Gameplay in Italian: The Impacts of World of Warcraft on Second Language Learners in Turkey

Alp P., Patat E.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEARNING TECHNOLOGY, cilt.22, sa.3, ss.1-9, 2015 (Scopus)

Özet

This 5-week study investigates the impacts of the Italian version of World of Warcraft

(WoW), a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), on second language

learners in a private, English-medium university in Turkey. Vocabulary acquisition,

communicative competence and self-confidence were the main points of interest in the

gameplay experience. Pre- and post-survey, together with a pre- and post-language test and

one-to-one semi-structured interviews were the instruments used to collect the data. The

results revealed that, even with a small-size sample, certain improvements in learning new

vocabulary and self-confidence were detected. Whereas, due to several constraints, enhanced

communicative competence was not observed. Future research should take into consideration

other variables affecting gameplay and the need of developing supplementary material which

could be of significant use in the technology-mediated teaching and learning processes.