Digital Games in the Elementary Classroom: Using Club Penguin Island with Grade 6 ESL students

Abstract

The present study explored negotiated interaction with Grade 6 students (age 11–12) engaged in communicative tasks supported by Club Penguin Island, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Unlike previous studies on digital games, the present study assessed the use of Club Penguin Island during face-to-face interaction. Objectives were to assess the presence of focus-on-form episodes (FFEs), identify their characteristics, evaluate the impact of task type, and explore participants’ attitudes following the use of the game. The project was carried out with 20 Grade 6 intensive English as a second language (ESL) students in the province of Quebec. An information-gap task, a reasoning-gap task, and a task with a writing component were carried out in dyads using iPads. Recordings and an attitude questionnaire were used to gather data. The analysis revealed that FFEs were triggered while carrying out tasks with the game and that students were able to negotiate interaction without the help of their instructor. The information-gap task was found to lead to more FFEs, and attitudes were found to be positive toward the game and tasks. Pedagogical implications underscore the impact of using MMORPGs and add to the literature on negotiated interaction with young learners.