Realizing Multiple Literacies through Game-enhanced Pedagogies
30 MINUTES OF SYNCHRONOUS CHAT WILL BEGIN AT 12:00PM (MST) THURSDAY OCT. 6 USING THE EMBEDDED TLK.IO WIDGET ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE SCREEN (PLEASE LOOK FOR THE BLUE BAR TITLED L2DLAZCALL2016).
Chantelle Warner, Kristin Lange, & Diane Richardson, University of Arizona
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Abstract
The “literacy-turn” in language teaching and learning has brought with it expanded notions of literacy and text (e.g. Byrnes, 2005; Kern, 2000; Paesani, Allen, & Dupuy, 2016). This multiplicity, which is central to current literacy paradigms, is inherent in digital gaming practices, which draw upon multiple genres and discourses, are multimodal and—in the case of networked games—multilingual and transcontextual by design. One of the primary struggles for scholars and practitioners of instructed foreign languages today is how to best teach language as discourse in all its complexity (see Kramsch & Whiteside, 2008). While games arguably provide a unique opportunity for language learners to experience that complexity in action (e.g. Reinders, 2012; Sykes & Reinhardt, 2013; Thorne, Black, & Sykes, 2009), few publications to date have provided models for how to do so in an integrated second language curriculum.
In our presentation, we provide a model for teaching language as discourse in action, which integrates three levels of discourse essential to digital gaming: 1) the language designed within the games, 2) attendant discourses, both those that take part in the gaming platform and those between participants in the classroom, 3) social discourses about gaming, which learners explored through critical ethnographic inquiry. We analyze each of these discourse levels in turn along with learner data from pilot studies in an intermediate German language and culture course and consider how they contributed to the teaching of discourse in action.
Works cited:
Byrnes, H. (2005). Literacy as a framework for advanced language acquisition. ADFL Bulletin 37(1), 85-110.
Kern, R. (2000). Literacy and language teaching. New York, NY: Oxford UP.
Kramsch, C. & Whiteside, A. (2008). Language ecology in multilingual settings. Towards a theory of symbolic competence. Applied Linguistics, 29(4), 645-671.
Paesani, K., Allen, H.W., & Dupuy, B. (2016). A multiliteracies framework for collegiate foreign language teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Reinders, H. (Ed.) (2012). Digital games in language teaching and learning. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sykes, J., & Reinhardt, J. (2012). Language at play: Digital games in second and foreign language teaching and learning. New York, NY: Pearson.
Thorne, S., Black, R., & Sykes, J. (2009). Second language use, socialization, and learning in internet interest communities and online gaming. Modern Language Journal, 93, 802–82.
Presenters
Chantelle Warner
University of Arizona
warnerc@email.arizona.edu
Kristin Lange
University of Arizona
klange@email.arizona.edu
Diane Richardson
University of Arizona