1. Saeideh Hosseini & Begum Sacak
Games in Language Learning: MMORPGs and English Language Learners’ Perceived Identity
Saeideh Hosseini & Begum Sacak

2. INTRODUCTION What are MMORPGs? interactive games
online virtually constructed fantasy worlds
The significance of MMORPGs in SLL
interaction opportunities
a safe environment
a sense of community

3. Interaction in MMORPGs
MMORPGs as effective platforms for community of practice (Wu et al., 2014)
Interaction between players through forming community of practice (Zhao and Lai, 2005)
Completing quests
Working towards a common goal
Socialization
Interacting with people & negotiation of meanings

4. Community of Practice, Learning & Identity
Wenger (1998)
Learning = Identity
Learning is a process of becoming
Learning is a social act
Lave and Wenger (1991)
Identities are products of people’s participations and memberships in the communities.

5. Identity in Role Playing Games
Real World Identity
The real world identity is defined as the real identity of the player in the real world, which is a non-virtual person playing a computer game.

6. Projective Identity/Imagined Identity
Projective identity has a root in the person’s real identity.
The projection of values and desires onto the virtual characters (Gee,2003).
The projection of values also leads to an ownership of the identities.
Imagined identity (Norton, 1995; Norton and Toohey, 2011).

7. Virtual Identity (Character)
Virtual identity stands for the identity which is created for the game play. Within the limitations of a particular game design, a player can attribute the desired characteristics and appearance for the character they are playing with.

8. Identity in Role Playing Games
Real World Identity
Projective identity
Virtual Identity

9. Identity & MMORPGs
Deep learning requires an extended commitment and such a commitment is powerfully recruited when people take on a new identity they value and in which they become heavily invested – whether this be a child “being a scientist doing science” in a classroom or an adult taking on a new role at work (Gee, 2004).
Investment in new identities = investment in language learning (Norton, 1995)

10. Previous Research on MMORPGs in Language Learning
Collaboration among players
Guilds: “collaborative relationships developed by gameplay and alliance to take high-level learning tasks (Pasfield-Neofitou, 2014, p. 272; Rankin et al., 2008 ).”
Learners’ desire to be a part of the role playing games
Motivation
People from different backgrounds
Existence of a non-threatening environment (Zhao and Lai, 2005)
MMORPGs lower the risk of failure as learners do not experience real world consequences.

11. OUR FUTURE RESEARCH
The connection between identity and language learning in online games
A Synthesis of the theoretical frameworks (Gee, 2004; Wenger, 1998; Norton, 1995)