Abstract

While present in the research literature for almost a decade prior, the release of Pokemon Go! brought place-based interaction to the forefront of the public eye. Spurred forward by a record 21 million players in the first week, place-based augmented reality games have continued to receive attention for both entertainment and learning purposes. The field of place-based learning represents a decade-long effort to situate learning experiences in the physical world while also augmenting that experience with semiotic resources, tasks, and prompts to facilitate learning. This chapter explores place-based language learning and synthesizes previous research done in the area. In addition, it draws on relevant design and implementation principles related to five key issues: (1) Interactivity, (2) Context, (3) Engagement, (4) Learning Features, and (5) Technological Affordances. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future directions for research and implementation.