Bringing Today’s World into the Classroom

This webinar, featuring Ana Maria Pinter and Helen Shervin, explored “Gaming in the Wild”—a project investigating young learners’ free-time English gaming habits in Hungary, India, Chile, and China. The research found children play diverse games, gaining significant social, cognitive, intercultural, and English language benefits, while also demonstrating awareness of online risks. The session offered practical ideas for teacher educators to make classrooms relevant by incorporating these gaming experiences. Suggestions included adapting traditional activities (e.g., using game screenshots), student-led projects (e.g., video tutorials, quizzes), and utilizing AI for visuals. The core message: gaming is a powerful, motivating resource to connect with classroom language learning.