Developing Language and Cross-Cultural Communication Skills via Movie Read-Throughs and MMORPGs

Transcription

1 Developing Language and Cross-Cultural Communication Skills via Movie Read-Throughs and MMORPGs Walter KLINGER (University of Shiga Prefecture) Martin STACK (University of Shiga Prefecture) Graham JONES (Ten Sentences) Abstract: In this practical education report, we introduce and discuss the World of Warcraft Educational Project and Integrated Curriculum (WoW-EPIC), an innovative ongoing L2 English education project at the University of Shiga Prefecture, that engages participants in language and cross-cultural communication skill development through a combination of a movie script read-through and task- and project-based learning activities in both a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) and in real life. Building on our presentation at the 20th ATEM National Convention in August 2014, this report describes the results of this project after a semester-long pilot study involving 8 students. Our principal goals in this project were to (a) inspire students to have fun with English, (b) enable students to communicate and connect with people from other cultures, and (c) improve students English abilities and develop a range of other 21 st -century skills (skills that are generally regarded as being important in the information age). We find our goals were well met through the movie read-through, in the game, and in face-to-face classroom activities, and are looking forward to continuing the project. Keywords: Movie scripts, CALL, MMORPG, WoW, SkypeRead 1. Introduction In 1913, Thomas Edison, inventor of the motion picture camera, boasted, Books will soon be obsolete in the public schools. Scholars will be instructed through the eye (Smith, 1913). Film indeed soon became widely adopted in teaching science and history; and, thanks to the promotion of academic organizations like ATEM, increasingly valid and popular also in second language (L2) education. Developments and innovations are still taking place in the use of movies and visual content as teaching tools.

2 Reading movie scripts in a synchronous, cross-cultural computer mediated communication (CMC) environment, such as that created with the internet-based video chat software Skype, is a new and largely unexamined pedagogical approach to the use of film and face-to-face communication in L2 education. Another new arrow in the pedagogical quivers of 21 st century teachers is the use of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPGs. The educational application of MMORPGs in general and specifically for L2 education is also a recent niche in language teaching (see, for example, Rankin et al, 2008). Both movies and online games provide rich environments for L2 development, because of their great quantities of authentic language and their potential for contextual and cultural exploration. Games and movie read-throughs also provide the opportunity for social interaction in the target language. However, research findings using movies, movie scripts, and role-playing games are often difficult to generalize into strong claims of efficacy because of the small scale of the studies, both in terms of sample sizes and length of time. This is particularly true of studies about the use of MMORPGs (Peterson, 2012). In an attempt to add to the small body of research in exploring the effectiveness of movie script read-throughs and MMORPG gameplay in L2 education, we launched the World of Warcraft Educational Project and Integrated Curriculum (WoW-EPIC) at the University of Shiga Prefecture (USP) on April 18, This is a robust, ongoing project that engages participants with a read-through of the script of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Jackson, 2012), combined with task-based activities utilizing the World of Warcraft MMORPG and IRL ( in real life ) educational activities. Inspired by the idea that learning can be an adventure that opens new vistas of cultural and personal understanding, this project builds on the collaborative WoW in School project (Gillispie & Lawson, 2011), a writing and literacy project for L1 students, which we adapted for use in an L2 educational setting. The most significant adjustment we made was to substitute the movie script for the original novel, The Hobbit (Tolkien, 1937). We determined that a movie read-through would be more accessible to our students and more likely to achieve the goals of our project. As the entire high-fantasy game genre, of which World of Warcraft is a part, traces its roots back to Tolkien s celebrated work, it made sense

