The final post based on my JALTCALL 2022 keynote.

4. Setting up “storytime.” Avoiding pitfalls

Next, I’m going to tell some stories about what I have done.

I crafted this presentation/post based on conversations I’ve had with James and Fred and others. We thought that telling my story of teaching and researching games in language education over 20 years would be helpful to newer people to the field.

I’m going to try to highlight various concrete next steps for research and teaching with games. I’m going to try to steer you away from pitfalls and dead ends that I ran into at full speed. Ok,  I hope you’ve got a nice beverage or snack. Put your feet up. It’s story time.

Part 1) Turning a hobby into part of a job

I like games. I play/have always played a lot of different games (video, PC, card, board, rpgs, commercial, educational, playground, indie, D&D, sports, choose your own adventure books, weird art experiments, whatever). I’m kind of a forager, a collector. I want to play everything. I love finding new games. Not just video games. Any kind of game.

And playing games led to and coincided with other activities: reading books about games — history, tech, culture, theory, design, making games (board, basic/flash games, crappy educational games (if you haven’t made a bad game yet you haven’t made enough games yet), backyard make believe games playing in backyard, running rpgs for my kids in the car), listening to podcasts and watching youtube videos (thousands of hours — dice tower, giant bombcast, game design roundtable, 1upyours, ludology, vidjagame apocalypse, GDC, E3, pax, games for change), watching people play games (Winning Eleven tourney, Smash tournament), Acquisitions Incorporated, youtube/twitch streams.

Playing / learning gave me a lot of game literacy (playing, understanding, making). I found myself loving learning about the domains and questions that David Buckingham, a media literacy education scholar, suggests that students explore and answer to understand games/media deeply.

My curiosity and experiences and knowledge led to: using all kinds of games/play in my teaching (eikaiwa, CLT games, drama, Model United Nations), game design and research work in my MATESOL, my first research publications and conference presentations, wanting to do a PhD to answer some big questions, then being offered jobs where I could continue to use games in my teaching and research, and further developments: starting LLP with James, teaching in TESOL EVO, and high school collaborations. 

Does playing games matter? Well, keep that broader (MULTI)LITERACY concept in mind. Playing, understanding, participating in society (and designing social futures).

How does playing games matter.

For teaching? Knowing games helps you teach with games (just like knowing any other field helps you teach that field). It gives you ideas of things to do with students. But, it could pull you away from others’ “middle of the road” expectations regarding teaching a language (4 skills, academic-looking stuff). Also, knowing too much about games, and not enough about teaching MMM can be dangerous. You need balance.

For research? Having game literacy helps you research new areas (fanfic, participatory trends, social media). Helps you find questions no one’s answered yet. You can see the theory behind things. But, there is the danger of becoming too niche. You might be researching indie GMless storytelling RPGs when the field still hasn’t figured out what to do with Monopoly or Minecraft. 

For you? Be a geek. Enjoy an aspect of what you do: games, teaching, research. Be critical. Have distance. See other views. So, be curious. Keep a diary. Try lots of things. Reflect as you’d ask students to think. Blog. Diary. Discord.

For us? Gaming can bring us together (a monthly game group), to play & talk. But, we could get (ARE?) stuck just playing games. Need to step back and talk and step back and back and back more and more.

Part 2) Experiments and case studies (these don’t matter much!)

Some of the earliest research I did with games was to understand the effect of interactivity on SLA. 

I am not going to cite or refer to these publications. Don’t look for them. Don’t cite them. Unless it is to criticize me to make a bigger point about pedagogy. Then contact me and I will share those horrible projects for you to throw bricks at.

I ran two studies (one with a music game and one with a collection of minigames) in which university students of paired proficiencies either played the game or watched a simultaneous feed of the game being played. Both groups were asked to recall vocabulary from the game that they had played or watched. In both of these studies, watchers recalled 2 or 3 times as much language as players, both on immediate and delayed posttests. Though the players were immersed (telepresent) in the game worlds, the physical interactivity of the games prevented players from noticing and remembering language. Gameplay can cause cognitive overload and get in the way of students noticing language in games.

Then my lab worked with some high school students for a few months. The high school students chose a game from the lab, took it home, played it a few times a week and completed game diaries. We gave them vocabulary and grammar pre and post tests, and also observed them playing. The students learned some vocabulary from the games but did not improve their grammar abilities. 

So what? 

Students can learn language from games, and some games are better than others. But students shouldn’t just play games without taking notes or talking to others, and teachers will make sure this happens.

