Students Attitude towards Online Gaming
Introduction
Students’ enthusiasm for a particular online game is improved when a teacher teaches it, and the context appeals to them. Games are more than just classroom work because they do more than just learn the essential words within the school’s boring walls (Osman & Bakar, 2012). Online games allow students to get relaxing, competing, sharing as well as communication time. All these activities are crucial and essential in the education process of the students. Apart from being used in the lessons, games are employed elsewhere in the US such as in the achievement of educational objectives of K-16 (Lee & Gerber, 2013). A new technique has been developed in the teaching of through games. The online games that have been mustered by enthusiasts include computer games, motor activity and language games. The objectives and goals of learning and are accomplished once the educators take advantage of game play and gaming features. Content is conveyed and the second language practice enhanced while teaching strategies are being sharpened as information literacy and skills are improved. Therefore, language practice is encouraged and improved through the use of games (Corti, 2006). This is because the attitude of the students towards online gaming is positive. This paper seeks to discuss the attitude of students towards online gaming.
Literature Review
An independent study was done by Lee & Gerber (2013) with a sample of 329 teachers to establish the application of gaming strategies and their effect on the EFL students and their language skills. Therefore, the design of the control group was taken to be a total number of 14, 287 indicating (N= 14, 287). Interactive games was assumed and applied as an independent strategy and there was an 18% increase observed. When the 5th graders were given different games to play, there was a 38% increase in their vocabulary competence after the review. The games that were used in the teaching of vocabulary included computer games that were not three dimensional such as Quia and pyramid. The pronunciation of the students improved by a great deal compared with their former state.
When the same students are taught the same within the classroom environment, they seem to have a difficult time. However, they seem to become fast in the gaming environment and their ability to grasp seem to improve tremendously. Pyramid is a game that involves guessing of words and predicting the next word that is expected to appear. On the other hand, Quia is a game that is played by answering questions online through a number of techniques. These techniques include the use of patterns, scavenger hunt, word search, concentration, challenge board, pop-ups as well as battleship. When Adris & Yamat (2015) conducted a meta-analysis especially on a sixty nine K-16, the same results that are seen in the Quia are observed. A specific control group was compared with gaming for 10 consecutive years. The results were published in journals and peer reviewed the results showed that the use of gaming was helpful and better than the use of no game in the learning of the students.
Intrapersonal learning, interpersonal learning as well as cognition were noted to improve significantly by the use of games. Adris & Yamat (2015) found that online games are of different types and their classifications differ. However, their application results in improved learning whether interpersonal, intrapersonal or cognitive. According to Osman & Bakar (2012) the categories range from role playing games, competitive games, arranging of puzzles, cooperative as well as ordering ones. All the categories qualify for application in a game-based learning setting. In the learning setting that is game based, the teachers play the role of helping their students practice the game after learning it. The teachers do not have to employ any special attention at any point because the learners are able to learn and gain the required skills on a particular point on their own (Zhang et al., 2017). Games have been recorded to have a lot of positive effects on the students especially when played rightly. The students are able to grasp a concept longer than they do it in class, enhance their attention, improve the level of motivation and learn in a different learning environment.
Corti (2006) argues that students get motivated intrinsically and this is one of the positive forces that cannot be obtained elsewhere. More so, games teach the students to command their environment and manage most of the situations that emerge unexpectedly (Gee, 2008). In so doing, the students achieve a state of autonomy and thus serves as a pathway that helps them navigate the world and its unique challenges and situations. Some of these skills that the students achieve from games include behaviors, systems thinking, self-regulation, self-concepts as well as problem solving skills. Therefore, through games, the students achieve a significant motivation with time.
References
Adris, N. B., & Yamat, H. (2015). Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) as Virtual Grounds for Second Language Learning: Players’ Perception. Proceedings of the International Seminar on Language Teaching, 4-5 February 2015,1-15. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia: Bangi.
Corti, K. (2006). Game-based Learning: A Serious Business Application, PIXELearning Limited, 34, (2), 1-20.
Gee, J. P. (2008). Good Videogames, the Human Mind and Good Learning. In T. Willoughby & E. Wood (Eds.), Children’s Learning in a Digital World (pp. 40-63). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Lee, Y.J., & Gerber, H. (2013). It’s a WOW World: Second Language Acquisition and Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming. Multimedia-Assisted Language Learning, 16, 53–70.
Osman, K., & Bakar, N. A. (2012). Educational Computer Games for Malaysian Classrooms: Issues and Challenges. Asian Social Science, 8, (11), 75-84.
Zhang, Y., Song, H., Liu, X., Tang, D., Chen, Y-e., & Zhang, X. (2017). Language Learning Enhanced by Massive Multiple Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) and the Underlying Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 11:95.