多人大型線上電玩對英語學習能供性的研究

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(1)國立臺灣師範大學英語學系碩士論文 Master Thesis Department of English National Taiwan Normal University. 多人大型線上電玩對英語學習能供性的研究. Investigation of the Affordances that an Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) Provides in the Aspect of English Learning. 指導教授: 陳浩然博士 Advisor: Dr. Hao-jan Howard Chen 研究生: 許沁渝 Ching-yu Tammy Hsu. 中華民國一百零二年 June, 2013. I.

(2) 中文摘要網路虛擬科技發展下，電玩輔助教學在各個領域的研究與發展日益蓬勃。許多致力於英語教學的學者亦開始研究電玩應用於英語教學時所帶來的學習成效。而其中多人大型線上電玩因為提供學習者許多與外語玩家互動的機會，近年來成為電玩輔助英語教學的研究重點之一。本研究即是探討多人大型線上電玩對於英語教學的能供性，研究內容包含以下三方向：（一）語言學習者在多人大型線上電玩中的語言行為（二）多人大型線上電玩的單字學習成效（三）語言學習者對於使用多人大型線上電玩學習英文的看法。本研究受試者共十人。此十人皆完成了本研究所指定的 16 項任務，而其中八人繼續玩至下副本(instance)，與外國玩家組成團隊，一同解副本。為了更深入的理解多人大型線上電玩中語言學習者的語言行為，本研究運用語言行為分類架構，將副本中受試者與其他玩家的互動分類、計算比例並比較。為了研究受試者字彙量是否增加，本研究採用成對樣本Ｔ檢定來測驗十位受試者在前、後測中的表現是否有顯著差異。為了提高結果信度，實驗最後運用問卷來調查受試者對於大型多人線上電玩對英語教學學習成效的看法。研究結果如下：受試者最主要的語言行為是「描述/詢問事情」 (Representatives)，其所包含的次類別中，「報告當下行動」(reporting on actions)在互動中佔很高比例，顯示副本中團隊協調與合作的重要。另一個主要語言行為是「表現情緒性想法」 (Expressives)，其所包含次類別中，「表現心中情感與刺激」(expressing excitement and emotions)所佔比例最高。以上與前人研究相符合。在前人研究中，「意義協商」(Negotiation of meaning)以及「糾正語言錯誤」是(Language specific correction)多人大型線上電玩中重要的語言行為，但在本研究中此兩語言行為比例一個很低，一個為零，顯示在真實電玩情境中(非教育性多人大型線上電玩)，玩家很少會和其他玩家協商語言意義或糾正語言錯誤。此外，前人研究顯示英語母語人士和進階英語學習者在電玩中會輪流扮演主導腳色，例如扮演資訊提供者、命令者，但在本研究中，英語學習者大多扮演被領導的腳色例如資訊尋求者或表達感謝者，顯現學生英語能力仍會影響其語言行為。受試者在單字學習上有顯著進步，說明多人大型線上電玩可以兼顧樂趣和英語單字學習。進一步檢視每個字答對學生的數量，發現學生特別容易學會某類單字，例如描述玩家虛擬腳色當下動作的高頻率英文單字，以及字和令人印象深刻的畫面同時出現的高頻率英文單字。問卷調查顯示受試者認為透過多人大型線上電玩，學習者能夠培養英語閱讀能力、增加單字量、強化英語學習動機、增進口語和俚語英文能力。但受試者表示，雖然有較多機會和外國玩家互動，但感覺這些互動對於英語學習成效仍有限，原因可能是互動中語言的正確性和複雜性不足。. II.

(3) 關鍵字：電玩輔助英語教學、多人大型線上遊戲、語用能力、言談分析、語言行為、非刻意情境下的單字學習. III.

(4) ABSTRACT. The present study aims to investigate the speech acts that language learners frequently produce and receive in the MMORPG world, the effectiveness of learners’ vocabulary learning in the MMORPG world, and learners’ perception of the adoption of MMORPG for second language learning. There are ten participants in the present study. All of them finished 16 MMORPG gameplay tasks individually and eight of them went on to play in a group play with other players. To have a comprehensive look into the language input and output in the MMORPG world, participants’ produced speech and the fluent English speakers’ produced speech were analyzed and compared. To evaluate participants’ vocabulary gains, participants were invited to take the vocabulary pretest and posttest. To triangulate the findings, participants were required to finish the questionnaire of their perception of the use of the MMORPG for language learning. The major findings are presented as follows. One of the most dominant categories of speech acts in the interaction is Representatives, which functions to fill the information gap between one and another. The current study further identified the importance of its subcategory reporting on actions, which was frequently produced to achieve coordination and close cooperation between group members. Another principal category is Expressives, and its dominant subcategory is expressing excitement and emotion. This speech act was carried out through the frequent use of exclamation words and emoticons. Incongruent with previous studies, the percentage of Negotiation of meaning is rather low and the percentage of Language specific corrections is zero, which showed that the real commercial MMORPG (instead of adapted MMORPG for education), may not be able to cultivate students’ ability to negotiate for meaning and to receive or provide language corrections. Another difference between the previous and the present study is that in the present study only the fluent English speakers were found to assume the dominant roles such as commanders, information or opinions providers while in the previous studies not only the native English speakers but also the advanced language learners were found to be able to play various kinds of active role. This showed that language ability might still influence the roles learners assume and the speech they produce. The participants were shown to make significant progress in the performance of vocabulary tests. Taking a closer look at the correct rate of each word, it is shown that participants tended to learn words that described the avatar’s real-time action and words that appeared with impressive image annotation. IV.

(5) In the post-experiment questionnaire, participants reported that they made progress in English reading ability and colloquial English ability. Their vocabulary size and motivation for English learning increased as well. The participants generally hold a positive attitude toward the adoption of the MMORPG for language learning. Key words: game-based language learning, MMORPG, pragmatic competence, discourse analysis, speech acts, incidental vocabulary learning. V.

