Videogames in formal English language learning

Abstract

As videogames rise in popularity, it is necessary to study their importance in teaching environments. This paper presents activities developed to verify students’ reception in relation to videogame’s usage as classroom practice on an intermediate level class of the English Language Extension Course (CELIN), at the Federal University of Viçosa. Game activities suggested by Oliveira and Campos (2013) were used as basis, with other authors’ contributions.  The activities were developed using three videogames (Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, The Sims and Life is Strange), according to the linguistic topics planned for the course. At the end of each activity, students were asked to write Action Logs (MURPHEY, BARCELOS & MORAES, 2014) in order to report their feelings and expectations, and at the end of semester, a written and visual narrative about their experiences in class. The written narratives and Action Logs were analyzed through the language learning frame of reference, presented by Miccoli, Bambirra and Vianini (2020). This paper focuses on exploring only the Action Logs and written narratives. The reports show that active participation games were more accepted, and although they had minimal previous experiences with videogames, students perceived how the activities helped their learning and autonomy. The teacher role as a mediator on the process of adopting digital practices is highlighted, searching for solutions to classroom’s technical, practical and social differences.