Harun's Introductory Essay

Thesis Statement:

Online games are not only just for fun but also for enhancing some language skills.

Topic Sentence 1: The use of common language expressions.

- Correct pronunciations

- Appropriate intonations

Topic Sentence 2: The use of dictions.

- Vocabularies

- Appropriate word choices

Concluding Sentence:

Do not just look by how fun the online games could be, but look how much you can learn a language from there as well.

LANGUAGE IS NEEDED, EVEN IN ONLINE GAMES

            “Don’t heat it! That is my target!” said my friend to the other players who wanted to “hit” the monster in that online game. Of course, they did not understand and hit it anyway. When he told me about this, I laughed instead of calming him down. “You have to look at your pronunciations,” I said. It is indeed true that playing online games is one of many ways to have fun. However, players have to understand the language that will be used in that game, including the use of common language expressions like pronunciations and intonations and the use of dictions like vocabularies and word choices. Therefore, online games are not only just for fun but also for enhancing some language skills.

            Let us take an example in the use of common language expressions. Knowing how to pronounce a word is essential in communication. Wrong pronunciation could become a misinterpretation and eventually could become a disadvantage. Intonations and stresses also have a crucial part in communication. Be sure to have a proper “tone” in every communication you encounter. For example, if you ask your friend to “destroy the ship[ʃhip] and protect the sheep[ʃhi:p]”, and you pronounce it the opposite way, that would cause your friend to fail to do what you have asked. Another example is when you lead other players to hunt a monster, but the monster is too strong to be attacked frontally and you told them to hide by saying “hide?” instead of saying “hide!”, it will cause a misinterpretation. Your friend will think that it is an advice and not an order, and they and, of course, you will fail to hunt the monster.

            Another example is in the use of dictions. Vocabularies holds a crucial part in a communication among players. If you do not have any words to say something that you want to express or you do not understand the meaning from other players’ explanation, it will be a disadvantage for you. Moreover, choosing the appropriate words for the appropriate situations is also crucial. You will be misinterpreted if you do not use the right word in the right situations. For example, if you want to ask for a direction to some game maps but you do not understand what are “north”, “south”, “west”, and “east”, you will get lost eventually even though you have asked many times. Furthermore, you cannot say, “can you show me the directions of this map?” if you want other players to guide you there. You should use the phrase “way to this map” instead of “directions of this map”.

            So, do not just look by how fun the online games could be, but look how much you can learn a language from there as well. With this, players will understand the proper way of using language as well as have their fun in gaming. It might be possible that there will be a lecturer of language or even other subjects in an online game in the future.