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Chapter 12
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-6609-1.ch012
ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the potential and practical application of CALL and specifcally the use of mas-
sively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) for the language and identity socialization
of transnational students. The authors focus on the educational trajectories of 1) children returnees and
2) international migrants who have lived and attended school in the U.S. and now have been uprooted
to Mexico as a result of repatriation and/or deportation. The authors advocate creating blended afnity
spaces at schools where youth can meet and play digital role-playing games. Game-ecology literacy
development within these spaces is detailed through the sharing of game screen shots, blog posts, and
the perspectives of transnational students that support this kind of learning within the EFL environment.
The chapter concludes with a “call to action” and steps for educators to create such blended afnity
spaces for gaming at schools.
We are all longing to go home to some place we have never been—a place half-remembered and half-
envisioned we can only catch glimpses of from time to time. Community. Somewhere, there are people
to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle
of hands will open to receive us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever
we come into our own power. Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that
Gaming the System:
Leveraging MMORPGs for Leveling-
Up the Playing Field in Schools
for Transnational Students
Steve Daniel Przymus
Texas Christian University, USA
Alejandro Romo Smith
Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, Japan