Innovation in Language Learning

The evolving participatory culture, enabled by technology advances, has suggested the quest for more engaging real-life learning experiences, and hence, contributed to the development of educational games. Digital game-based learning has become one of the buzzwords over the past few years along with other 21^st century education terms such as virtual learning environment and e-learning. And yet, this approach has not been widely introduced and implemented into English language teaching, especially in formal education settings. The purpose of this poster presentation is to provide a picture of a blended-learning project with a 3D game, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, with high school students from four different provinces in Vietnam. In this poster, the project plan and implementation will be described. In addition, it will also present students’ reflection on the development of their English language skills and understanding of American culture and values, via the project online learning management system, pre- and post-project surveys, and individual interviews. Finally, based on these findings, recommendations for more effective implementation of exploiting educational 3D games for language and culture competence development in high school level for similar contexts wherein English is taught as an additional language will complete the poster.