Why nerds learn language best
Playing video games, watching anime, spending too much time on the internet listening your favorite fantasy podcasts… these activities are rarely credited as worthy ways to invest your time, especially by educators who would rather see you studying. However, Linguists and teachers alike are starting to notice a correlation between people who are heavily invested in certain “nerd”* cultures and their ability to learn complex skills- particularly language skills.
*Keep in mind, here we are using the word “nerd” to describe someone who invests a great deal of their time into their interests, usually entertainment-related. Comic book nerd, Final-Fantasy nerd, sports nerd… we’re all nerds about something.
Truly invested nerds who spend time in the right kind of virtual environments seem to acquire foreign language naturally and rapidly, sometimes even effortlessly, but why? Language experts say it’s because online interest communities naturally foster intrinsic motivation, language-immersion, and learner autonomy, all key ingredients for language-learning.
English Hegemony on the Internet
When I was growing up circa 2005-2010, YouTube was in its early prime for new entertainers, musicians, and comedians. My generation grew up alongside the explosion of YouTube culture, forged by YouTubers like Ryan Higa, Shane Dawson, Liam Kyle Sullivan, Ray William Johnson, and literally hundreds of other early “content creators.” Despite knowing that YouTube is accessible all over the world, I remember my puzzlement when I first learned that one of these popular creators- Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie- is a Swedish, non-native English speaker.
PewDiePie started off exclusively streaming video games when he first started his YouTube career; my friends and I would watch his “Lets Play” videos, where he made horror games like Amnesia a little less unnerving to watch by making goofy voices and kicking barrels while playing solo. At the time I thought, “why is this Swedish guy making videos in English? How does he know so much about American humor?” PewDiePie just sounded so… American. So natural. I could barely tell the accent was there, and he used words/ phrases I common to any American teenager. It started to dawn on me that perhaps “American culture” and “internet culture” have a blurred line separating the two.
One might think that being Swedish had a role to play in PewDiePie’s choice to create content completely in English- which is true. As shown by the EF English Proficiency Index 2020 below, most Swedes (and Norwegians, and Finns, and many other Scandinavians) speak English as a second language without difficulty. Public schools in Sweden teach English as a second language early on, and it is rare to find an adult in Sweden who can’t switch between the two languages at ease. So if you already speak English and if you are going to create videos, entertainment, or music for the world to enjoy, why not create it in the language that most people around the world understand, instead of limiting it to 10 million people who understand Swedish?
Using English is extremely common, not just for YouTubers, but for anyone hoping to gain a global attention and the widest possible fanbase. However, being able to create content in English is not so accessible for everyone like it was for PewDiePie. English is often times used as a key: a key to the internet, opportunities, and global communities, and not everyone gets to grow up in a place where that key is simply given to them. But nowadays, the expectation for younger generations to live and breathe in virtual fluency makes it all the easier for internet users to access global languages.
Examining Who Learns the Best
Just because everyone technically has access to English doesn’t mean that everyone can easily learn it. That’s why in 2009, researchers Steven Thorne, Rebecca Black (no not that one) and Julie Sykes looked into the types of environments that produce the best language-learning scenarios, including fan-fiction writing communities and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Games (MMORPGs). As it turns out, the most immersive, language-stimulating environments are where users are connecting about their favorite non-language-related topics: entertainment, television shows, books, pop-culture, video games, sports, manga… I could go on. According to Thorne, Black, and Sykes, the hours that these web users spend socializing, creating, and often absorbing new content can become hours of learning and facilitating new linguistic skills.
“Online Interest Communities” or “Internet Fan Communities”
As opposed to social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which often connect folks with their pre-existing social circles, Online Interest Communities exist on websites and interactive platforms exist to establish connection focusing on a specific topic or activity. You probably have heard of many of these communities or “fandoms.” For example:
Bronies: Fans of the cartoon show My Little Pony who often interact on YouTube and 4chan (Ponychan).
Potterheads: Fan’s of Harry Potter who often create fanfiction.
World of Warcraft fans, who may interact on WoW forums outside of the gameplay itself.
Various anime and manga die-hards who may be lumped into the subcategories of Otaku or Weebs.
Some of these activities are more clearly popular than others, though all are considerably unique enough that members of the community may find more luck connecting online than within their own neighborhoods. When you have a niche interest, the internet can be an excellent resource to connect with fellow fans across the globe. Online interest communities often become a safe space where users can bond over their interests and often form life-long friendships. And according to Thorne, these online interest communities cultivate extremely valuable ingredients to language learning:
Intrinsic Value/ Intrinsic Motivation.
This means you have some sort of internal value to learning a new language, NOT just getting a good grade in your Spanish class because two years were required to get through high school. You want to learn a new language because it is important to you.
Language Immersion.
This means you are “fully immersed” in the language environment, or you at least try to immerse yourself as much as possible. Everything you watch, everything you read, everything you hear- everything around you exists in the target language.
Learner Autonomy.
This means you take the initiative to learn a new language on your own. You do your own research, your own practice, etc. The teacher isn’t doing all the work for you because you are autonomous- an independent learner.
Multimodality
Another important factor that researchers have pointed to as a vital ingredient to learning in online interest communities is their employment of Multimodality, which basically means that you are learning through multiple sensory avenues at once- reading and writing at the same time, speaking and typing at the same time, watching and listening to a speaker at the same time, etc. Neuroscience research has revealed that significant increases in learning can be accomplished through the informed use of visual and verbal multimodal learning, a phenomenon we see all the time in online interest communities. For example:
Diaspora Spaces and “Social Virtualities”
Fan Fiction writing, role-play chat rooms, VR chat, etc.
Users engage in creative writing and receive feedback from their peers.
Users role-play as other characters and in 3-D spaces as virtual avatars, embodying the character or avatar’s goals and personality. (Which some researchers have suggested helps to create the L-2 self or the target language alternate identity)
MMORPGs: Massive Multiplayer Online (Role Play) Games
League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, etc.
Users must listen and coordinate with their teammates about strategies, often rapidly.
Gamers often continue discourse outside of the game, furthering their language socialization.
What Thorne et. al. suggest is that as English hegemony permeates internet culture, many people who don’t speak English natively are learning language through their participation in niche online interest communities, using platforms of multi-modal communication, not necessarily because they have any particular interest in the English language, but because they want to participate in fandoms, games, and other online communities. This is the total opposite the formal language classroom, which desperately struggles to create intrinsic motivation, immersion, and autonomy.
For participants in Internet interest groups and diaspora communities, the use of L2 and sometimes multiple languages for engaging in interpersonally meaningful communication and identity construction serves goals that enhance, and potentially extend beyond, the practices and standardized forms of knowledge associated with institutional educational settings. This includes engaging in multiple forms of authentic communication, developing a sense of accomplishment as language users, affiliating with the target language, and learning to navigate and develop supportive social networks.
Steven Thorne, Rebecca Black, Julie Sykes
So why do nerds learn language best? The short answer is because humans seek to find community where their creative passions are shared and understood. Streamers, fan-fiction writers, gamers, and many other online communities attract “nerds” from all over the world who share a mutual passion for their niche interests. English happens to be the common language of not all, but many virtual spaces; sometimes learning English is a byproduct of being a nerd. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
