Digital Game Based Teaching for language learning

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There is a nice propositon by Prenksy (2001) “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing” (Dale Carnegie), that is a common point among learners and workers, people who are engaged and interested in the things that they do are really motivated to continue working and doing the things well. That is also an issue of learning languages, because children, young and adults need motivation to learn another language, and it could be possible if the material, tools and strategies used to the teaching and learning process catch their attention and their interest. Because of that learning a language using DGBL’s can be a good strategy and resource to involve learners in the process given that:

· Games make the learning a meaningful and enjoyable process.

· People can define what they want to learn and how they are going to learn, they can learn what they want.

· Games take a wide variety of forms and allow learners to engage in the game while they learn to reflect, interact and solve problems.

· Games are a good way of motivation.

However, some difficulties can arise from learning with games such as the lack of interest for hearing others and people learn to be isolated learners. It can be considered also the possible addictions to use those kinds of digital games, people spend lot of time playing and they forget important things of human contact for learning from experiences.

References:

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital game based learning , New York: McGraw Hill Press
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants: A new way to look at ourselves and our kids. On the Horizon, 9(5). Retrieved on May 02, 2010 from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing