CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The worldwide gaming industry has grown exponentially in the past three decades, seeing a $30 billion value in the market which is only getting bigger each year. The definition of a game has varied among different contexts, though the
analogy most accepted by the majority is the one proposed by Ellington, Addinall and Percival (1982, p. 9) who define it as “any contest (play) among adversaries (players) operating under constrains (rules) for an objective (winning, victory pay-off)”. As Prensky (2003) puts it, games have the ability to stimulate engagement in players attention and increase their motivation for playing hours on, thus, it can only be sensible to integrate the content of learning with the motivation of games.
Due to the immense popularity among players across all ages around the globe, digital games have sparked numerous research on its potential for learning in
educational contexts through a variety of subject matters (Hwang & Wang, 2016; Law
& Chen, 2016; Papastergiou, 2009). This phenomenon in research thus coined the term, digital game-based learning (DGBL). Researchers have directed their attention to the entertainment element of games as it can elicit strong motivation and
engagement in players, which can be beneficial in promoting learning (Annetta, Minogue, Holmes, & Cheng, 2009; Lee & Peng, 2006; Tobias & Fletcher, 2008).
This emerging trend also garnered attention from the field of second and foreign language learning, which gave rise to the term, digital game-based language learning (DGBLL). In this sense, digital games are implemented for learners and educators for the purpose of learning or teaching a second or foreign language (Cornillie, Thorne, &
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Desmet, 2012). A popular genre in games such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are largely used in language literature studies as they constitute an entertaining experience offered by most commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) games (Peterson, 2010; Reinders, 2012; Sykes, Reinhardt, & Thorne, 2010).
On the other hand, “serious games” have also been developed for the primary purpose of focusing on the learning content and designed to fit educational settings (Cornillie et al., 2012). However, Reinhardt (2017) notes that while this may seem as an endeavour for students and teachers to foster a more serious outlook on educational games, the definition of a game should still remain as being playful. Gee (2003) indicates that the fun and engaging elements of games are good tools for deeper learning.
Nevertheless, as DGBLL studies have expanded significantly over the years, selecting appropriate games for learners has been crucial to elicit learning.
Kronenberg (2016) proposed nine criteria when selecting suitable COTS games used in language learning, with one of the criteria being multimodality. As games utilize multiple communicative modes to convey verbal and non-verbal information, the multimodality affordance allows learners to develop their literacy skills when reading the paratexts(i.e. the texts around the digital games) in the game (Bazinet, 2015). This in turn provides an authentic objective for reading in-game texts to exercise literacy learning (Commeyras, 2009).
Accordingly, a plethora of DGBLL studies have investigated the correlation between games and vocabulary learning in previous research. In fact, studies involving vocabulary learning in DGBLL is one of the most popular types in recent years (Hung, Yang, Hwang, Chu, & Wang, 2018). Though most of the studies showed mixed results, many indicated that there was a positive correlation between
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vocabulary learning gaming and in a variety of genres (Chen & Yang, 2013; Zheng, Bischoff, & Gilliland, 2015; Hwang & Wang, 2016).
As technology is continuously progressing and rapidly changing our lives, educators and learners are offered new resources and tools to implement in
educational settings. Though still at its early stages, studies involving virtual reality (VR) has gradually begun to establish itself in the field of language learning
(Morrison, 2017). VR can be defined as "a highly interactive, computer-based, multi-media environment in which the user becomes a participant with the computer in a 'virtually real' world" (Pantelidis, 1993, p. 23). The visualization of a
three-dimensional (3D) environment that VR provides may induce an immersive sensation for the user in the computer-generated virtual world (Huang, Rauch, & Liaw, 2010).
The objects on the screen can be manipulated through human sensorial channels such as visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile senses to establish physical immersion in the scene (Sherman & Craig, 2003), giving the user a simulated scenario which has the illusion of presence that creates a realism in which they believe is experienced in real time (Liu, Dede, Huang & Richards, 2017). Through these unique affordances, researchers contend that the potential for VR can provide promising opportunities for learners to be successful in language learning in the years to come (Chen, 2016;
Schwienhorst, 2002).
In second language acquisition (SLA), effective language learning is often directly linked to imparting appropriate, authentic contexts (Krashen, 1985). VR’s design is able to offer virtual assets that can construct authentic contexts for users to develop their scope of learning (Lin & Kuo, 2005). This immersive feature can cater to learners’ attention to explore the environment and interact with the elements rooted within the virtual setting (Wang & Braman, 2009), an advantage in which one is
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capable of leading learners to engage in learning activities (Hanson & Shelton, 2008).
These realistic virtual environments beckon an immersive context (Lan, Fang, Legault, & Li, 2015) that enables the users to fully experience the target language without being obliged to go abroad (Morrison, 2017).
Another feature of VR is its interactivity, as the technology seeks to simulate a more real and immersive learning setting, the users would adopt a situational learning approach to interact with the environment (Chittaro & Ranon, 2007). Vygotsky (1986) proposes that socially mediated activity forges learning and emphasizes the critical importance of interaction for L2 learners to gain a target language. VR enables users with the opportunity to build meaningful interactions through cooperative and task-based learning (Berns, Gonzalez-Pardo, & Camacho, 2013).
The fundamental experience that VR aims to deliver is the strong sense of
presence (Slater, 2017; Wang, Petrina, & Feng, 2017). This further adds to the illusion of embodiment and body ownership, giving the user a perceptual illusion of the virtual body being their actual body under the VR scenario that can result in implicit changes in the users’ attitudes, perception, cognition and changes in behaviour as well (Slater, 2017). This virtual embodiment may elicit implicit learning, a process
whereby individuals learn complex information unconsciously and gain abstract knowledge through this process (Reber, 1989). This experience in which VR can provide supports the idea of incidental learning which is argued to be effective in second or foreign language learning (Krashen, 1989; Seger, 1994).
These key features in VR may aid language instructors in classroom settings, as embodied representation in L2 learning context suggests that such immersive environments can be successfully provided with VR in L2 instruction (Lan et al.,
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2015, 2014). This benefits instructors to establish desirable learning environments that may foster involvement in learners (Blin, 2005). In addition, VR provides perceptual–
visual–sensory features which is crucial in outlining a representation of a certain word (e.g., shape, size, motion, and location of the to be learned item) (Legault, Zhao, Chi, Chen, Klippel & Li, 2019). This engages learners to a natural and embodied rich context that may assist instructors in providing authentic examples in teaching vocabulary.
Based on the discussions above, gaming offers great potential as a resource for language learners (Abrams & Walsh, 2014; Baltra, 1990; deHaan, 2005; Franciosi, 2016). And with the evolving development of technology, the gaming experience now transcends to virtual reality which brings new opportunities into language classrooms with dynamic and authentic learning experiences (Lan 2014; Lan, Chen, Li, & Grant, 2015). VR therefore holds potential for meaningful input that allows learners to go beyond textbooks and offers much flexibility compared to traditional classroom learning (Freina & Ott, 2015).