Impact of ESOL Background on Instructional Design

Instructional designers (IDs) often come from previous educational backgrounds such as instructional technologies, teachers, or academic support staff (e.g., librarians). Other times, they come from careers in health, business, or military. IDs’ backgrounds and experiences enhance their work on designing training, courses, or other related job aids and informational material. This blog describes how my background experience as an English

The Multilingual Mozambican: Remembering my U.S. English Language Fellowship

The English Language Programs of the U.S. Department of State is celebrating their 50th anniversary of the Fellow Program. As a former English Fellow to Mozambique, I want to share my teaching English experience as part of the celebration. I wrote about my fellowship in a newsletter while working elsewhere. Sections of the article are provided below. Please note that this

How People Learn a Second Language

Excerpted from my dissertation: Rogers, S. A. (2017). A Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game with language learning strategic activities to improve English grammar, listening, reading, and vocabulary (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 10265484).) Learning a second language is an arduous task. Most scholars would agree that it requires a lot of practice (Krashen, 1982; Nation, 2014), language

What kind of vocabulary can you learn from role-playing videogames?

In my gaming research study with EverQuestII® (EQII), I was pleasantly surprised to see a dominance of neutral words and only a slight majority of negative words over positive ones. This is based on the participants’ text-based, chat logs that I analyzed with the vocabulary concordancer called Range. Chat logs include language from the non-playing characters (NPCs), playing characters (gamers), and

Computer-assisted Language Learning and Media Selection

This blog was originally posted on the AACE Review (Rogers, 2018). Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is the interactive use of technology to foster second language acquisition by providing meaningful opportunities to practice a language in environments beyond that which is available in the confines of a classroom. It began with the stimulus-response of programmed instruction in the 1960s with the

Goals of Research Study on MMORPGs + SLA Strategies

This summer, I started my research study for my dissertation on massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) combined with second language acquisition (SLA) optimizing activities.  I want to find out if free, commercial video games, MMORPGs in particular, are useful in helping English language learners (ELLs) acquire English skills.  Could MMORPGs be used to supplement language programs or personal learning

8th SLanguages Annual Symposium 2015

Time: November 14, 2015 to November 15, 2015 Location: EduNation in Second Life Organized By: Heike Philp aka Gwen Gwasi Event Description: 8th SLanguages Annual Symposium 14-15 November 2015 (Sat/Sun) Come and join us at SLanguages Annual Symposium, a two day online conference on language learning in virtual worlds held for the 8th time on EduNation in SecondLife.  The two main

Join me at MSERA 2015!

Join me in Lafayette, LA this November 4-6th for the Mid-South Educational Research Associations (MSERA) 2015 annual meeting.  Click this link to see the full conference schedule.  For more information on the MSERA, visit their Website.  The cool thing about this conference is that everybody brings their paper and not just the PowerPoint slides to handout to attendees. I ended

Case Study: Saudi English Language Learners’ Gameplay

Learning2gether with Dawn Bikowski discussing gaming and language learning

Originally posted on Learning2gether:
Download mp3 here: http://learning2getherdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/2014aug31dawnbikowski-64k.mp3 On Sun Aug 31 Learning2gether was honored to meet with Dawn Bikowski discussing gaming and language learning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRN3ZZe_LXQ Dawn discussed projects she’s working on for teacher training by putting digital gaming into her MA teacher training courses, including pedagogical grammar and teaching reading & writing. She also talked about her experiences as…