The Translanguaging of Gaming Literacies: A Study of Second-Language Gamers and Gaming Spaces

• In Event: 43.067 - (Re)Theorizing Translanguaging From Non-Anglo Contexts/Perspectives

Abstract

Objectives
Translanguaging (Canagarajah, 2011; García, 2009; García & Li Wei, 2014) has raised new questions about how languages operate in diverse contexts around the world. However, we are still learning about second-language practices online (Author 2, et al., 2016a; Corredor & Gaydos, 2014). This study will explore how gamers who are English users bring the different languages at their disposal to engage with the games, develop long-term engagement with the games, participate in different communities, and ultimately achieve success in their games of choice.
Perspectives
This study relies on our notion of Language-as-Victory (LaV, Author 2, et al, 2016a, 2016b, 2018b, forthcoming), which explores the different strategies at gamers’ disposal to use language to relate and connect to the games and genres they play. Complementing the idea of LaV, we are also merging translanguaging (Canagarajah, 2011; García, 2009; García & Li Wei, 2014) and polylanguaging (Jørgensen, 2012; Jørgensen, Karrebæk, Madsen, L. M. & Møller, 2011) as ends of a “permeable continuum” (Author 2, 2010; Author 2, et al, under review). The proposed continuum offers a nuanced, multidimensional analytical framework to look at the variety and progression of language practices during gaming moments.
Methods and Data Sources
This study, qualitative in nature, draws from elements of digital (Author 2, et al., 2018a; Coffey, et al., 2006; Dicks, et al, 2006) and virtual (Firat & Yurdakil, 2011) ethnography to guide our work. A first cluster of data sources include screenshots (from the co-authors themselves), playthroughs and tutorials (available on YouTube) of specific games in five different genres. A second cluster, linked to the screenshots, is a series of autoethnographic field notes.
Results
Our data analysis of screenshots (we are at present analyzing the tutorials and playthroughs) showed a wide range of strategies that gamers use to rely on their different languages at their disposal to attain long-term engagement and success in their games. Gamers develop varied discursive patterns and acquired specific lingo related to each genre. One example is what happens in Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG), where appropriating acronyms as part of the game is a necessity. Not knowing these acronyms means lacking access to extended networks, such as guilds. In addition, even if the games are in English, gamers are aware that having baseline of extended knowledge of other languages, including their mother tongue, becomes a necessary factor to participate in the games.
Scholarly Significance
Gaming research continues to offer new avenues of inquiry in fields such as literacy and second language studies. They continue to help explore ways to break traditional dichotomies and hegemonies, while showing us the new ways in which multilingual users are using language for more flexible communicative and social purposes. Studying online and gaming communities can offer a great deal of information for research on translanguaging and how it operates in non-traditional spaces.

Authors

• Raúl Alberto Mora, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Walter Castaño, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Julián Londoño-Mazo, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Sebastián Ramírez, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana