Words of Warcraft

Abstract

TITLE: Words of Warcraft A study on Swedish second-language learners’ vocabulary acquisition, using the computer-game World of Warcraft AUTHOR: Andreas Kjell English Department Gothenburg University Spring 2008 SUPERVISORS: Dr. Anu Koskela, Dr. Pia Köhlmyr Teaching and learning is a field under constant development, as is the world of computers and computer gaming. Two essential domains for our society – school and computers – are being amalgamated with every passing week, and our view on teaching is slowly being broadened. Despite encountering English everyday, Swedish pupils might still have a hard time to find the motivation for learning a foreign language, and as a teacher it is my job to help my pupils find the proper motivation to make progress in their own language acquisition. Palmberg (1986) did research on vocabulary acquisition and motivation with the help of a computer-game and found that it did help in the subject’s learning. After Palmberg though, there has been little research in the area. This essay aims to examine and discuss if playing a well-known Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) named World of Warcraft could help Swedish second-language learner’s vocabulary. 20 subjects were tested, first with a pre-test to see how many of the 30 words chosen the participants might have known before. A week after the pre-test 10 participants played the game, and 10 read a piece of text. They were tested again afterwards and their results were compared. The study shows that vocabulary could indeed benefit from playing a computer-game, and that it could prompt pupils that are hard to motivate.