So what?

Despite all that, I would love to work with someone on a really cleverly designed experiment (connecting games and literacy playing, understanding, making, mediation) that could change the whole field. 

How do experiments and case studies matter..

For teaching? These experiments often include discourse analyses of language in games (for tests). These are useful for teachers, when they are included and accessible. Experimental studies limit variables (note taking, mediation) and the results are rarely useful for teachers. Implications from studies aren’t practical for teachers who have to consider context, their students, language goals.

For research? You can publish a LOT, and it’s a great way to get started, as long as you stop at some point. It’s still the best way to get published, tenure, and noticed. It created the “vaporware” phenomenon in GBLT. It’s taken focus away from teaching. Everything is hypothetical and potential. 

For you? SLA/CALL/education lacks replication work. Do a replication study of an experimental study. Learn how to do an experiment. Then move on. And, don’t just focus on digital games. Try a board game, a roleplay, storytelling or poetry writing. Experiment on some different games or play.

For us? There are a lot of really talented researchers in CALL. It would be wonderful if these researchers would turn their skills towards designing pedagogy-focused experiments (on different types of mediation or materials).

We’re already in a pit of experiments and case studies. Do you want to get out?

⏩

In the interest of time I’m going to speed through the next two sections. I want to get to some bigger issues. I’d be happy to talk about these with anyone at another time and I do think that these next two topics are deserving of more critical discussion and implementation in more contexts.

Part 3) Experiences and projects (or “learn to never work harder than your students!”)

I wanted to create things and I wanted to connect students with society more, and I wanted to prepare them for other academic success, life success and career success. Projects can do those things.

A quick assessment:

Here’s a slide of what participatory projects my students have done over the past decade, connected to roles in society, products students make and level of difficulty. It’s an amazing thing to show to inspire students.

Part 4) Analysis work (or “students can actually use their brains, if you teach them to”)

You remember that I said earlier that students who PLAYED games didn’t remember language very well, right? So, after those projects, and after I learned a bit about functional linguistics, I developed a worksheet that had students do deeper functional analyses of a particular word or expression they noticed in a game. These explicit analyses helped students better understand, remember, and actually use new language from games in subsequent conversations and tasks outside of the game. I didn’t collect much data on this, and my examples are mostly anecdotal, but I absolutely saw a small but meaningful difference in students: Engagement with their learning, and a few lovely examples of students using language from games to communicate with me and others. This task was novel for the students, and took time, but the carefully crafted worksheet and my support helped all the students dive into the work in a neat way.

Two more super quick examples. I worked with a group of students to analyze the language in written game reviews (the vocabulary, the style, the organization, the evaluative language), which they phenomenally applied in their own online game magazine about Japanese games that they loved and wanted to introduce to people in other countries. I also worked with some high school students for a week. They analyzed and discussed games, game advertisements and game industry interviews. They then created their own online game, a print advertisement for their game, and gave a presentation and interview at a public mock game release industry event. Students appropriated various media elements into their design work, they learned a lot about the game industry and better understood the creator-audience relationship, and they improved various English vocabulary, grammar, speaking and writing skills. Analysis took time, again, but students learned a lot, evidenced by them using it in their own work.

A quick assessment:

Ask better questions.

Games do not need hype; they can be treated as an academic subject that requires purposeful exploration, guided contemplation, contextual analysis and research, and participatory work.

deHaan, J. (2019). Teaching language and literacy with games: What? How? Why? Ludic Language Pedagogy, 1, 1-57. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_v1Art1

In the next part of the story, I will slow back down a bit.

In more than a few ways.

Part 5) Burning out and rebuilding

I totally burnt out for a while. But I did rebuild. After teaching/researching using games, and being a professor for about 15 years… All those experiments, projects, material work on their own were exhausting, but not the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was mostly other work stuff. Life stuff. But, it all became too much. I was completely, utterly, burned out. It was bad.

Mental health is super important. If you think you need help, talk to someone. If you’re not sure you need help, you need help. You can talk to me, if you like. I’ll listen. (and point you to good people). Take your mental health and work/life balance seriously, please. You matter.

I was thinking:

• Experiments and case studies get published, but don’t help teachers.
• Projects work, but are exhausting and aren’t all that transformative.
• My teaching and research wasn’t sustainable. I wasn’t having the impact I wanted to have.
• I needed to figure out how to build an engine that ticked all the SHIPMENT51 boxes.
• So I hit pause for about a year (and pauses are super important) and I read like crazy. I read stuff like this

And these might actually solve YOUR problems – I don’t know.

