Article,
The uses of literacy in studying computer games: Comparing students’ oral and visual representations of games
English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 4 (1): 40--59 (2005)
Abstract
This paper compares the oral and visual representations which
12 to 13-year-old students produced in studying computer games as part of an
English and Media course. It presents the arguments for studying multimodal
texts as part of a literacy curriculum and then provides an overview of the
games course devised by teachers and researchers. The analysis of a group
interview and a set of six drawings is designed to highlight the relationship
between knowledge of games gained outside the classroom and knowledge
developed through formal study; the role of gender in students’ interpretations
of games; and the literacy practices manifested in different forms of texts, in
particular visual texts. Judith Butler’s notion of performativity is used
alongside a multimodal theory of sign-making to argue that the way students
interpret and produce texts is socially motivated to achieve a certain
subjectivity within the context of the classroom and the peer group. The
conclusion examines implications for the study of games in English and Media
classrooms, particularly with regard to the teaching of genre.