(6) 致謝三年前進入師大英語所，角色的轉換、學習態度和方式和的轉變，每一次轉變都是一次成長。回頭看看當初的自己，不免疑惑，當初的我，是在怎麼樣的情形下，克服每一次的困難，一步一步走到這裡的？論文寫完、口試結束的這一刻，我才知道支持我到現在的最大原因，是一路上有這麼多人，除了提供我實質幫助，還對我付出極大的耐心、關懷和無條件的愛。學術生活有時得意，卻也經常備感失落，你們總是在烏雲壟罩我時，幫我劃出一線陽光，讓我始終保持希望，深信自己只要再多努力一點，就可以達成目標。首先謝謝從國中認識到現在的冠甫兄，因為你，讓我接觸到電玩這個領域，教了我很多相關知識。感謝萬年好姊妹 JoJo 和阿甄，不斷不斷地幫我加油打氣，從高中到研究所，每年都有大大小小、五花八門的卡片，鼓勵我不斷向夕陽奔跑，一定要一起完成九十歲還一起喝貴婦下午茶的心願，讓我的研究生活添加好多快樂。也謝謝大學時期的好姊妹承郁、文齡、明珊、絢聿、妙儀、小羊和米米，你們現階段的成就和對社會的付出，讓我看見我們都有無限可能和潛力，因為你們，讓我更努力進取，期許自己成為一個對社會有貢獻的人。感謝研究所同窗好友 Alicia, Daphne, Summer, Louis, Edward, Ava, Julia 和 Abby，一路上受你們大大小小的幫忙太多無法細數，研究所時光寶貴，你們的付出，我真心感謝。其中我要特別感謝 Julia 和 Abby，Julia 謝謝妳陪我一起加入大學部，陪我一起發牢騷、紓解壓力、分享我很多有用的資訊，最後還幫我找到一個很盡責的受試者，讓我研究更順利。也特別感謝 Abby，一路上細心提醒我研究和口試的大小事，幫我想研究方法，陪伴我一起面對緊張壓力。謝謝你們，你們除了是最支持我的戰友，也是我最喜歡的好朋友。衷心感謝我的口試委員台師大資訊教育所所長陳明溥教授和中央大學資訊工程學系的楊接期教授。陳明溥老師在我論文初審時便點出我研究上的不足，讓我在研究方法上可以更加精確、方向更加明確。楊接期老師為了我口試特別從中壢趕來台北，細心點出每一項可以改進的地方，讓我的論文更具有學術價值。特別感謝我的指導老師陳浩然教授。陳浩然老師從我碩二開始便不斷提供我研究上的靈感，指導我尋找研究題目，除了學術上的啟發，也給我許多空間和鼓勵。因為陳老師一路上的呵護和提點，我才能在這學習能如期完成學業。還要感謝柏亨，謝謝你近六年的溫暖陪伴，支持我追求夢想。最後，我要感謝我的家人。謝謝哥哥，每次在我遇見困難時總可以提供過來人經驗，和我討論做事情的方法；謝謝爺爺，總是對我很好，非常愛我，也謝謝婆婆，每天一定會打電話問我過得好不好，深深相信我很優秀，幫我祈禱能有美好的未來，生活裡有婆婆爺爺，是我最大的幸福；謝謝爸爸這三年對我的支持和體諒，讓我可以衣食無虞、沒有後顧之憂地追求學業，並且總是在我需要時第一個站出來提供最大的幫助。最後的最後，要謝謝最親愛的媽媽，再忙再累都要照顧我，尊重我的決定並一路支持到底，為我開心為我流淚，把我當成生命中最珍貴的寶貝，我很感 VI.

(7) 動，謝謝妳，如果這份論文有一點點榮耀，我要把這份榮耀完全獻給最親愛的妳。. VII.

(8) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHPATER ONE: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………….1 1.1 Background………………………………………………………………..…1 1.1.1 The Development and the Significant Features of MMORPGs………2 1.1.2 The Theoretical background of MMORPGs for SLA………………...4 1.2 The Focus of Previous Studies and Their Limitations……………………….6 1.3 The Purpose of the Current Study……………………………………………8 1.4 The Significance of the Study………………………………………………..9 1.5 Definition of Key Words……………………………………………………10 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………….12 2.1 Research on MMORPGs as an Interaction Arena………………………….12 2.2 Research on the Potential of Vocabulary Acquisition in MMORPGs………18 2.3 Limitations in Previous Studies……………………………………………..20 2.3.1 Limitations of Previous Research on the Interaction in MMORPGs..21 2.3.2 Limitations of Previous Study on Incidental Vocabulary Learning in MMORPGs………………………………………………………………...21 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS………………………………………………….24 3.1 Participants……………………………………………………….…………24 3.2 The Instrument…………………………………………………...…………25 3.3 Procedure……………………………………………………………………27 3.4 Data Collection and Analysis……………………………………………….31 3.4.1 Video Recording……………………………...……………………...31 3.4.2 Vocabulary Test……………………………...………………………34 3.4.3 Questionnaire……………………………...………………………...35 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION……………………………...37 4.1. The Categories of Speech Acts Produced in the MMORPG ………........... 38 4.1.1 The Categories of Speech Act Produced by Language Learners…....38 4.1.2 The Categories of Speech Act Produced by Fluent English Speakers……………………………………………..…………………….42 VIII.

(9) 4.1.3 Comparison between the Categories of Speech Act by Two Groups of Players……………………………………..………………………………45 4.1.4 Summary of Findings in terms of Categories of Speech Acts……….46 4.2. The. Subcategories. of. Speech. Act. Produced. in. the. MMORPG……………………………………………………….………...48 4.2.1 The Subcategories of Speech Act Produced by Language Learners…………………………………………………………………...48 4.2.2 The Subcategories of Speech Act Produced by the Fluent English Speakers…………………………………………………………………...54 4.2.3 Comparison between the Subcategories of Speech Act Produced by the Two Groups of Players…..……………………………..…………......61 4.2.3.1 The Dominant Subcategories of Speech Acts in the Speech of Both Groups……………………………………….…………………62 4.2.3.2 The Categories of Speech Acts that Were Only Dominant in the Speech of Language Learners………………………………………..63 4.2.3.3 The Subcategories of Speech Acts that Were Only Dominant in the Speech of Fluent English Speakers….………………….………..64 4.2.4 Summary of the Findings in terms of Subcategories of Speech Act ……………………………………………………………………...…65 4.3 The Effects of the MMORPG on Vocabulary Learning …………..………67 4.4 Participants’ Perception of the Effectiveness of the Use of MMORPG for Second Language Learning……………………………………………………..71 4.4.1. Results. of. Participants’ Self-perceived. Growth. in. English. ability………………………………………………………………………71 4.4.2 Results of Participants’ Efforts to Comprehend Unknown words and Read Text in the MMORPG…………………………...…………………..73 4.4.3 Results of Participants’ Perception of Interaction...………………....75 4.4.4 Participants’ Self-perceived Merits and Limitations of Playing the MMORPG GW2 for Second Language Learning…………………………77 CHAPTER FIVE: CONDLUSION………………………………………………..81 5.1 Summary of Major Findings of the Present Study………………………….81 5.2 Pedagogical Implications…………………………………………………...82 IX.

(10) 5.3 Limitations of the Present Study and Suggestions for Future Researchers....84 REFERENCES………………………………………..…………………………….86 APPENDIX A………………………………………………………………………..91 APPENDIX B…………………………………………………………………….…93 APPENDIX C……………………………………………………………………….94 APPENDIX D……………………………………………………………………….95. X.

