{"id":889,"date":"2017-02-07T19:23:27","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T19:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/casls-vm1.uoregon.edu\/games2teach\/?p=889"},"modified":"2020-07-02T17:31:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T17:31:29","slug":"board-games-core-game-based-language-learning-methodology-kotoba-rollers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/games2teach.uoregon.edu\/2017\/02\/07\/board-games-core-game-based-language-learning-methodology-kotoba-rollers\/","title":{"rendered":"Board games at the core of a game-based language learning methodology: Kotoba Rollers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By James York, assistant professor at Tokyo Denki University<\/em><\/p>\n

In this post, I will be unrolling (pun intended) a framework that I have been working on for the past year. The framework took many twists and turns, which can be read about further on my own blog here<\/a>, but this post is a description of the framework in its current form. I do not think this is the final form, but it is still very usable in its current state in a number of contexts, particularly low-level EFL contexts such as my own.<\/p>\n

D<\/s><\/span>GBLL<\/span><\/h2>\n

As the title suggests, I am deeply interested in Digital<\/s> Game-Based Language Learning (D<\/s>GBLL) and how it may be applied to classroom learning. Why the dropped D though? Board games (or analog games, as they are often referred to) have very unique affordances for language learning in my opinion, and the structure of a board game play session matches the concepts of TBLT much closer than with video games. However, this post is not designed to be a deeply academic romp into the similarities between gameplay and TBLT methodology. For an overview, see the excellent paper by Julie Sykes (2014).<\/p>\n

I should mention why the acronym DGBLL<\/a> exists and not GBLL (as far as I know at least<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Ben Pearson also wrote about this on the blog here<\/a>. CALL is a firmly established and extremely innovate field, and of course, as a part of that field there are those interested in exploring the affordances of digital games and virtual worlds for second language development. Video games have become such a large subject of research in CALL that the acronym DGBLL arose in accordance. Indeed, Pearson writes about this succinctly:<\/p>\n

In the relatively new field of game studies, digital games have attracted the most attention of researchers and scholars. While technology continued to improve, so did the acceptance of digital games as a viable medium for interactive storytelling and artistic expression. In today\u2019s world, most people walk around with mobile devices that play games that look about as good as they did on game consoles a few years ago. As such, digital games have become much more pervasive in society and it is much easier to see them as legitimate fields of study. The problem is that while digital games garner so much attention in game studies as a field of scholarship, very little work has been done on analog games in comparison.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think it is the dearth in research regarding board games that inspires scholars like Pearson and myself. Additionally, the renaissance of board games is very <\/span>very <\/i><\/span>real. Board game funding figures have also overtaken those of video games on the popular crowdsourcing website Kickstarter<\/a>. Yet, despite their increasing popularity, there is little research on the use of board games as a teaching tool in educational, let alone language-learning contexts.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, without further ado, let me introduce the framework I have been using to promote English communicative competence in a low level EFL context here in Japan.<\/p>\n