New Book! Freedom to Play: A Ludic Language Pedagogy Primer

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James York

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Apr 19, 2025, 1:12:47 AM4/19/25

to Professors at Play

Hi All!

James and Jonathan are very happy to announce that their new book is now out and available for all platforms.

Freedom to Play: A Ludic Language Pedagogy Primer

(Volume 1 of Peter Lang’s “Ludic Scholarship: Games, Learning, and Innovative Pedagogy” series)

You: With so many books on play in education, why this one?

Jonathan and James: Because it’s not just theory — it’s a practical guide to ludic teaching!

Are you:

Teaching a course on literacy, games, teaching, or any combination of the three?
Sick of gamification, digital game hype, educational technology, clinical research?
Looking for someone to give a workshop on … … or … ?
Looking for a goldilocks-toned book that’ll make you LOL on every page?
Yearning to inject some fun into your academic career?
Hungering for practical teacher and researcher frameworks and materials that have been playtested thoroughly for decades?
Trying to make your teaching more delicious (with Methods Materials Mediation)?
Searching for an active teacher-researcher grassroots community?

If you answered “yes” to any/all of those 👆 questions …

… 🎯 then Freedom to Play: A Ludic Language Pedagogy Primer is the book for you!

Games and play 🤝 Language and literacy 🤝 Teaching and learning 🤝 Researching and sharing

It's really an MA/PhD course (or 4!) in a book!

💪 Gain ludic, language, and pedagogical literacy

💪 Learn how to create SPACE for students to play

💪 Discover 100s of real-world examples

💪 600 pages of insights and strategies

Still not sure if you’re ready to dive into the ludic action?

Check out the free demo on ResearchGate
Sign our guestbook after learning more at ludic.space

🎛️ 11 random things from the book (which we actually wrote and is genAI free)

Give students S.P.A.C.E. not T.U.R.D.S.
Magic burger > Magic bullet
Zimmerman’s Ludic Century manifesto (DJ deHaan and MC York VIP remix).mp3
P.L.A.Y. with literacy (Play → Learn About → Apply → Yeet!)
The LLP Literacy Level Up Process (LLP² name subject to change)
Escape the overly fertilized fields of double-blind peer reviewed paywalled journal options
Words in the object → Words in the classroom → Words in the world
Diversify more → Be more inclusive → Matter more
Ask not what the game can do for you, but what you can do with the game.
Participation AF
Work to make yourself obsolete (thank you P.P.!)

🗜️ The Book’s online resources

The book was just too small (only 600 pages….) to fit all of the ideas, materials, games, references, and resources that we wanted to include. So, we collected a huge horde of online resources for you. For free! Check it out here.

🤝Finally, how about

joining the Ludic Language Pedagogy Discord ?
and submitting something to the LLP Journal ?

Links to the book

🛍️ Peter Lang site | Amazon US | Amazon JP 🛍️

🥹 Praise for the book

“From interactive strategies to playful techniques, this book is your passport to a rich adventure of literacy teaching. Whether you are a teacher or researcher, prepare to be inspired and entertained as you discover the intersection of play and games, literacy and language education. With tons of practical details, this is a perfect guide for teachers to find SPACE for their students to play!” -- Matthew Farber, Associate Professor, University of Northern Colorado; author, Gaming SEL.

“Freedom to Play provides an engaging – and intrinsically playful – practical guide for language educators (and teachers more generally) looking to create more gratifying experiences in their classrooms. Underpinned by personal reflection and theory, this guide provides an accessible and convincing introduction to the value of playful learning.” -- Nicola Whitton, Professor of Digital Learning and Play, Northumbria University, UK

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Here’s to playful minds -- we hope this book finds its way to yours. 😄😄