Digital technologies are considered a crucial aspect of educational policy around the world (Erstad et al., 2021). In Norway, the common core curriculum has for the first time emphasised language identity developed outside school as a resource in school, and one aspect of teenagers' language identity developed outside school, is through the use of advanced technologies, such as online gaming (Brevik, 2019). The word "games" is explicitly referred to in the new English subject curriculum in secondary school for the first time. However, little research is conducted in classrooms on how teachers actually use commercial games in English instruction, and even less on the combination of video games and other forms of resources (e.g. analogue).
As part of the research project Vocational and General Students' use of English in and out of school (VOGUE), this paper provides knowledge on the use of online gaming in L2 English instruction and aims to investigate how the combination of playing an online game and reading a printed novel influences student engagement and learning. This paper presents a video-based classroom study from a secondary school. The data were collected from 30 English lessons in two 8th grade classes (students aged 12–13 years), involving one teacher, six student teachers and 60 secondary school students during a two-week game-based project. Video recordings can be strengthened by adding supplementary data, thus the video recordings were complemented with screen recordings, student texts and student interviews. The paper therefore draws on four datasets: (1) video recorded classroom lessons, (2) screen recordings from students' laptops, (3) students' texts concerning the video-based instruction, and (4) student interviews concerning their experiences of such instruction.
The video and screen recordings were analysed using the Protocol for Language Arts Teaching Observations (PLATO), which provides a valuable lens to ways of conceptualizing teaching quality (Grossman et al., 2013). The PLATO scores are qualitatively examined together with the students' perceptions and students' texts. This study is the first to use the PLATO protocol for recordings of game-based instruction, and thus discusses advantages and difficulties in the operationalisation of PLATO for such observation. The findings show that the combination of playing an online game and reading a printed novel matters in terms of student engagement. In addition, girls and boys perceived the combination of gameplay and reading somewhat differently, based on their prior experience with gameplay outside school, suggesting that their experience with the digital resource outside school influences both engagement and learning.
References
Brevik, L. M. (2019). Gamers, Surfers, Social Media Users: Unpacking the role of interest in English. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 35, 595–606.
Erstad, O., Kjällander, S., & Järvelä, S. (2021). Facing the challenges of 'digital competence' – a Nordic agenda for curriculum development for the 21st century. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 16(2), 77-87.
Grossman, P., Loeb, S., Cohen, J., & Wyckoff, J. (2013). Measure for measure: The relationship between measures of instructional practice in middle school English language arts and teachers' value-added scores. American Journal of Education, 119(3), 445–470.
