Gamification

Recently, I have read some articles about Gamification and then I would introduce some aspects of Gamification.

       According to 7 Things You Should Know About Gamification , Gamification is the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior. About the rational for using games for language learning, I have gained some insights from the article called Escape the Room Games , for example, in the genre Escape the room, what makes escape the fact that they are puzzles that have an inbuilt information gaps. The puzzles are usually very difficult to solve, unless you have a walkthrough. When a teacher talks about how to play the game or students are watching walkthrough videos, students can practice their listening. This is the easiest way of exploiting the game for language learning and it requires little preparation. All the teacher needs is the walkthrough to the game. The teacher read out to the students, grading the language to suit the level of the class, and check comprehension by noticing which students move on in the game. In other words, if they were listening to the teacher and understand, then they know what to do next.

       I have tried a causal game called The Great Kitchen Escape , I think the game is suitable for beginners of English learning because the aim of the game is to help learners get familiar with kitchen vocabulary such as kettle, spoon, bowl and so on. I have watched the walkthrough before I played the game. I have played the game twice and succeeded escaping the kitchen at the second time. As a teacher, I would set two objectives for my students, that is, understanding walkthrough or understanding me when I am telling them how to play the game. The second one is by playing the game, students need to be familiar with kitchen vocabulary. In addition, in order to make students engaged in the game actively, I have some strategies. For example, I would group students into pairs. Then time which they spend on escaping the kitchen would be counted. Whoever escapes the kitchen first can have some prize.

       In my opinion, the teacher’s role in Gamification is facilitator. In other words, the teacher helps students understand rules of the game and assess the students’ progress.

       During the game, I would use a walk through. I would use it before students play the game. Firstly, students will watch or read the walk through of the game. Then I would a student to recall the content of the walk through on in order to assess their understanding. As for images from the game, I would not use it because I think walk through is enough for understanding.

       After playing the game, I have several methods to assess whether learning objectives are met by students. For example, students can write out kitchen vocabulary which they met in the game as much as possible. Or pictures from the game are given, then students have to write correct name according to pictures.

       I think game is a creative teaching method which I will use in my future teaching.