Gaming as extramural English L2 learning and L2 proficiency among young learners*

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Introduction

Playing digital games entails entering unknown territories, taking on new roles, learning new game rules and, for many players, doing all of the above in a second or foreign language. The situation is far from what students encounter in the language classroom where the teacher generally has the initiative; digital games (i.e., games played on computers as well as games played on game platforms) are played by choice and at the individual's own initiative. In this article we will empirically show that out-of-classroom digital gaming among young learners in Sweden correlates positively with their English vocabulary knowledge and receptive proficiency measured in school. Even though we cannot provide any evidence that these learning gains can be attributed to the leisure activity of gaming, we presuppose that linguistically rich and cognitively challenging digital games contain relevant second language (L2) input and stimulate scaffolded interaction between players, thus supporting the development of L2 proficiency. ^sup 1^

In what follows, we first give a brief background on gaming as extramural English L2 learning. Then we provide a theoretical overview of how digital games might support L2 learning, and state our research questions. After that we describe the study and discuss our research findings. The article ends with some suggestions for future research in the area of digital gaming and L2 learning.

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Background: gaming as extramural English L2 learning

Commonly, L2 learning takes place within a classroom, but when the L2 is a global language such as English, it also occurs to a large extent outside of school, at least in Sweden (Olsson, 2011; Sundqvist, 2009; Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2012; Sylvén, 2004) and most likely also in countries with comparable educational systems and socio-economic prosperity, such as Finland (cf. Forsman, 2004), Belgium (cf. Kuppens, 2010), and the Netherlands (cf. Persson, 2011). Spare time activities are for the most part chosen by the individuals themselves, and the motivation to perform well in such activities is therefore likely to be high. As is widely agreed upon, motivation is necessary for any learning to take place, and in particular for learning an L2 (Dörnyei, 2001).

Even though playing digital games is commonly viewed as a typical activity for teenagers, it is in fact...