| Body | by Julie Sykes, CASLS Director
When considering the integration of games in the language classroom, associated attendant discourse communities – the communities of players who analyze, debate, and create based on their gameplay experience – can add depth and complexity to classroom activities. Furthermore, the offer a window into a variety of social communities relevant to everyday global behaviors. This week, we explore three ways attendant discourse communities can be explored in the language learning classroom.
- Fan Fiction: A social practice in which all elements of a story, show, game, or book are expanded and repurposed through creative expression. Fans from all walks of life create stories, share them with a peer community, and comment upon one another’s work to make the stories better. Fan Fiction around games can be very useful to explore context, narrative, rhetoric, and writing practices of different cultures. Classroom activities can include reading others’ stories, analyzing commentary, and, at the intermediate and advanced levels, creating and submitting one’s own stories. Fan fiction examples can be found at https://www.fanfiction.net/ or by searching for fan fiction in the target language.
- Machinima: A remixing practice in which visual elements of a games are often combined with alternative sounds, voices, and animations. For some examples see http://www.machinima.com/. This digital remixing is posted online and shared among a community of peers. This peer-to-peer process provides excellent opportunities for learners to explore and analyze authentic cultural processes and narratives. Classroom activities can include watching machinima projects and analyzing language, cultural practices, and commentary. In addition, learners can be encouraged to create their own machinima excerpts.
- Strategy Forums: Information about the majority of popular digital games can be found in strategy forums online. These strategy discussions are ideal contexts to look at advanced language skills such as hypothesizing, critiquing, and discussing abstract concepts. It is always good to explore the game strategy sites when implementing digital games. Learners can be encouraged to analyze pragmatic practices or contribute to the sites as they are interested and able.
More information on attendant discourse communities and language learning can be found in:
Thorne, S. L., Black, R, Sykes, J.(2009). Second Language Use, Socialization, and Learning in Internet Interest Communities and Online Games. Modern Language Journal, 93, 802-821.
|
|---|
