WoW and other MMOs as English teaching tools
Dr. Edd Schneider, 12-year veteran attendee of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and associate professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam, recently gave a speech at the GDC about a topic we often take for granted. The talk was titled “English Speaking Players as In-Game Content.”
What Dr. Schneider basically wants is to introduce international servers in Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft and other games like it. It is common that people could only play WoW and other online games on their own localized servers. He believes that international servers would be better for game makers and gamers. He also stressed that non-English speakers could be enticed to learn English if they play an MMO with or against English speakers.
Dr.Schneider said that “a lot of online games have gotten bad press where you get a couple of idiots in a chat room or in a guild that will say, ‘Only perfect English. If you don’t speak perfect English then get out of here,’ ” he added that “they’ll hassle players from other countries.”
Last year, Dr. Schneider tested his theories by recruiting graduate students to play online games with students from Shanghai’s Qi Bao High School. They noticed a significant improvement in the English skills of the Chinese students. Dr. Schneider even said that “They were going from, ‘Oh my God, I’m afraid to talk, I’m just gonna type,’ to, ‘How’s it going? I’m going to kick your butt this time in this game.‘ ” Because of this, he’s preparing a program this summer incorporating his theories. He’s hoping to eventually turn the program into a summer camp.
Dr. Edd Schneider, 12-year veteran attendee of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and associate professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam, recently gave a speech at the GDC about a topic we often take for granted. The talk was titled “English Speaking Players as In-Game Content.”
What Dr. Schneider basically wants is to introduce international servers in Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft and other games like it. It is common that people could only play WoW and other online games on their own localized servers. He believes that international servers would be better for game makers and gamers. He also stressed that non-English speakers could be enticed to learn English if they play an MMO with or against English speakers.
Dr.Schneider said that “a lot of online games have gotten bad press where you get a couple of idiots in a chat room or in a guild that will say, ‘Only perfect English. If you don’t speak perfect English then get out of here,’ ” he added that “they’ll hassle players from other countries.”
Last year, Dr. Schneider tested his theories by recruiting graduate students to play online games with students from Shanghai’s Qi Bao High School. They noticed a significant improvement in the English skills of the Chinese students. Dr. Schneider even said that “They were going from, ‘Oh my God, I’m afraid to talk, I’m just gonna type,’ to, ‘How’s it going? I’m going to kick your butt this time in this game.‘ ” Because of this, he’s preparing a program this summer incorporating his theories. He’s hoping to eventually turn the program into a summer camp.
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