This week I have experienced Minecraft for the first time, which has been quite a lot of fun at the same time as prompting reflections about digital game-based learning that I would like to give some attention to in this post. Until last week I had barely heard of Minecraft and possessed only a vague awareness of the concept of virtual worlds. My previous gaming experience extended little beyond childhood binges on Sega Mega Drive and a few select PC games such as Tomb Raider. Over the years I had come to the conclusion that gaming wasn’t my thing and actually developed an aversion to games in general. My recent participation in an escape room, embarked upon through gritted teeth from beginning to end, provided further confirmation, were I to need it, that games were not something I would miss in the slightest if they were entirely absent from my life.

So has my introduction to Minecraft resurrected my long lost interest in games and initiated a transformation in my attitude towards gaming? Well, perhaps not quite (yet)! While I can say that I have enjoyed my first experiences and am looking forward to further exploration in the coming weeks, as I soared majestically over mountains, lakes and forests I couldn’t quite shake off certain niggling (existential?) questions: What is a grown woman like me doing in a place like this? What am I actually supposed to do here? Should I be having fun right now? Am I missing something? How long before I fail to find answers to these questions, get bored and despondent and give up on the whole business? Having said that, after spending an entertaining hour and a bit hanging out with Comcultgirl and a handful of course mates last night, I exited the IDEL Realm feeling strangely satisfied and keen to find out what kind of teaching and learning opportunities fellow language teachers in particular had managed to glean from Minecraft.

A quick Google search brought up a reasonable selection of articles, blogs and videos in which teachers and researchers expounded the educational virtues of the game and presented various ideas for exploiting it as a language learning resource. Surveying the ideas I could easily see its potential versatility and effectiveness in motivating young learners to develop their language skills, but I was not immediately convinced about its application to adult language education, which is the area of most interest to me. This reintroduced me to the debatable issue of the role of game-based learning (GBL) in adult education and the limitations and boundaries to its implementation. Overall I have noticed a discrepancy between the increasing attention placed on GBL in the educational field and its continued lack of prominence in the institutions where I have taught. This has prompted me to ask myself why GBL seems to have failed to take off, at least in the area of adult language education, and why its supposedly powerful educational potential continues to remain elusive to many English language teaching professionals and learners alike. How is it possible that Minecraft did not come onto my radar (as a reasonably technologically-aware and culturally tuned-in teaching professional) until last week, despite first being released nearly ten years ago? Is it that the positive claims about GBL are in actual fact overblown? Does it truly constitute much more than an attempt to jazz up and make light of the ultimately arduous and at times boring process of learning a language? Are games like Minecraft realistically suited to adults as a learning resource or is their application more limited than gaming enthusiasts would like to believe?

I think there are several reasons why digital GBL continues to be absent from many adult language classrooms. The first is limited knowledge and accompanying wariness among  some teaching centre managers, directors of studies and teachers surrounding the use of digital technologies for educational purposes. The second is lack of training provision dedicated to this area. The third is lack of time on the part of teachers to familiarise themselves with the technology required for digital GBL and then train students in its use against the background of considerable time constraints which already exist. A further reason, which I have discussed above, is uncertainty surrounding the suitability of digital GBL for the context of adult language teaching and learning. Teachers of higher level students in particular may find it difficult to conceive how playing an online game could provide adequate challenge and genuinely increase students’ language proficiency. Rather than confront all these challenges and run the risk of failure in order to experiment with digital GBL, many teachers understandably opt for a more tried and tested, lower-risk, lower-tech approach to their lessons, because frankly “we just don’t have time or get paid enough to deal with the hassle”. This assessment of the current reality in many language teaching institutions is mildly depressing in its recognition of the many barriers that exist to innovation and experimentation with different methodologies and technologies. Because however sceptically one might view certain methodological trends, such as digital GBL, in the interest of the future survival and advancement of our profession we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the possibilities.

In terms of the possible applications of Minecraft to adult language teaching, my Google search revealed several ideas that I could envisage working well, provided that the barriers I have previously mentioned can somehow be overcome. I would be particularly attracted to any ways of using a digital game such as Minecraft to generate spoken output from the students. One idea which came to mind while I was actually in the realm yesterday evening was the possibility of students working in Minecraft at the same time as communicating orally via a Discord voice channel, Skype or other suitable digital platform. One thing is for sure, that once students find themselves inside the virtual world, there should be no shortage of discussion topics arising naturally in response to the environment. This could potentially be very fertile territory for authentic conversation driven by an emergent need to communicate and collaborate with fellow players. The very act of having to work together in the process of building could feasibly incorporate multiple communicative functions including making suggestions, negotiating decisions, asking for advice and giving instructions. Another possibility might involve students giving guided tours of buildings they have created, either live tours within the game itself or in the form of a screencast video, or role playing a typical situation which may occur in that kind of building or environment. In his TED talk, James York (2015) explains that, as well as simply being played as a game, Minecraft can be used by both teachers and students to construct learning activities which practice and develop language skills. His contention is that virtual worlds such as Minecraft are a “perfect domain” for language learning in the 21st century, and while this might be considered an overly idealistic view, it has certainly encouraged me to pay a return visit not only to Minecraft but to digital game-based learning in general and its place in adult language education.

York, J. (2015) ‘A Minecraft Education’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gokaQuqIAwM

Week 5: First forays into Minecraft / Jemima Collins/An introduction to digital environments for learning (2018/2019)[SEM2] by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0