3 to us to keep the game coupled with a reading of The Hobbit, albeit the movie script rather than the book. Lastly, it is important to note that this project at USP is not a credit-bearing course, but rather an extra-curricular activity open to any student wishing to participate. The eight students who participated in the full program at USP and the four students who joined the movie read-through remotely via Skype did so out of interest in the project and a desire to experience new ways of learning English. 2. Project description 2.1 General description Combining the effective L2 teaching techniques of task- and project-based learning with the cutting-edge theories of neuro-elt in an innovative and engaging way, our project aimed to take learners out of the classroom and into the language-rich environments of an MMORPG and a movie read-through. Our principal goals were to: (a) inspire students to have fun with English, (b) enable students to communicate and connect with people from other cultures, and (c) improve students English and develop a range of other 21 st -century skills. Specifically in the area of English skill development, we hoped to enhance students skills in all four core areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, by engaging them in learning activities that utilize (a) the World of Warcraft MMORPG, (b) the script of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and (c) various related online resources. In this project, students become the heroes of their own adventure by engaging in chosen tasks, known more vividly as quests, which they need to accomplish in the high-fantasy environment of World of Warcraft and in a read-through of The Hobbit. As heroes, they built a community of learners both in-game and out-of-game to help facilitate their experience and overcome challenges presented in the project. The challenges students faced on their journey took place in three areas: World of Warcraft. In the World of Warcraft, students became the heroes of their own adventure in learning while exploring the language-rich, online world called Azeroth. Here, they chose what roles to play and how to aid their follow travelers while reflecting on their experiences. Many of the project s challenges took place in this world.

4 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. In addition to their own adventures as heroes in Azeroth, students had another hero s adventures to study those of Bilbo Baggins, the Hobbit. Together, during a read-through of the script of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, they encountered some of the greatest movie lines ever written and saw how Bilbo faced his own challenges. The Real World. Along the way, students reported in written online journals and forums about their experiences in Azeroth as well as those of Bilbo Baggins, and compared them to their IRL experiences. Additionally, the entire project itself was gamified so students could level-up within the context of the game as they completed the various challenges outlined above. Specifically, each week students were presented with a series of particular challenges, tasks, or quests. Each challenge students undertook was rewarded with experience points. The number of experience points earned depended on the difficulty of the task. Students completed these challenges in a variety of venues: The Hero s Journal. This was a private, online journal where students wrote about and reflected upon their journey. Tavern Talks. These were online discussion forums with fellow students. Many challenges were submitted here Adventures in Azeroth. These were challenges that took place entirely in World of Warcraft. IRL. These were challenges that took place in the real world, in real life. 2.2 Participants Onsite participants were recruited through (a) viewing a short project trailer video in several regular English classes during the first week of the semester, (b) project posters and pamphlets posted and distributed throughout campus, and (c) by word of mouth and direct invitation by the project facilitators. We also held a project information meeting to introduce the project and serve as a final recruitment opportunity. Offsite participants who engaged in the movie read-through on two occasions were recruited through personal and institutional contacts in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Spain. These participants joined the movie read-through via Skype.

5 Our main group, who met face-to-face once a week, consisted of 8 USP students. Specifically, we had 4 Japanese students (2 first-year male and 2 first-year female), 2 Chinese exchange students (1 fourth-year male and 1 research student female), and 2 American exchange students (1 male and 1 female, who unexpectedly joined the project out of interest and curiosity and ultimately served a very valuable role as native speaker models). On two occasions, guest students joined the read-through via Skype, from Kwangwoon University, Korea; Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong; and Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. Below, we refer to these two occasions as SkypeRead sessions. 2.3 WoW-EPIC Project Schedule (Spring Semester, Fridays 3:00 ~ 5:00 PM, in the USP CALL Classroom) *denotes a SkypeRead session Week-Date The Hobbit Read-Through World of Warcraft / In Real Life 1-April 18 2-April 25 The Call to Adventure: WoW-EPIC Information Meeting The Hero s Journey: Background info on the movie and the game, and a special evening session with a screening of The Hobbit 3-May 2 Pages 1-7: ever happened. Hearing the Call (Introduction to resources) 4-May 9 Pp 7-17: dwarves burp, Bilbo is disgusted Answering the Call (Introduction to classes, races, and roles) 5-May 16 Pp 17-25: Ah, very helpful, Bofur. Crossing the Threshold (Choices and decisions) 6-May 23 Pp 25-33: look to find a What is your name? (Character creation and foothold in this world. starting the adventure) *7-May 30 Pp 33-42: w/trolls, Dwarves drop What is your quest? (Quests and exploring the their weapons world) 8-June 6 Pp 42-51: These are Rhosgobel What is the airspeed velocity? (Creating quests Rabbits for others) 9-June 13 Pp 51-58: you doing on the Strength (and safety?) in numbers (Forming Great East Road? groups and group roles) 10-June 20 Pp 58-66: Master Baggins, I Together we stand, divided we fall. (Creating a suggest you guild) 11-June 27 Pp 66-73: to the Pale Orc. Know thy enemy (The Horde Perspective) *12-July 4 Pp 73-81: He stole it! Riddle me this. (Games in the game) Pp 81-88: I will help you take it Who would they be? (Bring The Hobbit to 13-July 11 back if I can. Azeroth) Is this the end of the road? (The journey 14-July 18 Pp 88-94: The End continues where will you go?) 15-July 25 Spare Session Below is a detailed example of one week s project activities. *Note: RT=read-through, IRL=in real life, WoW=World of Warcraft, XP=experience points.

