TY - CONF

T1 - Video Games in the Second Language Classroom

AU - Kagen, Melissa

PY - 2016/11

Y1 - 2016/11

N2 - This paper presents several course activities making use of video games in the second language classroom. Instead of video games that specifically target language acquisition, this paper illustrates how instructors can construct lessons and assignments using popular German video games as course texts. Taking the critically acclaimed German point-and-click adventure Edna bricht aus by Daedalic Entertainment as an example, I show how the video game offers an interactive, immersive experience for second language learners at an intermediate level, I present several in-and-out of class activities to be used at different points of the game, and I suggest several broader discussions the game provokes (mental illness, cultural and personal memory) and the ways in which they could be approached in class. Video games are an excellent and underutilized tool in the literature classroom, I argue, because they enable students to examine their own ways of reading; the choices they make “reading” a game can be analyzed and explored as actions, whereas the choices they make while reading a piece of literature sometimes remain too internal to be accessed. I also mention several other German video games and suggest how they could be integrated as course texts, while giving practical suggestions for how one can purchase and play these games on personal computers without technological issues.

AB - This paper presents several course activities making use of video games in the second language classroom. Instead of video games that specifically target language acquisition, this paper illustrates how instructors can construct lessons and assignments using popular German video games as course texts. Taking the critically acclaimed German point-and-click adventure Edna bricht aus by Daedalic Entertainment as an example, I show how the video game offers an interactive, immersive experience for second language learners at an intermediate level, I present several in-and-out of class activities to be used at different points of the game, and I suggest several broader discussions the game provokes (mental illness, cultural and personal memory) and the ways in which they could be approached in class. Video games are an excellent and underutilized tool in the literature classroom, I argue, because they enable students to examine their own ways of reading; the choices they make “reading” a game can be analyzed and explored as actions, whereas the choices they make while reading a piece of literature sometimes remain too internal to be accessed. I also mention several other German video games and suggest how they could be integrated as course texts, while giving practical suggestions for how one can purchase and play these games on personal computers without technological issues.

M3 - Paper

T2 - American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Convention

Y2 - 18 November 2016 through 20 November 2016

ER -