Author(s): Afra Ibnat Achol, Shakila Akter

Abstract: This research paper aims to examine the influence of popular online games played by children on their development of English language skills. The language English carries a certain international status and different research in the field of language pedagogy attempt to find ways for teaching it easily. Different games can be proved helpful for teaching and learning English in interesting ways. Nowadays children are being highly involved in online gaming where they communicate with co-players from different countries using English. Thus, they get exposed to a constructed reality where lies the possibility of developing English language skills through interaction and active learning. To explore that possibility, this research has been conducted on 8-14 years old gamer children of Dhaka city who are yet to be proficient in English language. The sample children were surveyed and observed along with collection of opinions of some of their guardians. The analysis of these data showed that online gaming has brought noticeable development in the speaking skill of these children when listening and reading were facilitated to a certain extent too without much effort. But it has the least or almost no impact on their writing skill. These findings would add knowledge on the field of language pedagogy and facilitate easy learning.

Keywords: Active learning, English language, influence, language skills, online games.

Article Info: Received: 25 Nov 2022; Received in revised form: 17 Dec 2022; Accepted: 24 Dec 2022; Available online: 31 Dec 2022

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.76.40