The growing interest and access to massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) has opened up significant new scope for educational methodologies, from standard language teaching options through to formalising the skills that a ‘player’ develops through their quests and other activities. This scope is extensive and has created numerous opportunities for innovation both within education and the world of work. This is evidenced by the increasing presence of educational establishments in the virtual world, with Second Life being the most popular for conventional educational purposes. In Second Life and many other realms participants are earning some income and in some cases enjoying a reasonable living from online activities, while developing their skills base. These MMORPGs may open opportunities for promoting language acquisition provided this is located within a suitably attractive realm; ‘players’ would then engage in activities that would contribute to their abilities to use the indigenous languages in everyday life. This article explores how such a system could be developed and the likely contribution it could make to promote a multilingual environment at school and post school levels. Further, it will identify the implications for the future of teaching and learning through the harnessing of MMORPGs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:27559 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Kaschula, Russell H, Mostert, André |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | article, text |
| Format | 21 pages, pdf |
| Rights | University of KwaZulu-Natal, Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/) |
| Relation | Alternation: Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Arts and Humanities in Southern Africa |
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