Potential language-learning tasks involving the MC game or its many associated resources (primarily available in English).
1. Opportunities out-of-game to narrate (in writing or conversationally) events that occurred in-game.
2. Opportunities to read authentic texts out-of-game in order to solve in-game problems.
3. Opportunities to watch and listen to YouTube videos in the L2.
4. Opportunities to interact verbally, plan, strategize with other players in-game or with other players out-of-game (hopefully in the L2).
5. Somewhat unfocused opportunities for lexical expansion, that would need some sort of out-of-game attention, .e.g. learner makes personal dictionary of verbs found in texts. Defocus on "MC English."
Feel free to add to this partial list!
opportunity to write a short scenario and conversation, build the set in game and role play it?
ReplyDeleteAs I said in the very beginning: I'm a not believer considering whether MC might be useful and if so in which teaching contexts and it which ways. I'm not a "true-believer" in MC who feels that any activity would automatically be better if incorporated into MC. In the case of your roleplay activity, I would ask why have the students waste time on "set design" in MC. Just do the roleplay in class.
ReplyDeleteok I'll be presumptuous and speak on behalf of others here who've been using any type of virtual worlds or games. We do not believe that those environments "automatically" make activities better.
ReplyDeleteHow can it make the role better? Off the top of my head
- Role playing with a silly looking avatar that has a funny name and moves funny is less intimidating than role playing with everyone including my teacher is looking at me in real life. It can be playful, goofy and fun with the emphasis on playful in my opinion, goofy is good too. :)
- Building the scene can be one of the contexts for your numbers 2 and 4 they can use whatever English they have to communicate.
We can build a ... We should have .. and .. Who can/wants to be the ...etc
Then during the building where's.... ? Does anyone have ....? No don't put it here... How does it look? I need ... Be careful... hmmm I don't like this color ... Help Zombie... etc. :)
Will it work? It depends.
Is it a waste of time? It depends
Does role playing in class work? It depends :)
I do sometimes sense the "everything is better with MC" vibe. But you make some good points there. Mostly about how the related activities, rather than the role-plays themselves have L2 learning potential.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, I am not a fan of role-plays and don't use them in my classes. This is because the language typically generated in student role-plays doesn't jive well with authentic talk-in-interaction in similar real-life situations (based on empirical research).
However, an attempt has been made to blend together the empirical observations of conversation analysis with the learning potential of role-play. It is called CARM. In short, learners (and this might include for example doctors and emergency personnel) first look at recordings and transcripts of naturally occurring interaction and afterwards try to incorporated these practices into their role-playing.
carmtraining.org - CARM - Conversation Analytic Role-play Method