Lighting the fuse for interaction and negotiation: The potential of information-gap digital puzzle games for language learning

While the existing CALL literature identifies a range of positive learning outcomes for second language acquisition (SLA) that may be achieved through digital game-based activities, Peterson (2013) points to the need for additional theory-led research to shed more light on the learning processes involved. To this end, a case study was carried out in which three upper-intermediate-level learners of English at a Japanese university played the cooperative puzzle game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (2015) over four sessions. A three-tiered interaction analysis was performed on the learners’ linguistic output in order to identify instances of negotiation for meaning and associated interactional strategies theorised to benefit learning within the cognitive-interactionist SLA paradigm. The findings confirm that negotiation for meaning occurred and suggest that breakdowns in communication resulting from vague language usage or from gaps in lexical knowledge are most likely to elicit beneficial forms of negotiation. In addition, learners are shown to have made regular use of various interactional strategies, either to repair breakdowns in communication or to pre-empt such breakdowns. Clarification requests and elaborations on previous utterances are shown to have occurred during interaction and the data suggest that these two strategies can involve substantial modified output that may further facilitate SLA.