some of the participants, S1, A1 and A2,
resorted to, in later years, video game magazines, online forums or even creating a
Whatsapp group to get tips and tricks about a specific game. The interaction that takes
place among the members of that forum or Whatsapp group is occurring in English the
entire time. The point here is that when the player wants to achieve a specific goal
pertaining to the game, such as reflecting on the experience of playing it, or reading
about others’ reflections, expert video gamers’ reviews, ideas of killing a foe and etc.,
the comprehensive input is moving gradually from +1 (acquainting oneself with the
games world, e.g., character names, prologue, etc.) to +2 ( gaining more information
about the plot of the game, the background stories of the game’s protagonists) to +3
(complete immersion in the game’s world) where the instructions of the game have
become an inseperable part of the gamer himself.
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In essence, three principal phases played a vital role in triggering and enhancing the
gamer’s language. One is the quality of the game itself. The game’s quality is mainly
determined by its popularity among the video gamers, which will make it known to the
majority of them and attracts others who heard about it as well as the game’s
advertisment campaigns. The greater the game’s quality is, the greater the player’s
involvement in the game would be, and if the game’s quality is great enough, it will
prompt the gamer to play it again. Then the recurrence of the game’s game play which
results in an increase of the comprehensive input will take place, and finally, the game-
related complementaries such as online forums, magazines, walkthroughs and game-
dedicated websites where extra information pertaining to that game’s world is
provided, resulting in a greater level of comprehensive input that surpasses the game’s
language and enables the gamer to learn how to “ troll at forums” according to A1 or
reading the game’s manual and go over a game’s walkthrough to learn how to reach the
next level, giving the gamer a good chance of exposing oneself to how to write essays
and reviews of different kinds.
The Affective Filter Hypothesis
Johnson (2004) cited Krashen’s (1985, p. 3) position that there is “a mental block that
prevents acquirers from fully utilizing the comprehensible input they receive for
language acquisition”, and it is called the Affective Filter. Summarily speaking, the filter
spoken of is a virtual barrier within the learner’s mind, when the barrier is “up” the
linguistic input, even if it is comprehended, will not settle in the leaarner’s mind, and
that is due to different factors such as fear, anxiety, dearth of self- confidence and etc.,
but when the barrier is “down” the settling of the linguistic input will be completed and
the comprehensible input will take form.
When basing the experiences of the participants with video games, which they play for
pure enjoyment, against the premise of this hypothesis, it is clear that the gamers are
playing the game out of their own free “will” without any kind of anxiety or lack of
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self- confidence taking place. It is deduceable that the “affective filter” is at its lowest
while the players are involved with their game, and the process of the gamers’
acquisition of English as a second language is occurring without obstruction.
Conclusion
The paper’s purpose in the first place was to confirm whether or not video games can
influence the acquisition of English as a second language. The paper owes all of its
findings to the focus group discussion that was carried out using a social network
application specifically made for smart phones and tablets. It has been confirmed that
the acquisition of the language via video games is natural due to the fact that
motivation is stemming from within the gamers themselves and not being gained from
an external incentive, especially when playing is a choice, and not a job. The interview
substantiated that the gamers’ second language developed as a result of constant
exposure to video games, the majority of which are presented via English as the
medium of communication between the gamers and the game itself. The interview also
concluded that Video gamers improvised their own ways in understanding and
mastering different aspects of the second language such as guessing the meanings of
new words or using dictionaries and notebooks or even joining online communities to
expand their understanding of the game and, unintentiaonlly, the second language.
Eventhough the interview gave video game- related insights about the second language
acquisition process, it can not be gurnnated that whoever plays video games is going to
master the second language as an outcome, since there have been cases such as that of
those who played music video games (deHaan, Reed, & Kuwada, 2010) and, according
to the study itself, could not acquire the same rate of vocabulary as the ones who only
watched the game while being played by their peers.
It was also noticed that, although they managed to complete the video game, some
youngsters’ second language did not develop, because, hypothetically speaking, they
were immersed in the gameplay and did not concern themselves with the game’s story
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or tried to understand the instructions given by the game, which made their progress
in the game random and disconnected in terms of language use and story interaction.
Nevertheless, video games can become an effective language learning tool in schools
and universities if they were designed ‘right’. What the word ‘right’ implies is that a
number of elements should form the foundation of the game’s design to become as
involving as commercial/ console video games such as Metal Gear Solid or Grand Theft
Auto. These elements include action- packed gameplay, a compelling story that
addresses serious issues such as violence, adult- related situations, beyond reproach-
voice acting and etc.
Some of the participants shed some light on why learning- specific video games did not
receive the same kind of popularity as the commercial ones. A2 said “ I’d ask you one
question. Are adult- rated games going to be part of local education someday?”, while
S1 justified these video games’ failure to achieve success to the fact that they were “
boring, very amateur, mostly unrecognizable characters, horrible voice- acting, horrible
animation and overly- excited announcer”.
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Other Media
Metal Gear Solid (Konami, 1998)
Resident Evil (Capcom, 1996)
Chrono Cross (Squaresoft, 2000)
Silent Hill (Konami, 1999)
Grand Theft Auto (Rockstar Games, 2002)
