169 Ricardo Casañ Pitarch Language for Specific
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Language for Specific Purposes and Graphic-Adventure Videogames: Supporting Content and Language Learning 9 Enseñanza de Lengua para Fines ARTÍCULO Específicos a través de Aventuras Gráficas Ricardo Casañ Pitarch Universitat Jaume I PhD in Applied Linguistics and holds a MA in English language for international trade (Business) and a BA in English Philology. His current position is Assistant Professor at the Catholic University of Murcia (Spain). He also has experience at teaching in online universities. His main research interest within applied linguistics is genre analysis. His most recent publication and work focus on morphological and syntax analysis of texts for specific purposes. [email protected] https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=kYm7d03z7OQC&hl=es Fecha de recepción: 07 de marzo de 2016 / Aceptación: 21 de julio de 2016 Abstract The use of videogames for educational purposes teaching and learning combined with the charac- seems to increasingly be in the eye of teachers and teristics of educational videogames with the aim publishers of didactic materials. Videogames can of describing the needs to be considered when de- be a great support for language learners since veloping videogames for LSP. In this sense, these they increase their time of exposure in an enter- videogames should be designed and adapted to taining way. This research is a literature review particular professions related to the communica- which focuses on supporting language for specific tion purposes of the target language. This propo- purposes (LSP) students with graphic-adventure vi- sal is addressed to LSP teaching professionals as deogames. This paper introduces theories of LSP well as for publishers of didactic materials. OBRA DIGITAL, Núm. 13, Septiembre 2017 - Enero 2018, pp.169-183, e-ISSN 2014-5039 169 KEYWORDS cas. Este artículo presenta teorías sobre la en- Videogames, LSP, Content and Language learning, señanza y aprendizaje de LFE combinadas con Graphic-adventures las características de los videojuegos educati- vos cuya finalidad es describir las necesidades Resumen a considerar cuando se desarrollaran video- El uso de los videojuegos educativos parece juegos de LSP. Estos videojuegos se diseñaran estar más presente entre profesores y edito- basándose en profesiones relacionadas con la riales de materiales didácticos. Se ha demos- finalidad comunicativa de la lengua meta. Esta trado que los videojuegos pueden ser un gran propuesta pretende ser de interés docente así apoyo docente para estudiantes de idiomas ya como para editores de materiales didácticos. que incrementan su tiempo de exposición a la lengua extranjera de manera lúdica. Esta inves- PALABRAS CLAVE tigación es una revisión de la literatura centra- Videojuegos, lenguaje para fines específicos, da en el estudio de la enseñanza y aprendizaje aprendizaje de segundas lenguas, aventuras de lenguas para fines específicos (LFE) a través gráficas. del género de videojuegos de aventuras gráfi- 2003). In the area of foreign language learning, INTRODUCTION 1. the use of videogames seems to be a useful Education has changed a great deal during the resource to help learners develop their foreign last decades and especially during the last years. language skills; see for example the videoga- The traditional classroom with paper books, mes ‘Lyrics Training’ (Mills, 2010) or ‘The Con- blackboard and chalk has evolved towards the ference Interpreter’ (Calvo-Ferrer, 2013). These use of electronic devices that aim at improving videogames include different objectives but the quality and quantity of the learning proces- they mainly focus on helping learners develop ses as well as making this task easier for both communication language skills and acquire teachers and learners. Between the last years specific terminology. In this case, the purpo- of the 1990s and the early 2000s most univer- se of this paper is to describe the features of sities began to use electronic platforms where graphic adventure videogames as a means of students were provided with electronic resour- support in the language for specific purposes ces for their learning; these included blogs, wiki, classroom (LSP) at tertiary level. In contrast to e-books and e-workbooks, or websites, among general language programs, LSP students are many others. More recently, videogames have expected to have some acquaintance with the been considered a valid resource for educatio- target language and the aim of the subject is to nal purposes, and some researchers have re- provide learners with language forms to com- commended their use in the classroom (Blunt, municate in specific professional or academic 2007; Calvo-Ferrer & Belda-Median, 2015; Gee, contexts and perform communicative