(11) LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The Hypothesized Advantages from the Perspective of Psycholinguistic SLA and Sociolinguistic SLA……………………………………………………………….6 Table 2: Speech Acts Appearing in the Interaction in the MMORPG Environment…17 Table 3: Participants’ Age, MMORPG Gameplay Experience, and English Proficiency………………………………………………………………………...…25 Table 4: Procedure of the Present Study …………………………………………….28 Table 5: The 16 Tasks and the Sequence of the tasks………………………………...29 Table 6: Classification of Speech Acts and Examples in the Current Study…………33 Table 7: The Number of Sentences and Percentage of Each Speech Act Category in Participants’ Speech………………………………………………………………….39 Table 8: The Number of Sentences and Percentage of Category of Speech Act Produced by Fluent English Speakers……….……………………………………….43 Table 9: The Number of Occurrence and the Percentage of the 22 Subcategories of Speech Act in the Speech of Language Learners…………………………………….49 Table 10: The Number of Occurrence and the Percentage of the 22 Subcategories Speech Act in the Speech of the Fluent English Speakers...…………………………55 Table 11: Participants’ Mean Scores of the Pretest and Posttest of Vocabulary……...67 Table. 12:. Words. Language. Learners. Acquired. in. the. Gameplay. Process……………………………………………………………………….……….69 Table 13: Mean Scores of Students’ Perception of the MMORPG GW2 for Second Language learning…………………………………………………………………....72 Table 14: The mean score of participants’ self-perceived efforts to comprehend English reading during the gaming process………………………………………….74 Table 15: The Amount of the Stories that Participants may Skip in the MMORPG GW2………………………………………………………………………………….74 Table 16: Mean scores of participants’ perception of interaction with fluent English speakers in the MMORPG GW2……………………………………………………..76. XI.

(12) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Guild Wars 2 interface……………………………...…………………….. 27 Figure 2: The percentage of each category of speech act from the most to the least in participants’ produced speech………………………………………………………..39 Figure 3: Percentage of each category of speech act from the most to the least in the speech of fluent English speakers……………………………………………………44 Figure 4: Comparison between the percentage of the seven categories of speech act in participants’ speech and that of the fluent English speakers’ speech………………...45 Figure 5: The 22 subcategories in the speech of participants from the most to the least…………………………………………………………………………………...50 Figure 6: The 22 subcategories in the speech of the fluent English speakers from the most to the least……………………………………………………………………...56 Figure 7: Comparison between the percentage of the subcategories of speech act in participants’ speech and those of the fluent English speakers’ speech……………….62. XII.

(13) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Chapter one is the introduction to the present study. In section 1.1, the general background of the development of MMORPGs and their relation to Second Language Acquisition will be introduced. Section 1.2 outlines the focus of the previous studies and their limitations. Section 1.3 presents the purpose of the current study and research questions.. 1.1 Background In the past a few years, scholars in the field of computer-based learning have observed the burgeoning role of video and computer games. Using games for learning, or so-called game-based learning, indicates that gaming process and learning process are the same phenomenon, and this process provides students with both education and entertainment at the same time. As Gee (2003) argued, a good video game or computer game integrates entertainment with a complete set of learning principles. He recommended that teachers and parents should make the best use of this technology to foster children’s learning for various learning purposes. Kim, Park, and Baek (2009) suggested that the competitive activities provided by computer games involve interpreting instructions, receiving feedbacks, establishing effective communication, and achieving goals, all of which are valuable for learners to explore. Video games come in different types, some of which require players to cooperate in order to achieve their objectives. Among this kind of video games, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), which offer a multimodal learning environment for players to scaffold their knowledge and cultivate their strategic ability, might be the one of researchers’ great interest (Dickey, 2007). 1.

(14) 1.1.1 The Development and the Significant Features of MMORPGs The design of contemporary MMORPGs can be traced back to the early real-time multi-player role playing games known as Multi-User Dungeon or Multi-User Dimension (MUD). In a typical MUD game, players manage to complete various quests to achieve higher level of status in the fantasy virtual world. They engage in purposeful text-based interaction with non-player characters (NPCs) or player characters (PCs) such as asking for task instructions, trading virtual commodities, and developing collaborative relationships in order to successfully complete game tasks (Peterson, 2011). Integrated with the concept of MUD, Multi-user Domains Object-Oriented (MOOs) further provide users with access to authoring virtual spaces and virtual objects, changing the way in which the MOOs interface operates (Peterson, 2012). MUD and MOO games provide a multi-user platform; all the scenes, characters, objects in the game world, however, are presented by text-based description. Therefore, players’ sense of immersion in the game world might not be strong. A further impact on the development of MMORPGs results from the rapid progress of three-dimensional technology. In contrast to MUD and MOOs, 3D virtual worlds such as Active Worlds and Second Life provide high graphical simulation environment, which facilitates users’ sense of immersion in the virtual reality. Users can traverse the worlds with customized avatars to participate in individual or group activities, communicating through text-based and voice-based chat channels. These 3D virtual worlds, however, do not explicitly structure users’ action or interaction. The 3D virtual world only functions as a place for users to sojourn, which means users need to create the purpose of existence for themselves in the virtual world (Throne, 2008). The abovementioned features of MUD, MOOs, and 3D virtual worlds have been 2.

(15) incorporated into modern MMORPGs. In addition, some adjustments were made to the design of MMORPG virtual environment, making MMORPGs ideal for players to establish social relationship with other players from various language backgrounds. Followings are the traits that make MMORPGs a suitable arena for interaction and communication. First of all, the goal-oriented tasks (known as “quests”) in an MMORPG usually require players to interact with each other. Immersed in the theme-based 3D virtual reality, players control their customized avatars to pursue status advancement by completing quests, solving puzzles, acquiring certain skills, and engaging in individual missions or collaborative combats, many of which involves player interaction. In addition, players often participate in a common in-game organization, which is known as “guilds.” Guilds are associations of players gathering together to achieve certain goals. The goals of a guild could be social, military, commercial, or mixed, and guild members can easily establish a relationship with each other and find team members for their quests. Attending a guild helps socialize the players and unite the players as a group. Third, the supplement of both text and voice communication tools ameliorate the quality of in-game communication, and thus players can easily engage in goal-based collaboration in spite of the fact that their physical distance is far away (Rama, Black, Es, & Warschauer, 2012 ). In addition to player-player interaction, there is a substantial interaction among PCs and NPCs in the MMORPG worlds. NPCs play essential roles in the game environment such as offering instructions for quests, or providing functional services such as skill training, profession cultivation, weapon repair, and goods trading. Players need to engage in a large amount of interaction with NPCs to attain the 3.