I read stuff and finally hit upon a teaching/research framework, The Pedagogy of Multiliteracies that worked/works for me.

Let me tell you about mine.

Part 6) Gardening my Pedagogy of Multiliteracies engine

The model is shown more clearly on the next page.

I took time to create a strong base. I took the time to think long term (something humans are very bad at…). I wanted to connect the pros and reduce the cons of the stuff I had done earlier. I started with basic steps, wanting to connect traditional, experiential, project work. But it turned into so much more.  

I created a theory, research and practice ENGINE that I can garden. It took a lot of time to build (making materials). But I started small. I researched each little iteration. And kept trying it with more and more students and classes and contexts. And kept researching and improving it. A kind of sustainable permaculture for educational practice and research. 

My Game Terakoya is based on classical terakoyas (a traditional literacy model). We use games and lots of other media, but we added in more steps, and we do more than just reading, writing, and math. 

GT students think about themselves. We play games that connect to their lives. We discuss the games. We connect the experiences and ideas to “big” things in society. Students use their experiences and ideas to participate via projects that help them become the person they want to be. We use language in meaningful ways. I want students to be free, curious, critical and creative. The method is important. The materials (in the LLP compendium for your use) are simple worksheets and experiences and projects. We talk a lot about things that “matter;” I as the teacher do a lot of mediation. Here is the sequence I show and use with students. The sequence could be a straight line, or it might do “mini-loops” from 7 (game) and 8 (reflection), or completely loop again and again (a spiral curriculum).

A few examples:

One student played tabletop games (experiences), stumbled upon the magic circle with my help (conceptualization), got curious and read how people write reviews (analysis) and then she wrote a review, including her work on the magic circle (participation). Another student watched the Fun Theory Piano Stairs videos, got interested in what fun is, researched plastic bag use at her part time job, then made a simple board game for families to use to perform environmentally friendly actions, then shared her work via website, and newspaper interview. 

I just published a paper in LLP on PedML as a “good way” (not the best?) to teach language with games. There’s a 1 page infographic in there on the what, where, how, why, who.

deHaan, J. (2022). Teaching language and literacy (or anything) with games (or anything): A good way (The pedagogy of multiliteracies) simplified here for teachers and students. Ludic Language Pedagogy, 4, 14-30.

Teaching using a PedML method with games requires solid method, materials and mediation. 

York, J. & deHaan, J. (2021). Ludic Language Pedagogy is MMM … way more delicious than digital game-based language learning. Ludic Language Pedagogy, 3, 21-25. 

Students learn more from a combination of materials and mediation and games than from games alone.

deHaan, J. (2020). “Game Terakoya class 1” walkthrough: Directing students’ post-game discussions, academic work and participatory work through goals, curriculum, materials and interactions. Ludic Language Pedagogy (2), 41-69.

I needed to slow things down in order to have the chance to make and see some difference in my students.

deHaan, J. (2020). Language and literacy teaching with games: the “who” and transformative actions. Ludic Language Pedagogy, 2, p.162-186. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_v2Pg8

Slow down. It’s not a race. Do things again. Take your time. Do more. James has this beautiful paper about the importance of slowing down in teaching.

York, J. (2020). It’s your mooooove: Why teaching with games should be like vaporwave (and not nightcore). Ludic Language Pedagogy, 2, 104-114. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_v2Pg7

Researching a PedML method with games requires being creative and careful with a breadth of tools. Yeah – I know this is messy. This is just to show that there is more to researching games than vocabulary tests and motivation surveys.

When you put together the Method, Materials and Mediation, and you have a ton of research tools in your toolbox, you can put together some really amazing evidence of how teaching makes all the difference in the world for what can be done with games.

The Game Terakoya (based on the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies) has let me write several papers and I share things all the time in the LLP Discord. I think it’s RADICALLY DIFFERENT THAN DGBLL in terms of teaching, research, practice, data, school and society. PedML / the Game Terakoya checks all the SHIPMENT 51 boxes for me.

It’s so different from earlier things in my career.

I think that making an engine you can garden will make you happier and healthier as well. That engine might be based on PedML, or it could be based on something else.

Ultimately, different contexts, students, teacher preferences and abilities and many other constraints will require different games and pedagogical implementations.

deHaan, J. (2019). Teaching language and literacy with games: What? How? Why? Ludic Language Pedagogy, 1, 1-57. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_v1Art1

5. “Mattering together”

We’re getting to the end. Here’s some amazing text from NieR: Automata. I think it totally applies to what’s going on in the field.