func- 170 Language for Specific Purposes and Graphic-Adventure Videogames: Supporting Content and Language Learning tions related to a particular job. Most universi- gely focus on introducing new vocabulary for- ties offer LSP courses which consist in teaching ms which are common in a given context; this foreign languages based on real communica- can be either professional or academic (Peters tion purposes of a particular profession related & Fernández, 2013). Consequently, the purpo- to a bachelor or master degree. As suggested se of LSP is to help learners develop certain by Gee (2003), supporting language learning communicative competence that enable them processes with videogames benefits students to use the language in authentic real contexts with higher time of input and output exposu- with professional aims. In this sense, language re in a real context, familiarizing students with learning needs to be understood as part of a a given particular profession. Furthermore, vi- content subject rather than an isolated subject, deogames involve playful factors that promote whereas learning contents involve exposure to students’ entertainment through their learning self linguistic expressions in a particular con- processes, and contributing to increase their text. According to Greere and Räsänen (2008), motivation in the subject. This paper introdu- teaching LSP needs to be accompanied with a ces a theoretical framework related to langua- wide range of exercises and tasks in which the ge and content learning in LSP courses and language forms can be practiced; consequent- discusses the benefits of supporting this lear- ly, students are benefited from both the con- ning process with tailored graphic-adventure tent knowledge and the language skills acqui- videogames. red. Similar to LSP, the content and language inte- grated approach (CLIL) offers a dual-focused in- LANGUAGE AND 2. tegration of content and language in the same CONTENT LEARNING AT curriculum (Marsh, 2010). In this case, the con- TERTIARY EDUCATION nection between content and language is more Teaching and learning languages can be a di- noticeable than in LSP contexts since the ob- fficult task due to the unlimited amount of jective of this approach is to teach the content situations in which communication may ha- of non linguistic subjects (inductive teaching) ppen. In this sense, a person who is native of through the use of a foreign language in which a language may encounter difficulties when there is no special attention to the langua- communication is set in a non-familiar context. ge learning process (deductive learning). CLIL Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) suggested aims at fostering communicative situations in the need for a focus on specific aims in lan- the classroom, in which the students’ langua- guage teaching, which were based on the daily ge acquisition process is unconscious (Coyle, needs of different groups of people in society. Hood, and Marsh, 2010). However, CLIL admits This refers to addressing a variety of language adjusting and balancing the time devoted to to certain individuals who may require its use teaching content and language (Cenoz, 2015). according to their personal and/or professio- Consequently, language literacy support is fre- nal needs. For example, a course of English for quently used in the CLIL classroom to help lear- industrial engineering should be addressed ners better understand non linguistic contents to engineers who need to read manuals and (Lyster, 2007). In other words, CLIL implements research articles and to communicate with fo- LSP when teachers find that it is necessary to reign engineers. In this sense, LSP classes lar- provide students with language support. Ricardo Casañ Pitarch 171 • Adapted difficulty to the learners’ skills EDUCATIONAL 3. (Alexander, Sear & Oikonomou, 2013; VIDEOGAMES FOR LSP O’Brien, et al, 2013), Classic and contemporary authors from diffe- • Random elements of surprise (Garris, Ahlers, rent fields have stated that the best possible & Driskell, 2002; King, Delfabbro, & Griffiths, learning comes from experience (Gibson & Gib- 2010), and son, 1955; Jarvis, 2009; Plato [in Power, 1991]); Aristotle also explained that “for the things we • A suitable and attractive setting and design in- have to learn before we can do them, we learn cluding the same features of non-educational by doing them” (Cohen, 2007:102). However, videogames (Gallego-Durán & Llorens-Largo, experimenting in the classroom can be limited 2015). to time and space constraints as well as to par- As it can be observed, there are a series of ticipants and other resources (Harmer, 2013); characteristics that are related to teach both therefore, researchers in the field of education qualitative and quantitative contents but also are constantly in need of finding