Some of the points in Other-Repetition as a Resource for Participation in the Activity of Playing a Video Game are very clear, some are arguable. But one thing that is clear is that all the case studies the researchers look at in this article involve individuals up until 14 years of age. The question that I’ve always had is how motivated are the learners of a FL? To clarify, I’m talking about intermediate to advanced learners who are at least in their mid-twenties (with some of them being in late twenties and early 30-ties).
I understand that gaming is an additional way of learning extra vocabulary but still… I wonder if the results yielded in researches involving teens and individuals in late 20s – early 30s are similar.
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I think motivation is a very multifarious construct, and the fact that we say that people 'have it' or 'don't' can mislead us into understanding what it is. People have different reasons for learning a FL, but these reasons are, to an extent, dynamic and shifting with identity and context, I think. Intrinsic and extrinsic is the classic divide, but it's far more complex than that. Do games motivate? They certainly do for some, but not for others. Is there any one thing that will motivate all learners? Probably not.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that Ss and teachers are a team. We can do our part by trying to create an comfortable environment where students feel they are actually learning something useful.
ReplyDeleteIn my context, I have many students who are there because they have to. They tell me "I'm here because it's required" or "I can't learn. It's too difficult", "I don't have time for this extra class", and so forth. I really felt frustrated, but now I tell myself that there is just so much I can do. The rest is their part; their job. I haven't given up (don't misunderstand this). Establishing a good communication channel can help a lot in learning what motivates your Ss.