(16) information they want or to achieve the ideal status for their avatars. MMORPGs, with the powerful combination of these characteristics, are coming to the attention of scholars of various academic fields in recent years (Riegle & Matejika, 2006; Rossi, 2008); without exception, researchers of CALL have gradually discovered the advantages accruing from the goal-oriented virtual world for second language learning.. 1.1.2 The Theoretical background of MMORPGs for Second Language Acquisition Several researchers have proposed the theoretical justifications for the adoption of MMORPGs in second language learning and teaching from the perspectives of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. From the psycholinguistic point of view, MMORPGs have several merits for SLA. First, the goal-oriented collaborative game quests engage players in meaningful interaction with NPCs or PCs, so learners can have constant exposure to the target language and have many chances to extensively use the language in the authentic contexts. (Peterson, 2005). Second, narrative stories embedded in MMORPGs are usually presented with partial synchronized voice and image annotation, and therefore learners’ memory of the language that they receive in the gameplay is reinforced. According to Paivio (1971)’s Dual Coding Theory (DCT), when information is presented through both visual and audio channels, the visual system and the audio system in the human brain are simultaneously activated, resulting in the enhancement of memory of the language input. Therefore, it is assumed that language learners can acquire the second language more effectively in MMORPG worlds. Third, since learners pursue their achievement in the game world on the basis of 4.

(17) their own needs and the gameplay experience is to their enjoyment, the learning process is learner-centered (Ang & Zaphiris, 2006). To successfully attain higher status in the game world, players carry out quests, interpret task instructions, and take part in communicative activities not out of obligation but out of their own needs and pleasure. They are in charge of their own achievement and are allowed to make progress in their own pace. These characteristics make MMORPGs a highly learner-centered learning environment. Lastly, the presence of personalized avatars, which increases the degree of players’ emotional attachment while decreases the anxiety that may occurs in face-to-face communication, helps to reduce learners’ affective barriers, encouraging them to speak up and interact more with speakers from different language backgrounds (Peterson, 2006; Peterson, 2010). From the perspectives of sociolinguistics, several researchers have proposed the distinct advantage of the adoption of MMORPGs for second language learning. According to Vygotsky (1978)’s zones of proximal development (ZPD), language learning is facilitated by social interaction with more capable others. In the game world, players “not only have to play to learn, but you have to play with others if you ever hope to develop genuine expertise.” (Turkle, 1995, p70, cited in Steinkuehler, 2005)” During the gameplay, learners engage in social interaction or collaborative activities to achieve the same goal in the game world, which provides learners opportunities to communicate with native speakers of English or more capable English speakers. Dialogues that players engage in can help to scaffold the learner’s knowledge of the target language in both oral and written form of English, and they also help to enhance learners’ pragmatic competence. Table 1 presents the hypothesized advantages of MMORPGs for SLA from the perspective of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. Although the two theoretical 5.

(18) accounts are different in focus, they have proposed the fundamental merits of MMOPRGs which render the new technological advance suitable for language learning and ready for researchers to explore.. Table 1 The Hypothesized Advantages from the Perspective of Psycholinguistic SLA and Sociolinguistic SLA From psycholinguistic perspective Feature Goal-oriented. Hypothesized advantages collaborative. game Constant exposure to the target language. quests. Chances to use the target language. Narrative stories presented with. Memory of the target language is reinforced. partial synchronized voice and image annotation Need-based activities. Learner-centered learning. The presence of customized avatars. Learners’ affective barriers are reduced. From sociolinguistic perspective Feature. Hypothesized advantages. Social interaction and collaborative Chances to communicate with more capable activities. English speakers (Acceleration of the development of ZPD). 1.2 The Focus of Previous Studies and Their Limitations Given the theoretical justifications discussed in previous section, researchers in CALL begin to recognize the beneficial aspects of MMORPGs for second language learning. Reviewing the previous studies, it is observed that the focus of most studies is on the aspect of social interaction in which learners engage. For example, several experiments have been conducted to investigate the speech acts carried out by language learners during the MMORPG gameplay (e.g., Throne, 2008; Rankin, 6.

(19) McNeal, Shute, & Gooch, 2008; Reinders & Wattana, 2010; Zeng, Young, Wager, & Brewer, 2009; Peterson, 2012). All of these studies identified a wide range of speech acts realized in students’ in-game interaction, which showed that MMORPGs can serve as an arena for students to cultivate their pragmatic competence. These studies, however, are not without limitations. The major limitation of previous studies is that the discourse analysis conducted by the researchers might not be elaborate enough. First, some studies use an event of dialogue as the basic unit for speech act coding rather than use a complete sentence as the unit for speech act coding. The details of students’ language output might be ignored. Second, some studies did not specify their definition of certain speech acts. The functions of some speech acts seemed identical, which makes the classification not as meaningful as expected. Third, most of the studies did not take into consideration of the percentage that each speech act accounts for in the interaction, which indicates that the whole picture of the intercultural interaction occurring in the MMORPG worlds might not be clear enough. In addition, none of the previous studies provided a through comparison between the speech acts produced by learners and the speech acts produced by native speakers of English; as a result, what learners are lack of and what learners can learn from the native speakers of English in terms of pragmatic competence is still obscure. In addition to research on MMORPG player interaction, a limited number of studies were carried out to probe into students’ vocabulary gains through gameplay (e.g., Rankin, Gold, & Gooch, 2006; Rankin, Morrison, McNeal, Gooch, & Shute, 2009). Some other studies focus the linguistically richness in the MMORPG environment (e.g., Throne, Fischer, & Lu, 2012; Hass, 2012). In general, the results of these studies showed that MMORPGs have beneficial effects on students’ vocabulary 7.

(20) gains. Although previous research on vocabulary learning held positive attitude toward the adoption of MMORPGs, the number of experimental studies is rather restricted. Furthermore, the number of participants was also limited, and thus it might be inappropriate to generalize the results to other context.. 1.3 The Purpose of the Current Study The purpose of the current study is to investigate the affordances that an MMORPG may provide in the aspect of language learning. The first objective is to investigate if MMORPGs can serve as an arena for language learners to cultivate pragmatic competence through receiving and producing language with certain speech functions. As discussed in the former section, MMORPGs are proposed to provide language learners with opportunities to extensively use the target language in the authentic and meaningful context. Investigating the language input and output allows us to have more insight into the affordances that MMORPGs offer for the cultivation of learners’ pragmatic competence. The second objective of the present study is to investigate the effectiveness of the adoption of MMORPGs for incidental vocabulary learning. When a learner encounters a specific word repeatedly in various situations, there is more chance that they can incidentally acquire the word (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001). Since playing MMORPGs gameplay is not a one-time event, it is assumed that learners can gradually learn new words from different quest contexts in the gameplay. With the assumed affordance, in the present study the effectiveness of MMORPG for vocabulary learning was under examination. The third objective of the present study is to triangulate the results of previous 8.

