Photo taken from LINK

For anyone who truly wants to learn English (or any other language)  it should be evident that to effectively assimilate a language, you need to, in a sense, “live” it. This means surrounding yourself with it, thinking about everyday matters in that language. Many such individuals have undoubtedly often heard advice to watch TV series or movies in English with subtitles or to read various English content. These methods are, of course, fantastic supplements to the main process of learning English. However, there is another great way to combine the pleasant with the useful: video games. 

🎮  Video Games as an Educational Tool 

Video games can be just as effective as the aforementioned methods, and depending on the person, they might even be more effective. Why? Because games are incredibly immersive. Not everyone will agree with this and not everyone will feel the same way, but I believe that video games, unlike books or TV series, give us a strong impression that we are truly the characters we control, and the virtual world in which these characters move becomes our world. The problems of our character become our problems, which we have to solve ourselves, using our minds and our hands with a keyboard,  a mouse, or a gamepad. 

In my opinion, the virtual world of video games can deeply embed itself in our minds. If this world uses the language we want to learn, then when we exit this world as the game ends, we will take with us a wealth of vocabulary, interesting sentence structures, and perhaps even some grammar. 

Photo taken from LINK

🎮 Who Is This a Good Solution For? 

Certainly not everyone, but I believe that everyone should give it a try. It is undoubtedly a great solution for those who already play video games regularly. However, something that might not be obvious to some of these people is that in almost every game, you can switch the language from Polish to English in the settings, even if it might not be immediately apparent. Sometimes it’s just a bit more complicated. But that’s what guides on the internet are for,  we can always use them. As for those who haven’t yet embraced video games, to encourage them, a thought comes to mind. Video games are a bit like board games. You can play either checkers or D&D and everything in between. What I mean is that video games, like board games, vary greatly in complexity, and there are plenty of them. I think everyone could find something for themselves. Therefore, I’d like to give a few examples. 

🎮 Examples of Video Games for Learning English 

Firstly, a game for everyone, great for kids, where you will only learn vocabulary, but there is a lot of it. “Minecraft,” the game in question, is a survival game set in an open world. The first characteristic of Minecraft is that the world is made up of entirely blocky objects, mainly cubes, arranged in a fixed grid structure representing different blocks: grass, soil, wood, or water. The second characteristic is that you can destroy all these blocks and place them anywhere you want. You can also fight monsters, raise animals, grow plants, or fish. All the items you use for building or performing other activities are in your inventory, and hovering over an item displays its name. The idea is to start associating English words for these items with their graphical representation in the game by checking their names. And that’s how you can learn vocabulary in Minecraft. Seriously! Back in my youth, I learned the English words for a sword, coal, wood, and many other things this way.

A screenshot made by A. Kopczyński from the game Minecraft  Mojang Studios, Xbox Game Studios

Now, for the second example, I’ll present a game where you’ll experience a lot of dialogue between characters, so apart from vocabulary, you’ll also get accustomed to the English language, and of course, you can also learn grammar this way. Characters generally use perfect grammar unless the scenario requires otherwise, or the character is written that way, but those are exceptions. Depending on the game, the vocabulary and style of speech can vary. In some games, the vocabulary may be very formal, while in others there will be a lot of colloquial language. One such game, which has a lot of colloquial phrases, is “The Walking Dead.” It’s an episodic adventure game set in a zombie-infested world with comic book-style graphics, based on the comic series of the same name. You solve various puzzles to progress to the next stages and make choices, including dialogue choices, when characters talk to each other. Indeed, there are a lot of dialogues and conversations in “The Walking Dead.” It’s the main activity you do in the game, through which you can get a good feel for everyday English language use. Of course, subtitles of what the characters are saying are always displayed, by default in English, but you can also download and install a Polish translation. Playing “The Walking Dead” is a bit like playing a TV series with your favorite characters. 

A screenshot made by A. Kopczyński from the game The Walking Dead, Telltale Games

🎮 Conclusion 

To sum up… I hope that I have managed to prove and convince with this blog entry that playing video games (in English) is a really great way to combine the pleasant with the useful –  fantastic entertainment and a way to learn English at the same time. Of course, there are more examples of games for such purposes. You can turn on “The Sims 4” in English and explore what things are called in this language in build mode. Another example (although a bit controversial) is the “Grand Theft Auto” series, where the dialogues between characters, when they are driving together, are never-ending. But the most important thing is to find something you enjoy playing. Because that’s what video games are all about. 

🎮 💎 🪨 ⛏ 2023/2024 © Adam Kopczyński, Logistyka, 2 rok,  Akademia Nauk Stosowanych w Koninie