Language socialization

TLDR: The authors explored the use of role-plays and games to promote language socialization in a pedagogical context. But they did not consider the role-play games in the context of the Bully simulation.

Abstract: This symposium issue focuses on the use of simulations and games to promote language socialization. Laurie Schick’s opening article is based on language socialization theory and includes a discussion of concepts developed in frame analysis. She considers simulations to be powerful socialization tools and discusses the implications for using role-plays and simulations in pedagogical contexts. In her exploration of the advantages of incorporating Internet chat into an international composition class, Emily Hull discusses the pedagogical implications of combining this technology with the BULLYING simulation that appears in this issue. Tânia Saliés and Priscila Starosky explore how the use of games led to the language development of a deaf Brazilian boy. In their cognitive-functional approach, they analyze the results of gaming encounters in terms of the development of the child’s communicative competence. Seongwon Yun examines how bilingual Korean children’s role-play leads to the internalization of social identities and how their metacommunication about play lead to the acquisition of cultural and linguistic knowledge. Mary Theresa Seig discusses the use of a cross-cultural simulation as an effective tool in a training program at a living history museum. She demonstrates how a simulation helped interpreters at the museum to communicate more effectively with visitors. This symposium issue concludes with my BULLYING simulation. Although we have used it in graduate courses in International Composition, one participant suggested (see reference in Schick’s article, this issue) that the BULLYING simulation could be an appropriate exercise for a group of public school teachers participating in an orientation program.