(21) research questions by investigating language learners’ perception of the effectiveness of the use of MMORPGs for language learning in several aspects. Even though learner might be subjective to certain degree, their perception is still an imperative indicator because making progress is an individual process that only the players who make efforts in the gameplay are able to experience. To shed new light into the nature of language learning with the use of MMORPGs, the current study aims to answer the following research questions: 1. What kind of speech acts that language learners carry out during the interaction in the MMORPG group play? What kind of speech acts that fluent English speakers carry out during the interaction in the MMORPG group play? What are the similarities and differences between the speech acts identified in the speech of the two groups of players? 2.. Does playing the MMORPG incidentally improve language learners’ knowledge on vocabulary?. 3. What is language learners’ perception of the effectiveness of playing GW2 for English learning?. 1.4 The Significance of the Study Advocates of communicative competence have long recognized the essentiality of the functional aspect (i.e. the pragmatic competence) of the target language. The cultivation of pragmatic competence is believed to reduce the chance of communication breakdown between people of different language backgrounds. According to Schmidt and Richards (1980), one key factor that leads to communication breakdown is that the native speakers and the second language learners have “different rules for the realization of particular speech acts”. Therefore, it is imperative for second language learners to acquire the knowledge of rules for the 9.

(22) realization of various speech acts in social interaction. In the formal classroom setting in Taiwan, students’ opportunities to carry out various speech acts to achieve certain discourse functions is circumscribed. Class activities seldom offer meaningful contexts for students to use the language socially and pragmatically (Lin, 2010; Cheng, 2012). It is usually the lecturing that occupies most of the class time (Cheng, 2012). As the learning of the functional aspects of language is widely believed to be essential, more learning opportunities outside of the classroom should be offered to students. It is hoped that the present study can help to recognize MMORPGs as a resourceful arena for students to interact meaningfully with native speakers of English outside of the classroom. Another contribution of the present study would be related to vocabulary learning. Since nineteen eighties, the dominant status of vocabulary for second language learning has been warranted and well documented (Laufer, 2009; Nation, 1982). Teachers and researchers have tried hard to find ways to assist students to learn new words in a more effective way. On the basis of the discussion in previous sections, playing MMORPGs is believed to reinforce students’ knowledge of vocabulary. Not many researchers or teachers so far, however, recognized this potential aspect and thus the current study will explore more. The present study aims to exploit the affordances of MMORPGs for language learning, offering students more ways to learn English in a meaningful and an agreeable environment.. 10.

(23) 1.5 Definition of Key Words 1. Communication: It is considered to be a series of speech acts (Austin, 1962). 2. Discourse analysis: It generally refers to the approaches to analyzing certain language event (Gee, 2005). 3. Pragmatic competence: It refers to “the knowledge of the sequential aspects of speech acts and knowledge of the appropriate contextual use of the particular language’s linguistic resources.” (Barron, 2003) 4. Speech acts: They are referred to as the minimal units of speaking which perform certain functions (Schmidt, & Richards, 1980). 5. Incidental vocabulary learning: “learning words without deliberate decision to commit information to memory.” (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001). 11.

(24) CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW Through previous literature of adopting MMORPGs for language learning purposes, the potentials of MMORPGs seem to gain more and more recognition in the most recent years. In the section of literature review, previous research on MMORPGs in relation to interaction and vocabulary learning will be reviewed. Section 2.1 delineates the studies on MMORPGs serving as an interaction arena. Section 2.2 comprises MMORPG research for vocabulary learning. In the section 2.3, the limitations of previous studies will be presented. 2.1 Research on MMORPGs as an Interaction Arena When it becomes clear that MMORPGs have made its way to language learning, learners’ interaction with other players during gameplay might remain in question if there is no support of empirical studies. Several experiments revealed some attributes of language learners’ speech in MMORPG environment. A preliminary study conducted by Thorne (2008) examined one instance of intercultural communication in a popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft (WoW). The participants included a Ukraine player and an American player; they produced 62 sentences of speech in this event. Through the transcripts, several merits of speech were identified. First, despite the fact that the language ability of the two participants is varied, their speech displayed the pattern of the reciprocal alternations; that is, their roles alternate between the expert (information providers) and the novice (information receiver). They both offer game-related expert knowledge, language-specific corrections, and provide each other with wholehearted support. Second, both of the participants were observed to devote efforts to build up a pleasurable relationship with each other through requesting the partner’s personal information, sharing various kinds of daily-life experience, and greeting and saying goodbye in a polite manner. 12.

(25) According to Throne, the two players from different language backgrounds appeared to establish “an enduring affiliative bond” in both in-game activities and out-of game activities. Third, through the discussion of game-related knowledge and the establishment of relationship, opportunities for language learning occurred. For example, they would check with each other if certain word spelling was correct or not and the sentence that they uttered was appropriate or not. Throne argued that the social interaction in this case study displayed great opportunities that MMORPGs afford for learners to engage in intercultural communication and refine their existing language knowledge. In one study conducted by Rankin, McNeal, Shute, and Gooch’s (2008), they invited six advanced ESL Chinese students to play an MMORPG EverQuestⅡ(EQⅡ) for four hours with native speakers of English. In total 525 chat messages were collected and analyzed. The speech acts realized in the interaction were identified and classified into four main category, including request for game or personal information, assertive statements revealing their knowledge of the game, self, or world, conversational openings and closings, and player’s influence on other PCs’ future actions. The researchers found there was no significant difference between the number of chat messages produced by native speakers of English and the number produced by the language learners. This result invalidated the researchers’ previous assumption that native speakers of English might produce more assertive statements since they have better command of the target language. The results indicated that if the player is a native speaker of English or not might not have influential impacts on learners’ willingness to communicate in the game environment, where they need to realize various speech acts for better in-game collaboration. Reinders and Wattana’s (2010) examined the use of an adapted MMORPG, in which the participants were required to practice certain language skills that they had 13.

(26) learned in the formal English class. Sixteen college students with English ability ranged from novice to intermediate level were invited in the study. Each session lasted for about 40 minutes. During the gameplay, eight students were in the voice-based chat group and the other eight students were assigned to the text-based chat group. They were required to interact with NPCs in order to complete three quests in three gameplay sessions. Transcripts of voice-based chat messages and text-based chat messages were collected and analyzed. Questionnaires of students’ willingness to communicate in the gameplay were administered twice right after session 1 and session 3. There were several outcomes that worth noting. First, the gameplay had positive impact on the quantity of students’ produced speech. According to their data, the average number of turns per student in session 3 was significantly larger than that in session 1 (75.9 vs. 66.0). This might result from the fact that, based on their questionnaire answers, students felt more relaxed and confident to communicate in English during session 3 when compared with in session 1. Second, even though the quantity of speech produced by learners was increasing, the accuracy of word spelling and grammaticality did not improve. Third, a range of discourse functions were identified in both oral- and text-based communication, including greetings, confirmation checks, clarification requests, corrections, and questions. Learners were found to use more greetings, confirmation checks, and clarification requests in oral interaction than in the text-based interaction, which was thought to result from problems caused by students’ pronunciation, a lack of preparation time, and the quality of computer audio equipment. On the other hand, self-corrections and questions were present more frequently in text transcripts. Forth, during the text-based interaction, students were observed to use many emoticons, omissions, contractions, or abbreviations to make the delivery of messages faster and easier. With the findings, 14.

