LEARNING ENGLISH OUTSIDE OF CLASS: DON ‘T FORGET VIDEO GAMES

I follow a lot of people in the English language teaching field, so I’ve seen many tips for learners. Interestingly, almost none of them include playing video games with English speakers.

This seemed strange so I did a quick Internet search. There are dozens of suggestion posts, but again, few, if any, include video games. I suggest we change this. Let’s add video games, especially multiplayer video games, to our lists.

Just about every suggestion list tells learners to seek out opportunities to communicate in English. Well, that is exactly what you do if you chose to play a game with English speakers. And popular games have huge pools of English speakers ready to join you – for free.

You’ll talk about what’s happening in the game for sure,  but the pace of many games is slow enough that there is time for ordinary conversation as well. Then, of course, multiplayer games are great for listening practice.

Now for some suggestions to English learners on how to use video games effectively. When you finish, be sure to check out our YouTube channel for hundreds of videos on playing multiplayer video games in English.

Choose a game that looks fun and learn to play it. It’s really not fair to other players if you have no idea what is happening in the game….

You’ll probably want to play first in your own language. Play solo (alone) if you want or play with friends. Watch games on YouTube or Twitch. Start watching in English too. Try to learn what English speakers tend to say at various stages of the game.

Start using some of the language you learn as you play. If your friends are agreeable, aim to eventually play entirely in English. It would be great if one or more of your playing partners are fluent in the language.

Hopefully, you will soon become brave enough to join games with English speakers. This will likely be a challenge at first because the language will be very fast. (We can help you with that.). But you know the game and you can also see what is happening.

As you join in more games, you will find yourself in the same situations again and again, so you will quickly learn what information you need to share with your teammates and how to respond to them.

I suspect that a big reason why there are so few recommendations for video games is that you will probably hear some pretty vulgar language, particularly the “F” word. I have a video dealing with that, but my short advice is to not join in. I’ve been speaking Thai for 40 years and I still don’t curse. As for English…

Which game do you want to play? Dwight Pavlovic has a nice list of the types of video games you can choose from, plus some examples of each.

At Real English for gamers, we tend to focus on Battle Royal Games like Fortnite and PUBG: Battlegrounds as well as co-op (cooperative) games like Minecraft and Core Keeper, but over the past few years we have made videos featuring dozens of other games.

Terry Fredrickson

Real English for Gamers

Bangkok, Thailand