Project Technical Data |
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This project was funded by the Center for Research, Development, and Innovation (CIDI) at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Sede Central Medellín [File No. 515B-11/15-S80]
Setting the Scene |
As part of a globalized society (Blommaert, 2010), English is generating a variety of new practices and uses (Mora, 2014b). In these new language ecologies (Mora, 2014), the physical and virtual converge, raising new questions about language learning (Leu et al., 2011) and appropriation (Black, 2009; Engeström, 1999; Leander & Lewis, 2008). One of the new challenges for literacy research (Bruce, 1997; Cope & Kalantzis, 2008, 2009; Lankshear & Knobel, 2011; Mora, 2014b) is to comprehend the new challenges that are emerging in these new spaces of practice.
Every day, more academic studies and positions on video games emerge (Cogburn & Silcox, 2009; Gee, 2003; Hawisher & Selfe, 2007). Every day, we recognize the potential benefits of video game research for literacy practices (Beavis, 2015; Hawisher & Selfe, 2007). Stage One of the LaV project aimed to take a first look at how gamers used English occurs, both individually and in gaming communities, as well as the new narrative genres that emerge as a result of video games. This is part of one of the few systematic studies in our country that investigates how English serves as a communicative resource in video games and gaming communities, as well as one of the few worldwide in which the players are the researchers themselves. |
Stage Zero: Autoethnography |
As a previous step to this project, the student researchers developed a pilot study from their vantage point as gamers. Relying on the methodology of autoethnography, all researchers took reflective notes and collected screenshots from their own gaming experiences. We used these data as the basis of a presentation at the Tenth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, which has also become the source to write the research proposal for this project.
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Stage One: Language-as-Victory as a Linguistic and Semiotic Affair |
The initial members of #TeamLaV worked on this project between 2014 and 2016. Since this project explored practices in digital spaces, the team delved in digital ethnography as the methodological tool to carry out this study. Guided by the question of how English appears in these communities, the student researchers mentioned the issue that English is not just a resource at times... but the resource to thrive in these games. From this research, we coined the notion of Language as Victory (LaV) as the conceptual basis of our inquiries.
Stage One explored the taxonomies of LaV in four distinct video game genres:
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Academic Presentations and publications
Tyrone and Sebastián presenting at ASOCOPI 50th Annual Conference (2015)
Michael and Raúl presenting at the 6th International Seminar at UdeA (2016)
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During Stage One, #TeamLaV presented a total of six international (including one at LRA), two local, and one national presentation, in addition to one proceedings paper,
Here is the yearly detail: 2014
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