(27) the authors concluded that MMORPGs may provide learners a comfortable environment for purposeful communication and MMORPGs enhanced learners’ capacity to quickly read, comprehend, and produce messages in English. Another empirical research conducted by Zeng, Young, Wagner, and Brewer (2009) adopted an educational MMORPG, Quest Atlantis, for interaction purposes. The game provides quests related to educational issues such as global warming for players to discuss. In the study, two Mandarin Chinese students and two Caucasian students were invited to join the study and they were formed into two groups (one English learner and one native English speaker formed a group). Two dyads of students then collaborated to finished quests together for ten weeks. The authors underscored the concept of “negotiation for meaning”, which includes comprehension checks, confirmation checks, and clarification requests (Long, 1983) as well as “negotiation for action”, defined as “interaction between NNS and NS actions and movement toward their goal” in players’ communication. The two concepts were combined into language coding framework, which was called “Negotiation for Action Codes”, comprising comprehension checks, confirmation checks, clarification requests, other-correction, self-correction, continuers, negotiation for action, idioms pick up trigger, and pick up. The results showed that native speakers were not always in the role of instructor; native speakers and nonnative speakers’ roles would vary depending on the content of the quests. For example, when the participants were talking about the term “carpool”, a traffic rule people should followed in American, the native English speakers became the instructor who passed their knowledge on to the nonnative English speakers; in the other hand, when the topic is about a Chinese proverb, nonnative speakers were more knowledgeable and thus acted as the instructor in the interaction. Second, they discovered that the interactions occurred in the quests were richest in negotiation 15.

(28) between two cultures when the content-based interaction unfolded. In Peterson’s (2012) study, four students took part in 70-minute WoW game sessions held once a week over a period of one month. The total gameplay time was 280 minutes per person. Some significant features of social interaction in the game were discovered and presented with transcripts. First, players may adopt politeness strategy through the use of greetings, informal language, small talk, humor, and prolonged leave-takings to create a favorable communication environment and build a harmonious relationship with each other. Second, players may try to establish a shared communication context for interaction, or so-called “intersubjectivity”, such as asking for forming teams with other players, which allows players who have the same goal in mind to gather together and play together. Third, to maintain the shared communication context, players often used continuers (such as “and then?”) to signal attention and interest or request for clarification to make the conversation go on. The researchers concluded that even if the co-participants were not specifically aiming to acquire language skills, their interaction might be able to enhance their L2 learning. Table 2 summarizes the speech acts identified in the interaction in previous studies.. 16.

(29) Table 2 Speech Acts Identified in the Interaction in MMORPG Worlds Author/ function. To fill the information gap between one and another. To influence others’ action or the world around them. To negotiate for meaning. To establish or maintain relationship with others.. Throne (2008). Provided game-related expert knowledge. Request others’ assistance. Negotiate for meaning.. Take leaves. Rankin et al. (2008). (1) Request for game or personal information (2) Assertive statements revealing their knowledge of the game, self, or world. Player’s influence on other PCs’ future actions.. Reinders & Wattana (2010) Zeng et al. (2009). Requests. Peterson (2012). Request for forming team with other players. To correct others’ or learners’ own language errors Correct (other or their own) language. To achieve miscellaneous functions. Conversational openings and closings. Clarification. Greetings. Corrections. Question Emoticons. (1) Comprehension checks (2) Confirmation checks (3) Clarification requests. Continuers. Other-correction Self-correction. Idioms pick up trigger. pick up. Request for clarification. (1) Greetings (2) Use of informal language, small talk, and humor (3) Continuers. Through the analysis in the previous literature, several characteristics of interaction in MMORPGs were identified. First, although different studies have different focus on the categorization of speech acts, they all showed that participants’ speech contained a range of speech acts, some of which were realized to fill the information gap between one and another, some were used to influence others’ action or the world around them, some were used to negotiate for meaning, some were adopted to establish or maintain relationship with others, and some were carried out to 17.

(30) correct others’ or learners’ own language errors. Second, the relationship between ESL students and native speakers’ is reciprocal, which means language ability might not as influential indicator as expected in the game world, because in the game world the most important thing is achieving the goals of quests. Native speakers and nonnative speakers may alternate between the role of information providers and receivers depending on the goal they wanted to achieve. Third, the authors generally held a positive view toward the affordance that MMORPG environment provides for second language interaction. Even though the realization of speech acts, just as Peterson’s (2012) states, cannot directly link to students’ second language acquisition, the analyses help us to take a look at “what’s going on” in the interaction, allowing us to know the pragmatic aspects of language used in the game world.. 2.2 Research on the Potential of Vocabulary Acquisition in MMORPGs While literature showing researchers’ interests in MMORPGs for second language learning, empirical studies reporting on vocabulary gains made by the adoption of MMORPGs are rather restricted. One study of the adoption of MMORPGs for vocabulary learning was carried out by Rankin, Gold, and Gooch (2006). Four ESL students who completed eighteen hours of MMORP gameplay in EverQuest Ⅱ(EQⅡ) were tested on the words they encountered in different context. The first test focused on words which were encountered once during their interaction with other players and the second test focused on words which students encountered more than five times during the conversation with NPCs. The results showed that all four students accurately defined 35% of the words in the first test and accurately defined 55% of words in the second test. This discovery indicated that the number of word occurrence in the game might 18.

(31) influence the degree to which students acquire the words. Another example is presented by Rankin, Morrison, McNeal, Gooch, and Shute (2009). There were 18 ESL students participated in the study. Six of them were assigned to the first experimental group, and they were required to played EQⅡ alone for four hours; six were in the second experimental group and they were required to grouped up with native speakers of English to play EQⅡfor four hours; the rest six students were in the control group and were required to attend three hours of class instruction of route exercise and drills. After treatments, the participants were tested on the knowledge of 12 college level words selected from the NPC’s speech. Two types of tests, recognition tests and use-in-sentence tests, were administered. For use-in-sentence test, the results showed that only the students in the control group exhibited significant improvement; students who played EQⅡalone or in group with English speakers made some progress but did not achieve statistical significance. For the recognition test, however, students’ posttest scores for all three treatments revealed a significant difference. Among the three groups, students who were required to play with native speakers of English achieved the highest scores. Students in the group of class instruction came in the second; students who played alone the last. The results in this study suggested that the gameplay in either of the two forms (play alone or play with native speakers) might not provide sufficient learning input to enable students to use the target words in a productive way, but it allows them to have the basic knowledge to recognize these words, and its effectiveness was more evident when they collaborate and have interaction with native speakers of English. While the number of experimental studies on MMORPGs used for students’ vocabulary gains is limited, several studies have been carried out to examine the linguistic complexity of vocabulary embedded in MMORPGs. Some of them have 19.

