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Problem‐based learning (PBL) is an instructional methodology placing primary emphasis on students solving realistic problems in a team‐oriented environment. Here we discuss using PBL to integrate a language for specific purposes (LSP) track into an undergraduate biological engineering curriculum as a way to prepare students for an engineering career requiring job‐specific foreign language skills. In Part I we review PBL theory and anticipate problems that may arise when merging it with an LSP track. In Part II we detail the development of a PBL/LSP module, including module performance objectives and assessment instruments. Areas of potential future research also are highlighted.

The essay is a conceptual analysis from an instructional design perspective exploring the feasibility of using three‐dimensional digital game‐based learning (3D‐DGBL) environments to assist in second language acquisition (SLA). It examines the shared characteristics of narrative within theories of situated cognition, context‐based approaches to SLA, and game studies as a means of developing meaningful, engaging, and instructional gameplay in 3D‐DGBL environments. The article concludes with a design rubric proposed for aligning gameplay in 3D‐DGBL environments with concise performance objectives in order to support assessable learning outcomes. A theoretical approach for designing 3D‐DGBL environments, the essay invites further discussion on the topic and calls for increased research and development in the area.

The article reports on a mixed-methods study evaluating the use of a three-dimensional digital game-based language learning (3D-DGBLL) environment to teach German two-way prepositions and specialized vocabulary within a simulated real-world context of German recycling and waste management systems. The study assumed that goal-directed player activity in this environment would configure digital narratives, which in turn would help study participants in the experimental group to co-configure story maps for ordering and making sense of the problem spaces encountered in the environment. The study further assumed that these participants would subsequently rely on the story maps to help them structure written L2 narratives describing an imagined personal experience closely resembling the gameplay of the 3D-DGBLL environment. The study found that immersion in the 3D-DGBLL environment influenced the manner in which the second language was invoked in these written narratives: Participants in the experimental group produced narratives containing more textual indicators describing the activity associated with the recycling and waste management systems and the spaces in which these systems are located. Increased usage of these indicators suggest that participants in the experimental group did indeed rely on story maps generated during 3D gameplay to structure their narratives, although stylistic and grammatical features of the narratives suggest, however, that changes could be made to the curricular implementation of the 3D-DGBLL environment. The study also puts forward ideas for instructional best practices based on research findings and suggests future areas of development and investigation.

As 3D digital game-based learning (3D-DGBL) for the teaching of literature and history gradually gains acceptance, important questions will need to be asked regarding its method of design, development, and deployment. This article offers a synthesis of contemporary pedagogical, instructional design, new media, and literary-historical theories to articulate design guidelines for these types of game environments. From the synthesis emerges a discussion of critical components for the design of space, the virtual objects within it, and the needs of player-as-learner in synthetic worlds. Guidelines include preserving the otherness of the game world, supporting knowledge and social networks of learners in virtual spaces, and the importance of point of view with respect to situated contexts. This effort seeks to open a broader, multidisciplinary discussion on the design and use of 3D-DGBL in humanities curricula.