Games as Essential Third Spaces for Multilingual Language Learners in Secondary Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Learning Beyond the Classroom: Social-Emotional Development through Families, Culture, and Community Spaces

Proposal

In traditional public school settings in the United States, students who are new to the country face many challenges upon arrival. As stated by Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco (2001) in their article on immigrant children in schools, “Immigrant children arrive at American schools today from very different backgrounds that defy easy generalizations.” Students may find their cultures, traditions, languages, and identities on shaky ground when trying to accommodate all these life changes, not to mention normal stressors of new academic content and social lives. How students see themselves in relation to others is vital to learning. As educators, it is imperative to carve out spaces where students can create their identities in conjunction with their academic success. Aligned with sociocultural theory, learning happens in community as meaning-making is a social act. These spaces need to be filled with opportunities to dialogue with peers and teachers so that students can grow both personally and academically. Using field notes and data from four years of experience as an English language educator, I argue that structured, low-risk, game-centered learning spaces act as critical third spaces that foster positive student identity. These third spaces can and should be integrated into the formal school day to allow purposeful activity creation, language practice, and guidance from a knowledgeable other. First, I outline the theoretical framework of translanguaging, gamification, and third spaces. Then, I describe the different school contexts in which my experience is based. Lastly, I end with an analysis of my findings and discuss how these spaces can be practically implemented in the formal school day while proposing further research on the topic. As a culturally responsive strategy, translanguaging allows space for students to mix and combine different methods of communication while learning content material in a new language. Gamification used for language learning is profoundly beneficial to community building, motivation, confidence, and content knowledge growth. Games provide a non-threatening learning environment where students can learn at their own pace, practice the target language, and utilize 21st century skills such as critical thinking, literacy, speaking, listening, problem solving, and digital literacy. Third spaces allow traditional instructor-student relationships to relax and create a low-risk learning space without academic consequences. In my analysis, I use this understanding of third space to describe the low-risk, gamified spaces of learning with my students. The time spent with students qualifies as outside of the traditional school system because no students were given grades for their work or participation in my classes. All together, these characteristics work to foster positive identity growth for multilingual student learners. I found that students’ English language speaking proficiency improved when participating in this type of learning environment.

Author

• Autumn Vaught