6 Week 6: What is your name? (Character creation and starting the adventure) The Hobbit RT: Pages 25-33: look to find a foothold in this world. (150 XP) IRL/WoW: Create your character. (300 XP) Choose a name and discuss why you chose that name. (150 XP) Quests & Challenges: Quest #3: Tavern Talk What is your name? 1) Create your character in WoW. 2) Take a screenshot of the character. 3) Post the picture in Tavern Talk, and discuss why you chose that name. (350 XP) 3. Program components 3.1 The movie read-through In this part of the project, we used the movie read-through as a way to recreate some of the challenges and uncertainties of the real world. With the students, we read through the entire script of The Hobbit in 12 weekly sessions of 30 minutes each, using a transcript made by an unofficial fan site (The Hobbit Movies, 2014). Students took turns to play different characters in the movie and to act as the narrator (reading the parts of the script that were not spoken dialogue). The read-through immersed students in authentic, well-written, real-world language. At the same time, it provided a strong context for the language, as students had watched the movie and could visualize each scene. As a way of increasing the level of challenge and uncertainty, for some of our sessions we were joined via Skype by guest students from universities in other countries. The project became, therefore, a true real-world adventure spanning continents and time zones. Two key elements of the read-through were emotion and collaboration, both of which have been shown to play a central role in the learning process (Immordino-Yang & Faeth, 2010; Johnson, 2006). The emotional element came from the excitement and pressure of the activity; even professional actors report feeling nervous at read-throughs (Warren, 2009). There was also the emotion of the story itself, and of the things both good and bad that happened to the students characters in the movie. The collaborative element came from the interaction with other students; again, professional actors report that read-throughs create feelings of pulling for the same cause and feeling more a part of a team. (These comments come from a personal communication with Eddie Jemison, an actor best known for his role in Ocean s Eleven (Soderbergh, 2001).)

7 Students were assigned their characters one week in advance, in order to give them some preparation time. For example, here is the list of characters and cast for our session in the 7th week (5th read-through session). NARRATOR: Yuki (USP) BILBO: Yiseul (Kwangwoon University) BOFUR, THORIN, OIN, ORI: Yuto (USP) KILI, DORI, DWALIN: Belén (Universitat Politècnica de València) FILI, GLOIN, NORI: Kanna (USP) BERT: Sergio (Universitat Politècnica de València) TOM: Haruna (USP) WILLIAM: Yuji (USP) GANDALF: Stephanie (USP) 3.2 The game The World of Warcraft is a role-playing game developed and produced by Blizzard Entertainment (2004), where players create personal online avatars to explore and interact with the game environment and with other players from around the world. Here are a few statistics to help give a sense of the scale and depth of this game as a language-learning environment: WoW currently has over 6.8-million subscribers world-wide, according to Statista.com, and since its release in 2004, there have been over 100 million players more than the population of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland combined. The game contains over 65 hours of audio files and 6 million words equivalent to 12 copies of Tolkien s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The WoW Wiki internet site has over 100,000 pages of content, and there are 26 million WoW-related videos on YouTube. WoW is thus truly a massive environment in which, and around which, players can interact and engage with authentic English content. The gaming portion of this project was intended to allow students to undertake their own heroic adventure into this language-rich, high fantasy environment. Technical delays in opening the internet ports necessary to play the game from within the school campus resulted in us having about half the planned in-game time. Despite this setback, students were still able to accomplish many of the core tasks necessary to fully engage in the game environment: creating avatars, learning the user interface (UI), completing quests in the new-character starting areas, and gathering together at a designated location to form an in-game group (known as a guild).

