Study of English self-learning perceptions throughout video games of narrative and fantasy

Abstract

Young people spend a considerable amount of time playing video games. As English is an international language, most games are developed in English. Users, who are often non-native speakers have to infer meanings by interacting with the controls, actions, artifacts, texts, and other paralinguistic elements. Narrative and fantasy video games can contain linguistic corpora of more than 20,000 words that players have to grapple with in order to understand the principles of the game, actions, and strategically determine their next steps to progress in the game. In this process, learners may engage in incidental learning. The aim of this study was to determine whether players are aware of language learning as it emerges while participating in these game-based activities and whether playing narrative and fantasy video games can lead to long-term language success. Four hundred and fifty-eight subjects completed an online ad hoc questionnaire addressing various areas of language learning while playing video games. The results indicated that playing narrative and fantasy video games can be an effective way to learn vocabulary and that the newly acquired terms can be stored in long-term memory.