Dialogicality, Ecology, and Learning in Online Game Worlds

Which pedagogical approaches are more effective in mobile learning? A meta‐analysis and research synthesis

“…This can be explained with the learning theory of some pedagogical approaches (e.g., situated learning) which go beyond the traditional concept of learning in classrooms, and consider that learning occurs when students are in authentic contexts with more social co-participation. This result provides further evidence for the eco-dialogical perspective of learning which highlights that the learning process occurs through the interaction between students and the learning context (Zheng & Newgarden, 2017;Zheng et al, 2018), where each context might bring various learning opportunities for students (Van Lier, 2004). This result, on the other hand, further raises concerns on how to effectively implement the needed pedagogical approach under a give learning setting, calling for further research in this regard.…”

Recurrent languaging activities in World of Warcraft: Skilled linguistic action meets the Common European Framework of Reference

“…(2015) have led the charge of calling for an EDD understanding of second language learning, particularly with regard to investigating the affordances of virtual environments. As Zheng and Newgarden (forthcoming) revealed in a comparative discussion of studies of L2 learning and digital games, there has been a tendency for researchers to follow deep-seated linguistics traditions of treating environments as inputs , of looking for changes in discrete aspects of learners’ outputs , or of analyzing discourse while completely ignoring learner movements and actions. In this study, the context of learning and L2 learners’ interactions with the material and linguistic resources of the gameplay environment are analyzed with reference to the EDD constructs explained next.…”

“…Researchers seeking to immerse L2 learners in real-world problem-solving have investigated how MMOGs support L2 learning in group play. Zheng and Newgarden (forthcoming) reviewed online gaming studies and found two major trends: (1) researchers applied traditional second language acquisition (SLA) constructs to reveal whether interaction in games led to gains in specific linguistic areas such as vocabulary development (Rankin, McNeal, Gooch & Shute, 2008; Rankin, Morrison, McNeal, Gooch & Shute, 2009) or sentence formation fluency, reading skill, or use of informal language (Peterson, 2012); or (2) researchers (Zheng et al , 2012; Newgarden, Zheng & Liu, 2015) applied emerging third-wave cognitive sciences theories such as ecological, dialogical and distributed (EDD) perspectives to overcome the inadequacy of SLA theories and methods to reveal the full potential of MMOG environments. One of the major inadequacies relates to the focus of the current ReCALL theme – multimodality – in that 3D virtual worlds, which are richly imbued with manipulable material artifacts, have been simply reduced to linguistic input, while communication mediated by avatar movements, place-based meanings, and voice modalities has been reduced to flattened text data, and participation and complex learning trajectories have been measured as if they were static or linear 2…”