Gaming (Through) Theories of Language, Learning, and Mediated Social Practice

Steve Thorne

Thu., June 11, 2:00–3:00, Old Madison (3rd floor, East/Southeast)

Many public commentators have presented wildly negative descriptions of online activity, claiming that (often young) participants are immersed in cognitively reductive, socially narrow, and linguistically impoverished worlds. In empirical response, I will present a taxonomy of the communicative functions exhibited in five-person instance runs in World of Warcraft. This data will be used to explore the high-frequency social actions and dispositions presented by players, and further, will provide a springboard for describing a post-language model of communicative activity that draws upon a number of compelling recent and mid-20th century theorists (Hopper, Tomasello, Wittgenstein, Garfinkel). Looking at fragments and repertoires as a useful model of units of talk, I will conclude with implications for language-focused game design.