Portraying Informal Digital Learning of English from Management, Beliefs, and Practices

Abstract

In a couple of years, massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) previous works reported various informal digital learning of English (IDLE) activities within and around video games that could enhance student-gamer vocabulary outcomes; receptive and productive language skills; and language socialization. The lack of multidisciplinary literature reviews between IDLE and language policy (LP) gives this study to open discussion on both areas. The urgency of this study is the high adoption of IDLE framework without considering LP where the reason for student’s engagement from MMORPG activities can be explained. This study aims to portray IDLE practitioner's activities in MMORPG from language management, beliefs, and practices. Following the long-term process, the data were generated from auto-ethnography and photo-elicitation that were taken from in-game and out-of-game activities. This article found three major findings. First, the management of MMORPG provoked gamers to communicate as a part of the game mission, and the guild could potentially develop top-down and bottom-up LP. Second, the value of language in the community played role in the decision-making language use from the negotiation process. Third, English and Mandarin dominated language practices from different interlocutors in various forms such as language in MMORPG’s context, code mixing, and abbreviation from multilingual sides giving various reading texts in contexts. The high status of English is still dominated by out-of-game language practices. There are two major implications in theory and praxis that would be discussed in this study.Keywords: Auto-ethnography, IDLE, language policy, MMORPG, and multilingual environment

Learners’ Willingness to Communicate in a Foreign Language: The Role of Informal Digital Learning of English

“…Second, receptive IDLE activities (e.g., reading online news in English, listening to English contents) are also the positive predictor of EFL learners' willingness to communicate in English. This result is consistent with the finding of Wijaya et al (2021) and Lai and Zheng (2018), depicting that performing a range of self-directed receptive language learning could potentially develop learners' motivation to be engaged in the target language communication activities. This finding suggests that receptive IDLE activities are a promising learning practice to improve the EFL learners' speaking skill (Mutiaraningrum & Nugroho, 2020).…”