Video Games and Literacy Learning: Exploring the Research on Serious and Entertainment Games

This scoping review examines scholarship on video games in prominent literacy journals between years 2000 and 2020. 32 articles met inclusion criteria for the study, including 15 articles on entertainment games and 17 articles on serious/educational games. Included articles were categorized by various attributes, including year of publication, methodology, age range of students, hardware type, and more. Based on the game type (i.e., entertainment vs. serious), articles were further analyzed for issues related to their focal literacy activities as well as primary outcomes and conclusions. The vast majority of articles supported the use of video games as effective ways to support students’ literacy learning and engagement; though, a few articles urged caution for their integration. Additional patterns emerged from data analysis as well, including that most articles on serious games utilized a quantitative methodology, primarily to investigate how games can support the reading skills of elementary school children, and most articles on entertainment games used qualitative methods to understand how middle- and high-school students use a wide variety of literacy skills both during and in connection to gameplay. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.