(32) also investigated students’ perceived gains of vocabulary when playing MMORPGs. One example is provided by Throne, Fischer, and Lu (2012). The lexical sophistication and lexical diversity of quest texts of WoW and its famous external websites were analyzed with the measurement tools Lexical Sophistication (LS) and Mean Segmental Type-Token Ration (MSTTR). The results showed that the vocabulary occurring in the game world and game-related websites exhibited a high degree of lexical sophistication and lexical diversity, based on which the researchers concluded that MMORPGs like WoW seem to provide a linguistically diverse and complex environment for second language learners. Hass (2012) conducted a corpus-based investigation on the levels and richness of vocabulary within three free-to-play MMORPGs and three pay-to-play MMORPGs. She discovered that in general pay-to-play MMORPGs provided learners with significantly more exposure to the diverse vocabulary and higher-level vocabulary. She concluded that MMORPGs might have the potential to afford a rich environment for vocabulary learning, but researchers and practitioners should be aware of the nature and the quality of the wide range of games in order to select the one that suits students’ learning needs. In Peterson (2011)’s study, seven ESL students were asked to complete a five-point Likert Scale questionnaire about the effectiveness of playing an MMORPG WoW for second language learning. The response which students gave to the degree of vocabulary learning is 3.6, suggesting in the view of a majority of the learners, playing the game benefited vocabulary learning. Peterson (2012) conducted another study on four students’ attitude toward an MMORPG WoW for language learning. Four students were interviewed and two out of them reported that they learned new words and some slangs in English by playing the game. MMORPGs were generally reported to have the potential to make positive 20.

(33) effects on vocabulary learning. Research on its effectiveness of vocabulary acquisition, however, is still quite scant. Further investigation on students’ vocabulary gains in the real gaming environment is needed.. 2.3 Limitations in Previous Research Previous literature has identified some affordances provides by the adoption of MMORPGs for interaction and vocabulary learning. These studies, however, are not without limitations.. 2.3.1 Limitations of Previous Research on the Interaction in MMORPGs The major limitation of previous studies is that the discourse analysis conducted by the researchers might not be elaborate enough. First, some studies used an event of dialogue as the basic unit for speech act coding rather than use a complete sentence as the unit for speech act coding. The details of students’ language output might be ignored. Second, some studies did not specify their definition of certain speech acts. The functions of some speech acts seemed identical, which makes the classification not as meaningful as expected. For example, in Reinders and Wattana’s study, the produced sentence like “What do you mean by saying that?” seemed to belong to both the category of clarification and the category of question. Third, most of the studies do not take into consideration of the percentage that each speech act accounts for in the whole interaction. Without the information, it is still hard for us to distinguish the more frequent speech acts from the less frequent ones carried out by learners, which means that the whole picture of the intercultural interaction occurring in the MMORPG worlds might be still not clear.. 21.

(34) 2.3.2 Limitations of Previous Studies on Incidental Vocabulary Learning in MMORPGs As discussed in the former section, several studies have been conducted to investigate the potential of MMORPGs for vocabulary learning, but studies focusing on students’ real vocabulary gains are quite limited. There are also some limitations which need to be addressed. In Rankin et al. (2006)’s study, students’ vocabulary gains achieved statistical significance; the number of participants, nevertheless, was only four and thus the results might not be able to be generalized to other context. Although the second study done by Rankin and his colleagues (2009) invited more students in the experiment, the researchers, however, did not take into consideration of the number of encounters with the target word in the game. The positive effect of repeated encounters of target words has been verified by research of implicit vocabulary learning. A few decades ago, Nagy, Herman and Anderson (1985) has proposed that, in both first and second language acquisition, repeated encounters of the target word is needed to achieve full knowledge of the word because a person’s vocabulary gain is a gradual process. Repeated exposure to a word allows learners to have more exposure to its linguistic and pragmatic properties, strengthening learners’ memory of this word (Laufer & Roitblat, 2011). Several studies have examined the number of optimal encounters of words in the context of vocabulary learning through reading. For example, Rott (1999) proposed that six encounters produced significantly larger gains. Horst and Meara’s (1998) suggested that vocabulary gains were likely to occur when words were repeated eight or more times in graded readers. Waring and Takaki (2003) discovered that it took twenty or more meetings with a word. Webb (2007) focused on the effect of word repetition on different aspects of vocabulary knowledge, including orthography, association, grammatical functions, syntax, and meaning. He discovered that as the 22.

(35) number of word presentation increased, all aspects of knowledge tended to increase. At one encounter, participants’ improvement can be found in certain aspects. At three encounters, sizable gains were observed in every aspect; at ten encounters, significantly large learning was shown in every aspect. Although the optimal number of word occurrence needed for vocabulary learning is not yet conclusive, taken as a whole, these studies provided considerable evidence that repetition yields positive effects on incidental vocabulary learning. In terms of former research on interaction in MMORPGs, the analysis approaches seem not elaborate enough; in terms of previous studies on vocabulary learning, they failed to take the number of participants and the importance of word repetition into consideration for vocabulary learning. The current study attempts to fill the gap and provides more insights into the affordance provides by the use of MMORPGs for SLA.. 23.

(36) CHAPTER THREE METHODS This chapter describes the methods employed in the current study. Section 3.1 provides the detailed information of the participants who take part in the study. Section 3.2 introduces the game that adopted for research. In section 3.3, the methods of data collection and data analysis of speech acts, vocabulary test, and questionnaire will be presented. Section 3.4 contains data collection and analysis.. 3.1 Participants Ten English learners with intermediate level in English were invited to participate in this study. Their age ranges from 19 to 25, and the average age is 23. All of the ten participants in this study are experienced MMORPG gamers with at least three years of MMORPG gameplay experience, but they have never played the game that adopted in the present study. The design that includes experienced players in the current study is to reduce the influence of participants’ novelty of MMORPG gameplay on the effectiveness of language learning. Previous studies have shown that novice players experienced difficulties in controlling avatars and utilizing in-game commands, which prevents them from engaging in successful game exploration or collaboration with other players, leading to the decrease of their motivation in using the games for language learning in the first place (Peterson, 2011; 2012). Since the whole gaming session for participants only lasts for twenty-eight days, and orientation for them is only one to two hours, the participants are expected to have already possessed sufficient gaming skills before attending this experiment. Table 3 outlines the basic information of the ten participants, including their age, MMORPG gameplay experience, and English proficiency. 24.

