Steven L. Thorne

The semiotic ecology and linguistic complexity of an online game world

Multiplayer online games form complex semiotic ecologies that include game-generated texts, player-to-player communication and collaboration, and associated websites that support in-game play. This article describes an exploratory study of the massively multiplayer online game (MMO) World of Warcraft (WoW), with specific attention to its qualities as a setting for second language (L2) use and development. This empirical study seeks to answer the following question: What is the nature of the linguistic ecology that WoW players are exposed to? Many studies have described the developmental opportunities presented by commercially available gaming environments (e.g., Gee, 2003 , 2007 ), their value as sites of literacy development (e.g., Squire, 2008a ; Steinkuehler, 2008 ), and their potential as venues for second language (L2) use and learning (e.g., Peterson, 2010 ; Thorne, Black, & Sykes, 2009 ; Thorne & Fischer, 2012 ; Zheng, Young, Wagner & Brewer, 2009 ). There are, however, numerous outstanding questions regarding the quality and complexity of the linguistic environments associated with online commercially available games. This primarily descriptive research addresses this issue and aims to finely characterize the linguistic complexity of game-presented texts (or quest texts) as well as player generated game-external informational and strategy websites that form the expansive semiotic ecology of WoW game play. Questionnaires and interviews with Dutch and American gamers helped to identify a variety of widely used game-external websites. This information then informed the selection of texts that were analyzed for their linguistic complexity. By analysing the linguistic complexity of the texts that players regularly engage with, this study aims to empirically assess the resources and limitations of a representative and widely played MMO as an environment for L2 development.

Technologies, Identities, and Expressive Activity

ABSTRACT Digital communication technologies both complexify and help to reveal the dynamics of human communicative activity and capacity for identity performance. Addressing current scholarship on second language use and development, this review article examines research on identity in digital settings either as a design element of educational practice or as a function of participation in noninstitutionally located online cultures. We also address new frontiers and communication in the digital wilds, as it were, and here we focus on cultural production in fandom sites and the processes of transcultural authoring and community building visible in these settings.

ReCALL special issue: Digital games for language learning: challenges and opportunities

Frederik Cornillie, Steven L. Thorne and Piet Desmet ReCALL / Volume 24 / Issue 03 / September 2012, pp 243 xad 256 DOI: 10.1017/S0958344012000134, Published online: Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0958344012000134 How to cite this article: Frederik Cornillie, Steven L. Thorne and Piet Desmet (2012). ReCALL special issue: Digital games for language learning: challenges and opportunities. ReCALL, 24, pp 243xad256 doi:10.1017/ S0958344012000134 Request Permissions : Click here

Recall special issue: digital games for language learning: challenges and opportunities: Editorial digital games for language learning: from hype to insight?

Frederik Cornillie, Steven L. Thorne and Piet Desmet ReCALL / Volume 24 / Issue 03 / September 2012, pp 243 xad 256 DOI: 10.1017/S0958344012000134, Published online: Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0958344012000134 How to cite this article: Frederik Cornillie, Steven L. Thorne and Piet Desmet (2012). ReCALL special issue: Digital games for language learning: challenges and opportunities. ReCALL, 24, pp 243xad256 doi:10.1017/ S0958344012000134 Request Permissions : Click here

Language, Education and Technology

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Dynamic systems theory as a comprehensive theory of second language development.

price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. S.L. Thorne, S. May (Eds.) Language, Education and Technology