description

This research line, along with Community Literacies, is one of the entry points for our Novice Researchers.

This research line is exploring how second language users involved in gaming and online communities are playing with second languages as a resource to appropriate and engage with the different genres and practices present in such spaces, from linguistic, semiotic, and aesthetic dimensions. Research in this line will describe and analyze the emergence of digital and gaming literacies as social phenomena and their effect on languaging. This line of work has developed one of main concepts to date: Language-as-Victory.

At present, two main areas of inquiry support this line: On the one hand, we have an ongoing inquiry on Gaming Literacies ( Phase One and Phase Two, already underway) that we have developed since 2014. On the other hand, we are developing (along with some of our International Affiliates) inquiries around the idea of critical digital literacies and the potential role of second and additional languages in their reconceptualization.

the leading concept: language-as-victory

Language-as-Victory (or LaV for short) is the second key concept that LSLP has created and published. This concept has been well received in the gaming research community for its originality (see our interview with James Paul Gee for an example!). LaV makes reference to the nexus between language use and gaming and supports the idea of "Rethinking Language" that we proposed for our vision. Here is our working definition by former #TeamLaV members Michael Hernandez and Sebastián Castaño
Our idea of Language-as-Victory, or LaV, intends to make sense of these new interactions and needs for English learning in the context of videogames. LaV, therefore, refers in our particular context, to the use of English (and other second languages that have emerged in other games) as the key element to achieve victory in the different games and genres in which second-language users participate on a daily basis.
(Hernandez & S Castaño, 2015 - LSLP Micro-Paper 32)
LaV brings together several concepts in literacies theory to engage with languaging moments in the gaming experience, such as multimodality, superdiversity, and digital literacies, to name a few. Our understanding of LaV has also influenced other concepts we have proposed as part of our research: gamification/gamifying, gamer, gamers-as-L2-users, and gamers-as-L2-teachers. (You can find working definitions for all of these concepts in our LSLP Micro-Papers)

three stages, one team, one mission

Even though LSLP has an identity of its own (see our idea of the Legion, for example) does not mean every team works in the same fashion. Whereas #TeamCaL has had different teams across the phases and #TeamLiLE seems to operate as a collective of teachers who come together according to specific needs, #TeamLaV has become a single unit where we still have researchers who came in during our first study and together we have grown the LaV framework.

This team has then developed three stages in our gaming literacies study, as follows:
Stage One - Second Language Literacies, Video Games, and Gaming: A Digital Ethnography (2014-2017)
Stage Two - A Digital Ethnography of Gaming Literacies: Identity, Languaging, and Design (2017-2021)
Stage Three - The LaV Gamification Initiative: Bringing the Gaming Ethos to our Classrooms