8 While simply playing the game and completing preset tasks or quests is fun and can have some incidental L2 educational benefits, the true efficacy of an MMORPG as a language learning environment comes from students engaging in task-based learning (TBL) activities purposefully designed to enhance language acquisition. These TBL activities, consisting of pre-task planning, in-task activities, and post-task processing and reporting, provide a structure to the gameplay that keeps students focus on the educational goals. The figure in the Appendix shows an example of an in-game TBL activity with reporting. 3.3 In real life Throughout this project, experiences in both the movie read-through and the game were the basis for rich face-to-face discussions and online reporting. Social, cultural, and psychological themes of identity, norms and values, race, roles, personality types, friendship, courage, and traditions were among the many topics arising from both the movie and game that were explored. Students were encouraged to find parallels between these mediated experiences and their own lives during these face-to-face and online discussions. 4. Discussion and observations 4.1 The movie read-through One rough measure of the results of the read-through came from comparing before- andafter recordings of students. At the start of the project, students were asked to read a short monologue taken from the script. We used Gandalf s 64-word monologue to Galadriel, where he explains why he asked Bilbo to join the adventure, and which ends, Perhaps it is because I am afraid, and he gives me courage. At the end of the project, students were asked to read the same passage again. In the second set of recordings, students (a) spoke more confidently and hesitated less, (b) linked words together more fluently, (c) used more intonation, (d) generally spoke louder (and also varied their volume more), (e) generally read faster (and also varied their reading speed more), and (f) pronounced certain words more clearly (e.g., believes and ordinary ).

9 Another measure of the results came from students written and oral feedback. The following comments, for example, came from our three guest students from Spain, each of whom took in part in one session. Belén: To first talk to people I had never met and I don t know anything about them or anything about their pronunciation. That s difficult, and this really helps me to improve. Elena: I tried to get the essence of my character intention in each moment, focusing in his feelings... if he was angry, happy, upset, making an effort, afraid, etc.,...all of his emotions. Although my English is not perfect, I ve realize that trying to do this, it looks like my level of English is better than it actually is. Sergio: To feel fear of new things, to talk with people in Japan to see their mannerisms it s a really enjoyable way to learn English. Feedback from our Japanese students also indicated that the principal goals for the project had been met. The Japanese students reported high levels of enjoyment and enthusiasm, and all said they intended to continue the project in the following semester. They were excited about the opportunity to interact and establish relationships with non-native speakers from different cultures (a particularly important 21 st -century skill). Students also reported that they felt more confident about their English and about communicating via Skype (i.e., communicating remotely, another highly useful 21 st -century skill). 4.2 The game Despite not being able to delve into the World of Warcraft as early as planned, the students engagement with, and enthusiasm for, the in-game activities and general gameplay made it clear that our goals of inspiring students and having fun were readily attainable. Although we are confident that our goal of developing the English and cross-cultural communication skills of the students is attainable through task-based activities in the WoW, it will take more time in-game to realize this goal. Significantly, the 4 Japanese students had very little or no experience in playing this type of game. There was thus a user interface learning curve, and a large portion of the initial play time was spent figuring out how to play rather than engaging with the intended project-related activities. Students reported that they found this learning process to be fun, engaging, and since the process took place entirely in English highly rewarding in terms of developing language skills.

10 The two American students who unexpectedly joined this project turned out to be a very valuable asset. They were both experienced with WoW and supported the other students in learning the game. They also served as excellent models for both the movie read-through and online reporting activities. Occasional in-game interactions between the students and native-speaker friends of one of the authors also proved to be good experiences for the students as they had to rely on in-game communication tools to interact, such as in-game text chat and character emotes. (Emotes are predefined, in-game slash commands that produce a chat message often accompanied by some sound, vocalization, or action. For example, typing </laugh> makes the character laugh, </dance> makes the character dance, and </joke> makes the character tell a joke.) 4.3 In real life The IRL aspects of the project turned out to be more robust and richer than anticipated. This was possibly due to our inability to enter the game from the beginning; but, regardless, these face-to-face interactions were a valuable aspect of the overall program. 5. Future directions Can the cross-cultural communication benefits of doing a movie read-through be applied to other kinds of international teams? One of the authors of this paper is investigating this by doing read-throughs of Europa Report (Cordero, 2013), an independently-made science-fiction movie, with international groups of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) practitioners. Inspired by the success of the SkypeRead intercultural communication activity as described in this paper, this coming semester we plan to recruit regular participants for the game portion of the project. We intend to connect in-game with English language learners in other countries to continue to enhance the experience for our students here, and share this project with other students around the world. Persons interested in participating are very welcome to contact the authors.

