Using World of Warcraft to teach English
by Paul Sherrard 
Apr 5th 2007 at 7:55PM
There's a story on Gamasutra today about using games, specifically WoW, as a way of exposing Asian youth to English. As an author of English-language textbooks for students in Japan and Taiwan, this particularly caught my attention. I'll let you go read the article to understand what's been done, but I'd like to share some thoughts here on the subject.
First and foremost, I think that using a game like WoW to teach casual, conversational English is a fantastic idea. With in-game chat, as well as Teamspeak/Ventrilo, you can really expose non-native speakers to the language in all its forms. Granted, you're not going to learn high-level business English, but you are going to be able to come away with a grasp of the language and some of its conversational nuances.
I also firmly believe that language is not as severe a barrier in WoW as it may be in other games. I know that many of us have come across a member of the opposite faction, and have been able to communicate through emotes or movements, or even through how we interact with the mobs in the situation. With less of a barrier to communication from the get-go, there's less of an intimidation factor involved for someone who wants to get something across.
However, through my experience, I've definitely seen some roadblocks to using WoW as an educational tool. I think it may be less prevalent on the European servers (please let me know if this is so, or I have a misperception), but on the North American servers I've played on, there seems to be a solid amount of intolerance for people who can't perfectly communicate in English.
A lot of this may stem from gold farmers who don't speak the language, but there are also French and Spanish speaking players on these realms who may have had to endure a certain amount of ridicule before finding acceptance in a given guild.
My question to the WoW Insider community is this - if you were aware that your server was being used for cross-cultural and cross-lingual training, would you accept this and would you put forth the time and energy to help non-English speakers be a part of your guild or your party and learn the language?
If not, why not?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Deathlike Apr 5th 2007 8:21PM
(Excellent article, by the way, Paul.)
I wouldn't mind. I've done it before. The only problem is that the person trying to learn English would need to have a certain level of understanding of it for other players not to become frustrated.
That's when the intolerance hits, obviously. But it's something the non-english-speaking person will have to tolerate while learning the language, I think; I can't see a way around it, besides learning from a book or teacher for a long while beforehand.
Pingmeister Apr 5th 2007 8:22PM
I think the biggest problem is the leet-speakers. I am surprised that a non-English speaker can learn anything from:
u hav gold i m por lol
I would be very willing to join a server that was populated by a large number of folks trying to learn English.
I solo exclusively, so communication in-battle would not be an issue. But I regularly troll through towns just striking up conversations, which would be a lot of fun with that type of crowd.
Ehud Apr 5th 2007 8:44PM
You have GOT to be kidding. Ninety-Five percent of players use improper spelling and grammar anyway. Learning the wrong thing would just be silly.
chouclac Apr 5th 2007 9:32PM
There are good and bad sides to this. I had to learn English (French being my first language) and for the most part I didn't learn much of my spoken in English class, it was out with friends or on games. What sucked was when I wasn't comfortable enough to speak it, I wouldn't ask questions and the would pop a weird sentence and would get everyones attention. But if we only considered the spoken factor then definitely immersion is your best friend. You also have to consider the willpower of the individuals, because its only if they want to know it that they'll remember it.
Now to answer your question, yes I would definitely participate as its a lot of fun to get to know other people. Haha if we get enough ESL (English as a Second Language) people then we can make a "hooked on phonics" guild.
As for playing the game while doing this its pretty simple...everything can be represented with math-like syntax (which is universal) like moon (show the symbol on a mob)=sheep(pretty sure you can find an accurate translation of that word in every language).
Just my 2 cent.
Carolyn Aug 6th 2008 3:34AM
We once had a non-native English speaker in our guild, and it wasn't that big of a deal. Every so often he would ask a question or make a statement that had us all scratching our heads, but our confusion was always quickly cleared up by asking for clarification. If we ever have another ESL guildie, I doubt it would bother me.
As for learning English by playing WoW, I think it's a terrible idea. First of all, how often do people use complete and proper sentences with correct grammar and spelling? Practically never. Second, the vocabulary used while playing WoW is pretty useless and irrelevant in real life, and the names for some things would be misleading for someone wanting to learn the language.
I think that if there was a MMO designed specifically with the idea of learning a foreign language in mind it could be fun and effective, but I'm not sure how much someone would really get out of playing WoW for that reason.
Guernia Apr 5th 2007 10:53PM
lol wut?
Sherp of Ahrotahntee Apr 5th 2007 11:19PM
Learn English from WoW players? What horrible thing did your hypothetical language students do to deserve that?
I suppose if you tried it on an RP realm they might have a shot. Don't expect them to ace the spelling and punctuation sections of their final exam, though.
Fai Apr 7th 2007 4:35AM
Playing on the European servers it's a reality that for most of the players English IS a second language. We don't seem to run into that much communication problems :p. In fact it's kind of funny to try to figure out what's someone's native tongue by identifying typical grammar/spelling mistakes.
