Game Based Language Learning for Bilingual Adults

What happens when a single‐player training game enters a classroom context? The use of training activities in game‐based learning (GBL) has often been criticized for letting players perform mechanical operations with no reflection upon the learning experiences involved (e.g. Egenfeldt‐Nielsen, 2005). Building on earlier studies of game‐based teaching (Hanghøj & Brund, 2011; Hanghøj 2013), this paper focuses on the role of the teacher. More specifically, the paper describes the teacher’s opportunity to create reflection among the students as well as the teacher’s ability to connect the students’ game experiences with the central goals in communicative language teaching (CLT). The paper is based on a study of The Danish Simulator when integrated in a game‐based language course with 15 students at a language center in Copenhagen during spring, 2013. The Danish Simulator consists of language drills and simulated dialogues of everyday life and provides the students with feedback on their pronunciation as they play. The empirical data consists of participatory observations of teaching and video recordings of 12 lessons over the course of three days as well as interviews with the students on their experiences with The Danish Simulator in a teaching context. Furthermore, the data include a pilot test and an interview with one student playing The Danish Simulator. The empirical data have been collected and analyzed through an ethnographically inspired approach to discourse analysis. In summary, the analysis presents preliminary findings in relation to students’ different experiences of The Danish Simulator and the teacher’s redesign of the game based teaching. It is concluded that the meaningful use of The Danish Simulator in a game‐based language course for bilingual adults depends on the students’ possibilities of negotiating the meaning of the game in a social context. Likewise, it depends on the teacher’s planning of dialogical activities which contextualize the game as a conversational object in the classroom context.