In my GameFile column today I liken Dr. Edd Schneider of SUNY Potsdam to Ronald Reagan. Hyperbole? Both men have exhorted Great Powers to tear down a wall. Reagan wanted the Berlin Wall knocked down. Schneider wants the wall the divides players from different continents who play the same MMO to be removed.

Why? The better to teach non-English speakers the language, of course.

From the piece:

Last year, Schneider recruited a group of grad students in their early 20s to test his theories out. For a 16-week semester, his students would wake up once a week at 3 or 4 a.m. to play online games against students at Shanghai's QiBao High School. They started with online Scrabble and chess. Then they tried popular Korean-made MMOs. They used headsets, talking to each other with voiceover IP. Schneider's program was a test, but not a rigorous scientific one. He and his grad students noticed improvements in the Chinese students' English and their confidence in even trying the language.

"They were going from, 'Oh my God, I'm afraid to talk, I'm just gonna type,' to, 'How's it going? I'm going to kick your butt this time in this game.' " He said his grad students never tried to actually teach the Chinese students English. They just played. He's preparing a more thorough program this summer, which he wants to turn into a summer camp.

Plenty more on this unconventional idea at the story at the link above.