(37) Table 3 Participants’ Age, MMORPG Gameplay Experience, and English Proficiency Number. Participant. Age. MMORPG Gameplay experience. English proficiency. 1. Participant 1. 24. 12 years. Intermediate (Self-perceived). 2. Participant 2. 25. 4 years. Intermediate (GEPT intermediate). 3. Participant 3. 25. 11 years. Intermediate (self-perceived). 4. Participant 4. 19. 3 years. Intermediate (GEPT intermediate). 5. Participant 5. 25. 10 years. Intermediate (self-perceived). 6. Participant 6. 24. 7 years. Intermediate (TOEFL 72 points). 7. Participant 7. 21. 6 years. Intermediate (GEPT intermediate). 8. Participant 8. 25. 8 years. Intermediate (TOEIC 620 points). 9. Participant 9. 20. 7 years. Intermediate (self-perceived). 10. Participant 10. 25. 12 years. Intermediate ~Intermediate high TOEIC 750. 3.2 The Instrument Guild Wars 2 (GW2), a newly-released sequel to Guild War, is a well-known massively multiplayer online role playing game among game players worldwide. GW2 immerses players in the high quality three-dimensional fantasy world, in which 25.

(38) players undertake solo play, collaborative play, duels, and match competitions and other achievement-related activities such as making handicrafts, selling and buying items of specific power, all of which make real-time conversation with other players become necessary. In-game mailbox, chat channel, and task instructions provide participants access to a great deal of English input and allow for output. Compared with other traditional MMORPGs, GW2 is furthermore characterized by its Personal Story, which makes the game a highly potential medium for storytelling. Players are not only allowed to choose specific race, profession, and appearance but also their personality, image, dreams, or ambitions when creating their avatars. The choices players make would shape the background story of the virtual world in which the players are immersed. During the game playing process, every choice a player makes may also influence the plot or development of their own stories. This specialty reflects Ang and Zaphiris’ (2008) statements that “computer games could be interactive narratives…the ”reader” to not only witness stories but to enact them.” Therefore, players in GW2 complete tasks with the expectation not only of character upgrading and but also of story development. Figure 1 shows the interface of GW2.. 26.

(39) Guilds In-game mailbox. Summarized instructions for personal story. Detailed task instruction given by NPCs Summarized instructions for the current task. Players can get more information about the current task by choosing appropriate response. Text-based chat channel. Figure 1: GW2 interface. 3.3 Procedure The whole procedure takes 4 weeks (28 days), with initial orientation, four-week gameplay sessions, vocabulary pretest and posttest and questionnaire administration. In the orientation session, information about the avatars they were required to create and the timetable for task completion were provided. The participants were instructed to install the game GW2 and the video recording device on their laptops. After the device and software were installed, they began to create avatars. When creating the avatar, participants were required to play the same role, choose the same options for personal stories, and complete the same tasks in order to have the same gaming 27.

(40) experience. Therefore, they would encounter the same tasks and meet the same story NPCs (detailed instructions for character creation and are shown in Appendix A). After creating the character, the participants are required to take a pretest on target vocabulary items to assess their current knowledge of vocabulary. During the gameplay sessions, participants were required to complete the sixteen tasks in the lowest level area, Metrica Province. In order to make sure that the participants would be able to complete all the tasks on time, the author contacted each participant regularly to check their gameplay progress. Table 4 shows the procedure of the current study.. Table 4 Procedure of the Present Study Day. Tasks. Tests/ questionnaire. Before. Orientation. Vocabulary pretest. Complete task one to task eight. 1st vocabulary posttest. Complet task nine to task sixteen. 2nd vocabulary posttest. experiment Day 1-7 (Week one) Day 8-14 (Week two) Day 15-21. Achieve level 30 or above. (Week three) Day 22-28. Complte the instance in the dungeon Questionaire. (Week four). Ascalonian Catacombs. In the first week (Day 1 to Day 7), the participants completed the previous eight tasks and then took the first vocabulary posttest; in the second week (Day 8 to Day 16), they completed the rest eight tasks and took the second vocabulary posttest. The 16 tasks and the sequence of these tasks which they were required to follow are shown in Table 5. 28.

(41) Table 5 The 16 Tasks and the Sequence of the Tasks Task sequence. Task objective. 1st. Support Doola’s Golemancing research. 2nd. Assist Professor Gahf in teaching his young progeny. 3rd. Assist the Opticalium with lightning research. 4th. Help Blopp stop the Inquest from using hylek poison to drive lake creatures crazy. th. 5. Use Researcher Kaii’s SCRAP-Suit to help him manage Incomp’s scrap heap. 6th. Assist PR&T Esoterics with ooze research. 7th. Help Brill Alliance study the skritt. 8th. Help Hrouda maintain the ecosystem in spite of Dr. Bleent’s research. 9th. Assist Parnna’s research into the ancient transfer chamber. 10th. Help Shoon’s salvage krewe deal with Inquest. 11th. Help the Michotl tribe. 12th. Help the Lionguard keep the Cuatl hylek in check. 13th. Assist the Chaos krewe. 14th. Help the C.L.E.A.N. krewe. 15th. Help the Luminates plant krewe maintain the power grid. 16th. Help Peacemaker Owta disrupt the Inquest complex. To complete each task, participants would engage in certain conversation in order to acquire the detailed information they needed for the next move. Following is one example transcript of the conversation in the task “Assist Professor Gahf in teaching his young progeny.” Professor Gahf: Young ones are so demanding. The progeny are eager to learn, 29.

(42) but without the proper supervision, their excitement can lead to dangerous results. Would you care to assist me? I’m in need of good assistants. Player: What would you need me to do? Professor Gahf: There are guest teaching apparatuses stationed around the area. Use them to perform demonstrations for the progeny and allow them to experiment of their own. Just keep them safe from any results of their experimentation. Player: Simple enough. What else? Professor Gahf: Some progeny may have questions for more knowledgeable geniuses like you and me. Try to help those impressionable progeny in any way that you can. Player: Anything else? Professor Gahf: Conversely. There are some progeny who have chosen to ignore their studies and loaf around. Their unruly behavior must not be remain unreprimaneded. Player: Understand. Is that all you need from me? Professor Gahf: Be vigilant for Inquest recruiters. Progeny are more susceptible to their deception. Chase them off through intimidation, or physical force if necessary. But we mustn’t allow them to contact with the progeny. Player: Got it. I’ll get to work. In the third week, where the participants had already finished the 16 tasks and their avatar had reached more than level 15, they could explore the virtual world based on their own will. They were required to achieve level 30 before day 21, because level 30 in GW2 is the threshold for joining a group to accomplish the major task on the special map, which is called “instance.” During the gameplay, participants are not allowed to look unknown words up in the dictionary and thus the number of word encounter becomes the sole variable of vocabulary learning in the research. In the fourth week, the participants (with avatars at level 30 or above) were required to choose a time period to join a group play and complete the first instance of the game, which occurs in the dungeon called Ascalonian Catacombs (AC). They could either find their group members in the guild that they attended or just invite 30.