Alice Chik from the Chinese University in Hong Kong has just started an interesting project on the topic of learner autonomy development through video gaming. Here is the information she sent me:
This project aims to explore the relationship between learner autonomy and out-of-class language learning, with a particular focus on foreign language learners’ use of video gaming:
1. How do foreign language learners learn from video gaming?
2. What are their approaches in adopting video games for their language learning purposes?
3. What types of language learning skills and strategies do they develop during video gaming?
4. How do these out-of-class activities influence the development of learner autonomy in language learning?
The data collection methods will include:
1. Autobiographical language learning histories written by the learners and researchers to gain insight into their foreign language learning and video game playing histories and to serve as a source of triangulation with other data;
2. Observation and field notes from 10 video-taped gaming sessions, used to monitor the gaming process;
3. A blog, used to keep asynchronous reflections from learner-participants and researchers;
4. Semi-structured interviews conducted by the learner-participants with their friends and regular video gaming partners, used to enrich the understanding of video gaming and language learning from a wider community of young adults and video gamers; and
5. Focus group interview sessions, at the beginning and the end of the study, will be used as reflective practices to explore the development of learner autonomy and foreign language learning in relation to video gaming.
At the moment, we recruited 10 undergraduates from different disciplines. We plan to start the project in the last week of September, if you are interested in collaborating or knowing more about the participants, please contact Alice (alice.chik@gmail.com). You can also follow our project at http://en-videogaming.blogspot.com/
Tags: autonomy, games, video games