Notes Towards a Framework for Designing Mobile Games for Children in the Developing World to Learn English as a Second Language in Out-of-School Settings

For a number of underdeveloped regions, English as a Second Language (ESL) is a critical enabler for improving access to education, knowledge, economic opportunities, social status and computer literacy. Existing educational institutions such as schools, however, have not always effectively addressed this demand for ESL. Based on three field studies among children from the urban slums and rural areas in India, we argue that mobile games on cellphones have the potential to make ESL learning resources more accessible to children in out-of-school settings. We first frame our problem of ESL learning in terms of Gee’s distinction between primary and secondary discourses. We next review the literature, including Krashen’s highly influential theory of second language acquisition, Bruner’s work on how play is a mechanism whereby children are socialized into the language and culture of their society, and Malone’s heuristics on what make electronic games enjoyable. We then show how these theories can inform the design of an example game that target the train traveler secondary discourse. INTRODUCTION A fair proportion of low-income populations in underdeveloped regions desire to improve their command of conversational and written English. This is because competency in English as a Second Language (ESL) is critical for securing higherpaying economic prospects, attaining academic achievement in classrooms where English is the medium of instruction, and using the Internet whose content is predominantly in English [e.g. 5, 6, 7, 17]. Unfortunately, conventional educational systems have not always effectively addressed the demand for ESL. For example, the state government in Uttar Pradesh, India has made ESL classes mandatory in Hindi-medium public schools owing to pressure from rural parents who wanted their children to receive an education that is comparable to English-medium private schools. But from our fieldwork in Uttar Pradesh, we found that students who had received 2 to 5 years of ESL lessons at a well-managed rural school could barely read every letter in the English alphabet. Two significant factors account for the limited impact of formal schooling in developing countries, namely, irregular school attendance due to the need for students to engage in agricultural work or housework, and the lack of interest in schoolwork. We argue that appropriate and low-cost technologies can be valuable learning resources in these impoverished settings. In particular, electronic games on cellphones which target ESL learning in out-of-school settings appear to be a promising approach for complementing the existing formal schooling system for two reasons. Firstly, mobile devices can potentially enable children to access educational resources anytime and anywhere, including out-of-school settings such as after-school programs, the home and agricultural fields. Secondly, educational games can potentially motivate learners by creating a more engaging learning experience. As designers of instructional technologies, our concern is: how can literacy and learning theories inform the design of mobile ESL learning games for out-of-school contexts? James Gee’s well-known book on the educational potential of electronic games [10] is a first step to addressing this question. But more importantly, Gee’s book echoes his earlier work on discourse [9] which we revisit in this paper since they resonate with Stephen Krashen’s highly influential theory of second language acquisition [e.g. 17-24]. By framing our problem of ESL learning in terms of Gee’s distinction between the primary and secondary discourse, our central question becomes: how can we design ESL learning games so as to introduce elements of valued secondary discourses into the primary discourse?