Learning of L2 Japanese through video games

In Japanese-as-a-foreign language (JFL) education, the impacts of Japanese entertainment media such as digital games have been noted as a motivator for JFL learners. Although outside-of-class literacy exposure from these digital games has been recognized due to their popularity, the specifics of how digital games affect JFL digital literacies and how they interplay with JFL learners’ motivations have not yet been fully explored. Thus, this study investigated the literacies around game fandoms for JFL learners in a Japanese language program (n = 191) and the self-directed and group-based learning activities of a game focus group (n = 6) with two commercial games. The findings demonstrated JFL learners’ literacy exposure through Japanese games and revealed JFL learners’ unique issues with kanji, furigana, and honorifics. Additionally, digital games in Japanese have roles in supporting JFL learners’ motivations (a) visually as achievement milestones (i.e., progress markers) within game content and (b) as goals that JFL learners set for accessing and playing target game titles both as gamers and as JFL learners. Moreover, the study highlights the importance for higher education to connect in-class and non-formal learning and to support L2 learners with 21st century skills

Technology and Vocabulary

Vocabulary knowledge is one of the most important components of L2 proficiency (Schmitt, 2010). At the same time, the acquisition of L2 vocabulary is particularly challenging because it is item-based as opposed to rule-based acquisition of grammar. That is to say that vocabulary items (words and multiword units) need to be learned one-by-one, which requires repeated exposure and practice. Furthermore, learners need to be actively engaged with the target lexical items for them to be committed to memory and eventually acquired. With the exponential growth of technological applications for L2 learning in recent years, many tools and methods have come to the aid of learners by increasing both the frequency of exposure and the level of engagement

Mobile Augmented Reality: Hyper Contextualization and Situated Language Usage Events

Language use, second-language development, and technology mediated human activity are complex processes situated in, and in some cases demonstrably interwoven with, specific material and social contexts. Our presentation describes a project that focuses on the contextually embedded nature of communicative action. Building upon recent research on ethnomethodological analyses of talk-in-interaction while walking (Haddington et al., 2013), analyses of how communicative activity mediates our understanding of objects and environments (Nevile et al., 2014; Latour, 2005), principles of extended and embodied cognition (Atkinson, 2010), and existing research on the use of mobile place-based augmented reality (AR) techniques for language learning (Holden & Sykes, 2011; Thorne, 2013; Thorne et al., 2015), this paper investigates participants’ contextually aware interactional practices as they carry out an AR activity. In response to the question of when and how action is explicitly situated in, or catalyzed by, particular aspects of the physical surround, we report on members’ methods for making unplanned use of resources from the immediate physical context in order to co-construct actions (such as wayfinding and oral reporting) to accomplish the AR game goals

Nordic Childhoods in the Digital Age

"This book adds to the international research literature on contemporary Nordic childhoods in the context of fast-evolving technologies. It draws on the workshop program of the Nordic Research Network on Digital Childhoods funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) during the years 2019–2021. Bringing together researchers from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, the book addresses pressing issues around children’s communication, learning and education in the digital age. The volume sheds light on cultural values, educational policies and conceptions of children and childhood, and child–media relationships inherent in Nordic societies. The book argues for the importance of understanding local cultures, values and communication practices that make up contemporary digital childhoods and extends current discourses on children’s screen time to bring in new insights about the nature of children’s digital engagement. This book will appeal to researchers, graduate students, educators and policy makers in the fields of childhood education, educational technology and communication.

Interactions for Language Learning in and Around Virtual World

“… the new forms of interaction made possible by virtual worlds remain, to a significant degree, unexplored.” (Peterson, 2011: 78) “… immersion and interaction are necessary conditions of worldhood. Without them, virtual worlds would not be worlds at all.” (Zabel, 2014: 417) Since the mid-1990s, the pedagogical opportunities offered by three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds (VWs) have generated a considerable amount of interest and dialogue among educators and educational researchers across a variety of disciplines. The potential of VWs for language learning and teaching did not go unnoticed by the CALL community: language educators and researchers began to explore and to study these environments and their unique set of features for foreign language learning (Henderson, Huang, Grant & Henderson, 2009; Jauregi & Canto, 2012; Milton, Jonsen, Hirst & Lindenburn, 2012; Peterson, 2006; Schwienhorst, 2004; Sykes, 2005; Zheng & Newgarden, 2012; Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer, 2009). In parallel, several European Union (EU) transnational funded projects also emerged for the exploration of the affordances of VWs for language learning and acquisition, such as the NIFLAR, TILA, and ARCHI21 projects, and for the creation of teaching and learning materials (e.g. the AVALON, TALETE, and CAMELOT projects). In 2010, the Euroversity Network was established with EU funding to bring together international scholars and researchers working with VWs in education for the sharing of best practice and with a clear focus on VWs for language learning. The joint EUROCALL/ CALICO Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group was also founded around this time