ISSN: 2435-2349
❤️ The Ludic You Love
Welcome to the special issue The Ludic You Love.
This collection brings together educators, researchers, and practitioners who share games, activities, texts, and playful experiences that have made a lasting impact on their teaching and learning. From board games and storytelling tools to digital games and creative classroom practices, each contribution explores a particular ludic object and reflects on its educational potential.
Together, these papers offer a snapshot of the diverse ways play continues to inspire language learning communities around the world.
We’d like to thank special issue editors Robb McCollum and Ken Tran for their hard work making this happen, James York for formatting, and Martin Sedaghat for the front cover artwork.
🎲 Contents
🐍 Snakes and Ladders: Roll, Reflect, Remix!
Jonathan deHaan
deHaan, J. (2026). Snakes and Ladders: Roll, Reflect, Remix! Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl01.
🎲 Rory’s Story Cubes: An Analog Storytelling Game Engine
Mark Johnson
Johnson, M. (2026). Rory’s Story Cubes: An analog storytelling game engine. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 12–22. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl02.
🌙 Teaching Descriptive Adjectives Using Du Ký (Dream Adventure)
Trần Lê Khang
Trần, L. K. (2026). Teaching descriptive adjectives using Du Ký (Dream Adventure). Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 23–31. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl03.
👁️ Seeing Words Differently: Using Dobble for Vocabulary Learning
Monika van der Velden
van der Velden, M. (2026). Seeing words differently: Using Dobble for vocabulary learning. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 32–38. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl04.
🔵 Teaching Nouns Using Things in Rings and the Concept of Venn Diagram
Trần Lê Khang
Trần, L. K. (2026). Teaching nouns using Things in Rings and the concept of Venn diagram. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 39–46. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl05.
🏀 Around the World: A Basketball-Inspired Language Game
Zachary Lubbers
Lubbers, Z. (2026). Around the World: A basketball-inspired language game. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 47–50. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl06.
💰 Teaching Financial Literacy Using EZWorld
Trần Lê Khang
Trần, L. K. (2026). Teaching financial literacy using EZWorld. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 51–60. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl07.
📖 Picture This: Wordless Picturebooks in the Language Classroom
Martin Sedaghat
Sedaghat, M. (2026). Picture This: Wordless picturebooks in the language classroom. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 61–68. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl08.
✨ Story-asking: Imaginative, Co-created Stories
Diane Neubauer and Reed Riggs
Neubauer, D. & Riggs, R. (2026). Story-asking: Imaginative, co-created stories. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 69–74. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl09.
🗺️ Playing with Place
Donald Richardson
Richardson, D. (2026). Playing with place. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 75–80. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl10.
🌻 Wonder Flower: Planting Seeds of Life and Language in a Pixelated City
Erik X. Raj
Raj, E. X. (2026). Wonder Flower: Planting seeds of life and language in a pixelated city. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 81–84. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl11.
🎭 “Take Your Heart”: Why Persona 5 Royal May Be the Best JRPG for Language Learning
Travis Compton
Compton, T. (2026). “Take Your Heart”: Why Persona 5 Royal may be the best JRPG for language learning. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 85–91. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl12.
🎮 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
James York
York, J. (2026). Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Ludic Language Pedagogy Special Issue: The Ludic You Love, 92–105. https://doi.org/10.55853/llp_lyl13.