The annoying part for us would more be "oh so you're from denmark too? ". Usually someone will either reply explicitly to please speak a language that everyone understands or say something along the lines of "why yes I do love cake" which gets the job done just as well.
The only time I remember really running into trouble with the language barrier was on a strat scarlet run with a mage that obviously didn't speak a word of english. This was before the introduction of raid icons so in the end we resorted to creating a macro that went "/point %t 'baaaaaaa" and that seemed to solve things.
TCGiant Apr 6th 2007 1:55AM
No, and because I'm a jerk, respectively. ;)
Joe Apr 6th 2007 2:40AM
I think that the quality of language in this environment isn't as much of an issue as some may think. What a lot of ESL students outside of English speaking countries lack is conversational skill. They may know the grammar (better than some native speakers even) but they have no idea on how to actually use it. Exposure (at any level) to a foreign language will help the student learn, even passively. So, while it may not be a great primary tool, it could be an excellent secondary tool .
Anyway: Do I want to spend my time in WoW correcting someones grammar? no. Will I refuse to grp with someone just because they don't speak fluent English? Only if they are a Hunter.
Falgorn Apr 6th 2007 4:34AM
My guild has had one or two non native English players with us since our first MMO which was SWG.
These guys had a basic understanding of English and enough to get by initially however their conversational English has become exceptional. They have commented on numerous occasions that in School (though one has graduated now) they had better conversational English and a much better grasp of phraseology and sentence structure than most in their class. One was even asked if they had an English speaker at home, as they would come out with statements they wouldn't have picked up in class.
My Guilds have always and will continually be populated by mature gamers with a blanket ban on the use of leet speak unless associated with a high degree of humor.
fifteen Apr 6th 2007 5:46AM
I'm playing on a EU realm and I'm member of a pretty much international guild. We have people from Russia, UK, Hungary, Belgium, France, Italy, etc. We have people with different lvls of English but generally as long as you understand the other person it's not really a problem.
I also know some fellow players from my country who actually learnt English by playing WoW. When they started playing they could barely communicate during a 5man run but now, after 2 years of playing they tend to be the ones who just don't shut up for a sec during several hours long raids. :)
I think it's just the same as in RL. You learn a language much faster if you use it for something that you are interested in.
Theserene Apr 6th 2007 2:30PM
We have got many non-native english speakers in our guild. Our main warrior joined the guild from germany, stating that the reason he plays on an english server is to learn the language.
He occassionally has problems with some of the slang terms, but now speaks phenominally good english. We also have people from south africa and luxembourg.
So no, so long as they make a real genuine attempt to learn the language I have no problems with it. It's nice to help out and now we have a reputation as being a guild that is not at all xenophobic.
Meridith Apr 6th 2007 10:34AM
I'd rather deal with someone earnestly trying to learn the language than someone who just spouts a lot of leetspeak. I do remember an occasion helping a non-native speaker with a quest because he didn't know what "alcove" meant, and he was very nice and honest about it. I think the whole goldfarmer problem has a lot to do with it, but if someone is putting effort into it it helps a lot.
Zinger Apr 6th 2007 12:58PM
The same idiots who make fun of the non native English speaking people also make fun of anybody else in general chat just to get some attention since nobody gives them the time of day in real life. These dorks would never say the same thing to anybody face to face...unless they wanted their pencil protectors, glasses and nose destroyed.
Hopefully these dorks will end up traveling overseas and be on the other side of things, where people look at THEM as the weirdos who can't speak THEIR language.
Antenora Apr 6th 2007 4:52PM
I definitely don't mind helping other people on their english if they are and ESL player in my party or guild. Just last week I had a korean girl who was constantly kicked from parties and guilds because she couldn't communicate very well. Our group took her through the instance we were doing and helped her a lot.
As for learning English through WoW, I think it would be a good idea IF the person joined a guild where people used their english CORRECTLY and used proper grammar. I would HATE for them to learn "ZOMG A GRL LES CYBAR!" or something of that equivalent. :P
Halicante Apr 6th 2007 5:06PM
Americans tend to be pretty tough on non-english speakers. As someone who lived overseas and learned French by getting plunked in school with a bunch of Frenchies, I think my guild is much more tolerant of non-native speakers than many other guilds on our server and our whacky member base shows it (we've got a pretty good polyglot happening lol). My server has some exclusively french guilds and exclusively spanish speaking guilds for those who are more comfortable just speaking his/her own language, but I do think it's smart for ESL people on a NA server to use that opportunity to improve their language skills. It's one of the more important and beneficial languages to know in the world today and can only help the person in the future!
Eztonic Apr 7th 2007 11:07AM
As said before, on most EU server English is the second language for about 80-90 % of the players. I'm in a Dutch guild, so in /g we speak Dutch. At my server (Doomhammer EU) are a lot of people from all over Europe: The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Italy, and all the Eastern European countries. Except for the people from the UK, everybody is using English in-game. While some people speak better English than others, it works out pretty well. A lot of people join a guild from their own country, but that's about it. Engrish is the common language.