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Inviting Children’s Views for Designing Digital Game Tasks

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Innovation in Language Teaching and Learning

Part of the book series: New Language Learning and Teaching Environments ((NLLTE))

Abstract

The present chapter focuses on digital games as a potential means for learning English among children in Japan. A group of children (sixth-grade students, ages 11–12; n = 82) were asked to conduct the following activities: (1) identify game elements (elements that motivate learners to engage in games) and learning elements (elements that promote learning) by examining existing digital games; (2) develop digital game plans for learning English vocabulary in group settings; and (3) conduct self- and peer-evaluations of their own plans. A digital game developed based on the children’s ideas was evaluated by fifth grade students. Based on the project’s results, the present chapter aims to better understand the conditions that enable digital games to help children learn English from their point of view.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To respond to the concerns that this has generated, MEXT also plans to recruit approximately 4000 English-teaching specialists by 2020.

  2. 2.

    This is based on the author’s personal communication with a couple of teachers who were involved in the initial training in 2017. In addition, a number of studies on teacher training question the efficacy of such a knowledge-transmitted model of professional development (Butler, 2019; Nguyen, 2017).

  3. 3.

    Detailed lesson plans can be found in Butler (2015a).

  4. 4.

    The students’ initials are used. The original notes were written in Japanese.

  5. 5.

    The game has some flexibility in that each child can develop a slightly different storyline depending on how they perform.

  6. 6.

    Due to a copyright issue, Momotaro 2 is not publicly available; only the participating students in this project were given access to the game.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Yuko Goto Butler

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  1. Yuko Goto Butler
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Correspondence to Yuko Goto Butler .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Anaheim University, Anaheim, CA, USA

    Hayo Reinders

  2. Department of Languages, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand

    Hayo Reinders

  3. School of Culture, Media and Society, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    Stephen Ryan

  4. Department of Languages, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand

    Sachiko Nakamura

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Butler, Y.G. (2019). Inviting Children’s Views for Designing Digital Game Tasks. In: Reinders, H., Ryan, S., Nakamura, S. (eds) Innovation in Language Teaching and Learning. New Language Learning and Teaching Environments. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12567-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12567-7_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-12566-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-12567-7

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