skip to main content
10.1145/1823818.1823830acmotherconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesfngConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Uncharted waters?: exploring experts' opinions on the opportunities and limitations of serious games for foreign language learning

Published: 15 September 2010 Publication History

Abstract

The use of serious games has seen a remarkable growth in the past decade. This resulted in a substantial number of people with hands-on experience. However, to our knowledge, no research has been performed to harvest this source of information. By means of a survey with closed and open-ended questions, we explore the opinions of 50 serious game and CALL experts on serious games' potential for foreign language learning. The first part of the paper discusses attitudes on serious games and learning. In general, we discern a rather strong belief in the potential of learning games. The second part of the paper zooms in on foreign language learning through games whereby some remarkable results emerge on the possibilities and limitations of foreign language learning games. Next, we discuss respondents' opinions on issues regarding the integration of foreign language learning games in a classroom context and on their design. The final part of the paper elaborates on a SWOT analysis of foreign language learning games resulting in a nuanced view on the opportunities and limitations of foreign language learning games. As a consequence, this paper not only identifies topics which bear a broad consensus among experts, but also shows that strong differences in opinion exist.

References

[1]
Billiet, J., Waege, H. (Eds.) (2005). Een Samenleving Onderzocht. Methoden van Sociaal-wetenschappelijk Onderzoek. Antwerpen: De Boeck nv.
[2]
Blunt, R. (2009). Do Serious Games Work? Results from Three Studies. Elearn Magazine {Electronic Version} from http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=research&article=9-1.
[3]
Cohen, J. 1960. A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales, Educational and Psychological Measurement. 20, 1, 37--46.
[4]
Dogusoy, B., & Inal, Y. (2006). Game-based learning through online computer games. Ankara, Turkey: Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, Faculty of Education Middle East Technical University.
[5]
Egenfeldt-Nielsen, S. (2006). Beyond Edutainment: exploring the eductional potential of computergames. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DK.
[6]
Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[7]
Hill, W. C., Hollan, J. D., Wroblewski, D., & McCandless, T. (1992). Edit Wear and Read Wear. Paper presented at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'92), New York City, New York.
[8]
Hindman, M. (2009). The myth of digital democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[9]
Kedrosky, P. (2005). Drive-By Data & Web 2.0 {Electronic Version} from http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2005/06/driveby_communi.html.
[10]
Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., & Salen, K. (2009). Moving learning games forward.
[11]
Lauf, E. (2001). '96 nach Holsti' Zur Reliabilität von Inhaltsanalysen und deren Darstellung in Kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Fachzeitschriften. Publizistik, 46(1), 57--68.
[12]
Lenhart, A., Sousan, A., Smith, A., & Macgill, A. R. (2008). Writing, technology and teens {Electronic Version}. Pew Internet & American Life Project from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Writing_Report_FINAL3.pdf.
[13]
Lewins, A., & Silver, C. (2007). Using software in Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications.
[14]
Livingstone, S., & Bober, M. (2005). UK children go online. London: Economic and Social Research Council.
[15]
McCracken, G. (2007). How social networks work: the puzzle of exhaust data {Electronic Version} from http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2007/07/how-social-netw.html.
[16]
Miles, M., & Huberman, A. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook. London: Sage.
[17]
Milton, J. (2006). Literature review in languages, technology and learning. Bristol, UK: FutureLab.
[18]
Mitchell, A., & Savall-Smith, C. (2004). The use of computer and video games for learning. A review of the literature.
[19]
Nielsen, J. (2006). Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute {Electronic Version} from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html
[20]
Ratan, R., Ritterfeld, U. (2009). Classifying Serious Games. In Ritterfeld, U., Cody, M. Vorderer, P. (Eds.), Serious games: Mechanisms and effects. New York: Routledge.
[21]
Ritterfeld, R., Cody, M., Vorderer, P. (2009). Serious Games: Explication of an Oxymoron. In Ritterfeld, U., Cody, M. Vorderer, P. (Eds.), Serious games: Mechanisms and effects. New York: Routledge.
[22]
Sandford, R., & Williamson, B. (2005). Games and Learning. A handbook. Bristol, UK: FutureLab.
[23]
Thorne, S. L. (2008). Computer-mediated communication. In N. Hornberger & N. Van Duesen-Scholl (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and eduction (Vol 4) (pp. 325--336). New York: Springer.

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)News Ninja: Gamified Annotation of Linguistic Bias in Online NewsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770928:CHI PLAY(1-29)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
  • (2020)Multimedia Games User Experience Data Collection: An Approach for Non-experts ResearchersSpecial Topics in Multimedia, IoT and Web Technologies10.1007/978-3-030-35102-1_9(243-274)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2020
  • (2019)Games people (don’t) play: An analysis of pre-service EFL teachers’ behaviors and beliefs regarding digital game-based language learningComputer Assisted Language Learning10.1080/09588221.2018.1552599(1-24)Online publication date: 24-Jan-2019
  • Show More Cited By

Index Terms

  1. Uncharted waters?: exploring experts' opinions on the opportunities and limitations of serious games for foreign language learning

          Recommendations

          Comments

          Information & Contributors

          Information

          Published In

          cover image ACM Other conferences
          Fun and Games '10: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Fun and Games
          September 2010
          170 pages
          ISBN:9781605589077
          DOI:10.1145/1823818
          Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

          Sponsors

          • IBBT
          • JIM
          • Microsoft Belgium
          • Softkinetic

          Publisher

          Association for Computing Machinery

          New York, NY, United States

          Publication History

          Published: 15 September 2010

          Permissions

          Request permissions for this article.

          Check for updates

          Author Tags

          1. SWOT
          2. experts
          3. foreign language learning
          4. gaming
          5. limitations
          6. opportunities
          7. qualitative
          8. quantitative
          9. serious games
          10. survey

          Qualifiers

          • Research-article

          Conference

          Fun and Games '10
          Sponsor:
          Fun and Games '10: Fun and Games 2010
          September 15 - 17, 2010
          Leuven, Belgium

          Contributors

          Other Metrics

          Bibliometrics & Citations

          Bibliometrics

          Article Metrics

          • Downloads (Last 12 months)11
          • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
          Reflects downloads up to 10 Feb 2025

          Other Metrics

          Citations

          Cited By

          View all
          • (2024)News Ninja: Gamified Annotation of Linguistic Bias in Online NewsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770928:CHI PLAY(1-29)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
          • (2020)Multimedia Games User Experience Data Collection: An Approach for Non-experts ResearchersSpecial Topics in Multimedia, IoT and Web Technologies10.1007/978-3-030-35102-1_9(243-274)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2020
          • (2019)Games people (don’t) play: An analysis of pre-service EFL teachers’ behaviors and beliefs regarding digital game-based language learningComputer Assisted Language Learning10.1080/09588221.2018.1552599(1-24)Online publication date: 24-Jan-2019
          • (2014)A Language-Learning Support System with a Handwriting-Based Communication InterfaceProceedings of the 2014 Ninth International Conference on Broadband and Wireless Computing, Communication and Applications10.1109/BWCCA.2014.98(422-427)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2014
          • (2013)Assessment in and of serious gamesAdvances in Human-Computer Interaction10.1155/2013/1368642013(1-1)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2013
          • (2013)A serious game model for cultural heritageJournal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 10.1145/2399180.23991855:4(1-27)Online publication date: 9-Jan-2013

          View Options

          Login options

          View options

          PDF

          View or Download as a PDF file.

          PDF

          eReader

          View online with eReader.

          eReader

          Figures

          Tables

          Media

          Share

          Share

          Share this Publication link

          Share on social media