Could Computer Games Influence an Understanding of the English Language?

Some computer games could help improve English skills, according to a recent study published in the journal Recall.

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg and Karlstad University in Switzerland found that young people who spent a lot of time with interactive computer games had better vocabularies than those who spent less time playing computer games in general.

"As a player you simply have to be able to understand what's being said, to read English and to interact yourself by both writing and speaking English," said Liss Kerstin Sylvén, Associate Professor at the University of Gothenburg, who conducted the study together with Pia Sundqvist, Senior Lecturer in English at Karlstad University, in a news release.

For the study, researchers examined 76 young people between the ages of 10 and 11. Findings revealed that computer games like Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), a genre role-playing computer game that allows other players to interact with one another via a virtual world, was the most effective for development of English vocabulary in general.

More specifically, researchers found that male participants spent at average of 11.5 hours a week playing computer games and girls spent an average of only 5.1 hours a week playing similar options. However, the female participants spent significantly more time on language-related activities online, spending about 11.5 hours on social media sites such as Facebook while boys spent around 8 hours on the same sites.

"The importance of coming into contact with English outside school, for example by reading English or, as in this case, by playing computer games, means a lot in terms of young people's English vocabulary. It also has positive effects on what happens at school in the classroom. The subject of English at school and the English that the young people encounter and use in their leisure time are not two separate worlds," Sylvén concluded.