Video Games and English as a Second Language: The Effect of Massive Multiplayer Online Video Games on the Willingness to Communicate and Communicative Anxiety of College Students in Puerto Rico

This study investigates whether time spent playing online multiplayer video games, particularly massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), is associated with willingness to communicate (WTC) and communicative anxiety (CA) among basic and intermediate English as a second language (ESL) college students in Puerto Rico. The authors argue that the informal, low-evaluation environments of these games can provide English practice opportunities that are scarce in Puerto Rican classrooms, where oral communication often receives less emphasis than test preparation. Drawing on concepts such as Game Transfer Phenomena and participatory culture, the work positions gaming as a potentially authentic and low-anxiety setting for language use.

The quantitative study surveyed 76 Spanish-speaking college students at a single Puerto Rican campus, using SurveyMonkey questionnaires and Wattana's Willingness to Communicate Scale. Cumulative time spent playing online multiplayer games showed statistically significant positive correlations with both English willingness to communicate (r = .363, p = .003) and communicative anxiety in classroom settings (r = .484, p < .001). The positive association with anxiety reflects a relationship in the direction the authors hypothesized, and the authors report that 88% and 86% of participants, respectively, recognized new English vocabulary and sentence structures learned through gameplay.

The findings should be interpreted with appropriate caution. The sample was small, nonrandomly selected, and drawn from one campus, which limits generalizability to other Puerto Rican institutions or to ESL learners elsewhere. Data relied on self-report, introducing the possibility of social desirability bias, and English-language instruments were used with non-native speakers, although wording was adapted to a Flesch-Kincaid reading level of 8.9 or lower. The reference sections cite literature on language learning anxiety, collaborative learning in MMOs, and serious gaming in education, which frames the study's theoretical grounding.