FATMA KHERBACHE
Journal of Positive School Psychology - 2024;8(1):303-313
Playing video games has gained popularity all over the globe since the last two decades. This coupled with technology advancements which paved the way foratremendous gaming industry, yielding in its turn various types of games, among whichonline video games are prevailing.Consequently, people all over the globe, mainly youth, are highly exposed to this type of gaming using English as a medium to interact with both English native and non-native speakers and which might have an impact on the development of English language skills in a relaxing and entertaining environment.The presentstudy investigates the impact of playing online video games on English language skills among EFL learnersin the English department of Abou Bekr University of Tlemcen, Algeria.By means of a mixed method approach, a structured questionnaire was administered to 40male and female EFL learners, as well as an interviewwith ten male participants. Data analysis revealed that online video gaming is a double-edged sword;whileit influenceslearners’ English language skills, particularlyspeaking and listening, it has a negative impact on vocabulary acquisition.This is becauselearnersare exposed to a greatnumber of slang and taboo wordsas well asnumerous abbreviated forms whichmay negatively affect theirwriting skills.Moreover, the interview findings revealed that personal and cognitive as well as emotional and psychological benefits emerged from online gaming.
