English Literacies and Video Game Communities: A Digital Ethnography Raúl A. Mora, Ph.D. Sebastián Peláez Mateo Jaramillo Brayan Estiben Rojas-Echeverri Sebastián Castaño Alejandro Zuluaga
Tenth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry May 24, 2014
LEVEL 1:
A RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY OF GAMING IN SECOND LANGUAGE ENVIRONMENTS
Why study videogames/gaming? • Debate is ongoing, but there are more supporters (e.g. Coburn & Silcox, 2009; Gee, 2003; Hawisher & Sielfe, 2007) • Evidence of practices in online communities (e.g. Black, 2009)
Why study videogames/gaming in Medellín? • There are strong gaming communities in the city • Part of a larger research agenda – Literacies in Second Languages Project
• Anecdotal evidence of English use in gaming communities – We need stronger data to describe those practices
What the larger study is and isn’t • A study exploring appropriation of language – Not a study about language acquisition
• A study that describes literacy practices in English – Not a study about how people are learning English
• A study with communicative and semiotic dimensions – Not a study about linguistics/linguistic interference
LEVEL 2:
CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Conceptual Framework: A revision of “City as Literacy”
[Multimodal] Digital Ethnography • A reflexivity of how to use ethnographic methods to understand virtual and mediainfluenced settings (Coffey, et al., 2005, Mörtberg, et al., 2010) • It’s still fieldwork-based research… but the field is now both hybrid and virtual. (Dicks, et al., 2005; Dicks, Soyinka, & Coffey, 2006; Firat & Kabakci, 2011)
Phase Zero • An account of the co-researchers’ experiences as gamers and language users – Through first-person accounts and reflexivity
• A description of practices – The basis for the next stage of data collection
The Research Team • Six researchers – One lead researcher (Dr. Mora) – Five field researchers (Sebastián, Mateo, Brayan, Sebastián, Alejandro)
• Lead researcher provides conceptual and methodological guidance • Field researchers provide connoisseurship (à la Eisner) of gaming and gaming communities • A true community of affinity (Black, 2009) with a horizontal structure (Clift, et al., 2006)
LEVEL 3:
GAMING AND SECOND LANGUAGE LITERACY: THE RESEARCHERS’ JOURNEYS
Mateo’s Account
Brayan’s Account
Sebastian C’s Account
LEVEL 4:
NEXT STEPS
Lessons from Phase Zero • The importance of a hybrid research – Virtual observations – Personal interviews
• English is not about learning… or use… – It’s about success – It’s a resource that improves gaming
• Researchers’ own views as a step toward appropriation – Self-reflexivity empowered the research team – They have stronger evidence to build the project as a team and not just “await further instructions”
What’s next • Begin Phase One – August 2014-June 2015 – Explore gaming communities – Participant observations – In-depth interviews and focus groups – Game-through recordings
THANK YOU! (UPDATED 04/02/15) • Contact us at
[email protected] for inquiries about this project • Follow us on Twitter: @lslp_colombia • Instagram: @lslpcolomba • Visit our LSLP website: http://literaciesinl2project.org • Videos for presentation available on our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/c/Literaciesinl2projectOrg