GIVE UP HERE?  DO YOU ACCEPT DEFEAT? IS IT ALL POINTLESS?  DO YOU THINK GAMES ARE SILLY LITTLE THINGS?  DO YOU ADMIT THERE IS NO MEANING TO THIS WORLD?  I BET YOU ARE HAVING A TOUGH TIME RIGHT NOW. ONE THING IS CERTAIN: YOU’VE GOT US WITH YOU.  RESCUE OFFER RECEIVED FROM ****** ACCEPT OFFER? YES | NO

PedML is a goldmine. There’s so much in all of the aspects, or even one aspect. I will and you could teach/research/design things with PedML for the rest of your career.

And I think you should. We all know the problems with schools and academic fields. Mattering – CALL and DGBLL is rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. PedML is flexible, inclusive, transformative, and practical. PedML offers an endless teaching, research and social impact space. I think now is a wonderful chance for you and us to make a really important turn.

There’s a part of NieR: Automata where many players come together to accomplish something truly amazing. I think that WE could do the same for teaching and researching with games.

If you would like to work together, or would like to try PedML in your context, I will help you.

This matters. You matter.

I know that I covered a lot. I just wanted to dump as much out there and see what comes back. I’ve been doing this stuff for a long time, and I don’t see it getting better any time soon. Unless we do make it better. Let’s keep talking via Zoom, via emails, via Discord, face to face, and in other conferences. The discussions need to start and continue.

This was all about what matters. I think we’re at a really important moment in history. The world is dangerously close to absolutely nothing mattering. But I hope that we can still choose to make some things matter.

Do games matter? 

I’m not going to hype games. I’m not going to compare games with other media. It’s all about integrating games with education’s why, who, what, you, goals, time, and contexts. Yes. Games matter. They are one of the highest forms of being human: making, playing. We are Homo Ludens. Games encapsulate amazing creativity, technology, ideology and communication. No. Games don’t matter. The teaching around a game matters a lot more. Yes. Teaching matters more than games, but games still matter. These experiences and ideas and systems and media can be a great springboard or visualization or experience that kickstarts some amazing teaching and learning.

Does teaching matter?

Absolutely. I think it’s unethical and pathetic that we’ve been putting so much time and energy into technology instead of teaching. Great teaching can make all the difference in the world. Even if you are designing an educational game that is never used in a classroom.. Only by students at home or for homework… Your design work is teaching and you should care about being a better and effective teacher. Stop ignoring pedagogy. It’s time to double down, triple down, on pedagogy. It’s a career maker, not only for your students but for your CV and the field. There’s so much untapped work and impact and wonderful exploration in media literacy education, strategic interactions, debriefing of simulations that people can absolutely create an entire career out of. Please think more about teaching. Aim high — sustainability and impact and your own SHIPMENT criteria. But start small. Try, reflect, revise, repeat. Share and support. Teaching is hard work. Many hands make light, fun, rad work.

These motivated me for many years: 

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Arthur Ashe

“There are no great things, only small things with great love.” Mother Theresa

Does research matter?

Does research that doesn’t connect to teaching and students and society matter? No, probably not. But we have a chance to make a change to focus on things that matter. Different kinds of research can matter. You don’t have to do it all yourself. Stand on the shoulders of giants (and if you can’t find a giant, ask LLP) Read the FLA article — there are lots of great ideas in there. Try partnering with other people and solving collective problems that matter to them. Be curious (any good start to doing good research). Think broadly and deeply. Ask “so what?” Ask “why?” “who cares?” Ask “does this even matter?” Learn how to do different types of research and use different tools to measure different things that could matter more. Let’s: Group up and continue the conversation on the LLP discord. All the stuff I’ve talked about today can continue to be discussed there. Let’s do some small meaningful praxis-driven work. You can get CV points by publishing teaching-focused articles in LLP.

We can decide that everything matters. We can decide that nothing matters. Or we can and should  choose to make something matter. Other people can help you play the academic games /life game you want to play. You can help other people play better academic games /life games.

Let’s move from Potential (DGBLL) to Practice: Ludic Language Pedagogy. 

Let’s work on things that really matter. 

Let’s matter, together.

I welcome your playful questions or comments now, or any time. Thanks.

🚁Returning to Mother Base now,

Jonathan (My frequency: 215.11.21)

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• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Mattering and the SHIPMENT 51