11 Acknowledgements We would like to thank Il-jae Lee (Kwangwoon University), William Littlewood (Hong Kong Baptist University), and David Perry (Universitat Politècnica de València) for their help in recruiting guest students for this project. We would also like to thank Eddie Jemison for a discussion about movie read-throughs and team-building. Additionally, we are grateful to the University of Shiga Prefecture for allowing its facilities to be used for this extracurricular activity and for facilitating the technical needs of this project by opening internet ports and installing software. References Blizzard Entertainment. (Developer/Publisher). (2004). World of Warcraft [software-mmorpg]. (additional game expansions in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012). Cordero, S. (Director). (2013). Europa Report [Motion picture]. USA: Wayfare Entertainment. Gillispie, L., & Lawson, C. (2011). WoW in School: A Hero s Journey. Available at Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Faeth, M. (2010). The Role of Emotion and Skilled Intuition in Learning. In D. A. Sousa (Ed.), Mind, Brain, & Education: Neuroscience Implications for the Classroom. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press. Jackson, P. (Director). (2012). The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey [Motion picture]. USA, New Zealand: New Line Cinema, MGM, WingNut Films. Johnson, S. (2006). The Neuroscience of the Mentor-Learner Relationship. In S. Johnson & K. Taylor (Eds.), The Neuroscience of Adult Learning: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, Number 110. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Peterson, M. (2012). Learner Interaction in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG): A Sociocultural Discourse Analysis. ReCALL, 24: Rankin, Y. A., McNeal, M., Shute, M. W., & Gooch, B. (2008). User Centered Game Design: Evaluating Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games for Second Language Acquisition. Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Video Games, pp New York: ACM. Smith, F. J. (1913, July 9). The Evolution of the Motion Picture: VI Looking into the Future with Thomas A. Edison. The New York Dramatic Mirror, pp. 24, 42. Available at *See also: Quote Investigator (2012, Feb. 15), Books Will Soon Be Obsolete in the Schools. Soderbergh, S. (Director). (2001). Ocean s Eleven [Motion picture]. USA: Warner Bros. The Hobbit Movies [Unofficial fan site]. (2014, February 12). Transcript retrieved from Tolkien, J. R. R. (1937). The Hobbit. London: George Allen & Unwin. Warren, M. (2009, Sept. 16). Marc Warren s Little Voice diary: The read-through. The Guardian. Retrieved from

12 Appendix Example of TBL/quest activity and post-completion/turning-in online. Tavern Talk blog of the Week 6 What is your name? quest described above. Prismal the Dismal by Prismal the Dismal on Fri May 23, :55 pm Apprentice Storyteller Tigers die and leave their skins; people die and leave their names. ~Japanese Proverb. What s in a name? Why is a hero s name so important to them? Japanese names have meaning associated with their Chinese characters, but did you know that many English names have meanings as well? For example, my name, Martin, comes from the Roman god of war, Mars, and means war or warlike. According to some sources, Graham means from a gray house. Some parents, and authors, put a great deal of thought into choosing names for their children or characters. Likewise, players in MMORPGs sometime think a lot about naming their characters - sometimes for meaning, sometimes Joined: 30 Jul 2013 Posts: 40 (NOTE: Prismal the Dismal is author Martin Stack s nickname on the project website) for another characters or person they like, sometimes simply for the sound. When thinking of your characters names, consider how it sounds when said together with names from The Hobbit. For example, Thorin, Dwalin, Gandalf, Bilbo, and Ilikehellokitty fought the against the goblins! That doesn t sound very heroic, does it? Keep this in mind as you create characters and as you see other character names in Azeroth. What is your first impression of them based only on their name? The Quest: 1) Create your character in WoW. 2) Take a screenshot of your character. 3) Post the picture in the Gallery. 4) Discuss why you chose that name in Tavern Talk. Reward: 350 XP HarunaN Observer by HarunaN on Fri Jun 06, :45 am Hello, it s Haruna. My character is a male night elf and his name is Dolaroman. His name was decided randomly, so I don t know the meaning of this name. However, I think it is easy name Joined: 02 May 2014 Posts: 8 to remember because Dolaroman sounds like Doraemon to me. It is interesting that my character s name is similar to a famous character s in a Japanese comic. Therefore I like it. <screenshot of Dolaroman>