Encouraging Free Play - Extramural Digital Game-Based Language Learning as a Complex Adaptive System

Oct 15, 2026

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft are examined as a setting for second language development beyond the classroom, focusing on how learners’ gameplay trajectories shape learning outcomes. The study analyzes extramural gameplay and language-learning pathways of four university German-language learners interacting with native German speakers over four months. Using a complex adaptive systems framework and the notion of affinity space, the analysis explains how the game environment can foster development without instructor intervention. Results indicate multiple interacting internal and external resources drive success.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Extramural Digital Game-Based Language Learning

calico journal (online) issn 2056–9017 Article Encouraging Free Play: Extramural Digital Game-Based Language Learning as a Complex Adaptive System Kyle Scholz Abstract Massively multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft are ideally suited to encourage and facilitate second language development (SLD) in the extramural setting, but to what extent do the language learners’ actual trajectories of gameplay contribute to SLD? With the current propensity to focus research in digital game-based language learning on vernacular games, or commercially available games that are designed with entertainment in mind, it is vital to focus on the extramural setting in which these games are designed to be played, while still being subject to rigorous and empirical analysis. This article examines the extramural gameplay and language-learning trajectories of four university German-language learners as they play World of Warcraft with native German speakers. Positioning learners’ experiences within a complex adaptive systems framework (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008; de Bot & Larsen-Freeman, 2011), the change that each learner undergoes while playing the game over the course of four months is explored in detail. Understanding the game environment as an affinity space (Gee, 2005) helps to substantiate how a game, independent of instructor guidance or classroom intervention, can still promote SLD amongst language learners of varying experiences and proficiencies. The results of this study suggest that numerous factors influence the success of a language learner’s extramural gameplay experience, but that these factors must be analyzed in conjunction with the emergent internal and external resources of the complex adaptive system as language learners play and interact with other players ina context removed from the traditional classroom. Keywords: digital game-based language learning; complex adaptive systems; affinity space Affiliation University of Waterloo, ON, Canada. email: [kwscholz@uwaterloo.ca](kwscholz@uwaterloo.ca) calico journal vol 34.1 2017 39–57 ©2017, equinox publishing doi : 10.1558/cj.29527 40 Encouraging free play Introduction Employing digital games for the purpose of language learning has become ever more pertinent in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research within the last decade. Games have been utilized to assist learners in developing proficiency in the second language (L2) (Miller & Hegelheimer, 2006; Peterson, 2010a; Cornillie, Jacques, De Wannemacker, Paulussen, & Desmet, 2011), acquiring vocabulary (Rankin, McNeal, Schute, & Gooch, 2008; Bytheway, 2014), and even developing general strategy use for better learning an L2 (Delwiche, 2006; Peterson, 2010b) . Digital games themselves have many characteristics that are expressly applicable to general learning contexts, and specifically those found in the domain of L2 learning (Sykes & Reinhardt, 2013) . Factors such as enjoyment, interaction, and fantasy, while prominent in many games that are played for entertainment purposes, are less likely to be aspects ofa classroom setting constrained by elements such as time, student to instructor ratio, immediacy of feedback, amongst others. For this reason, the extramural setting can provide a meaningful learning space for language learners if accompanied by a space in which learners can reflect and discuss their experiences and utilize the target language ina conversational setting. This article explores the utility of playing World of Warcraft in the extramural learning environment for learners of German as a means to develop L2 proficiency. In order to capture an authentic gameplay experience, a complex adaptive systems (CAS) theoretical framework is helpful in understanding what exactly occurs in the extramural setting when playing games such as this in the L2, for language learning purposes. Extramural Digital Game-Based Language Learning Although the majority of studies

FAQs

What setting does the article focus on for language learning?

It focuses on extramural digital game-based language learning—specifically how learners develop through gameplay outside the traditional classroom.

How is the study designed and who participates?

Four university German-language learners play World of Warcraft with native German speakers, and their gameplay and language-learning trajectories are tracked over four months.

What theoretical lenses guide the analysis?

The article uses a complex adaptive systems framework and the concept of an affinity space to interpret how learning emerges from interaction and the game environment.

Oct 15, 2026

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