Learning and Teaching English as a Foreign

Language (EFL)
SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1
Master’s Degree in Teacher Training

Javier Cañas Villarreal

PhD Candidate in Applied Linguistics
9/9/22
OVERVIEW
WEBINAR 1: GAMIFICATION AND GAME-BASED LEARNING

1. Introductory Padlet
2. Introductory Video
3. General Questions (1-6)
4. Specific Questions (7-10)
5. Recommended Video
6. Bonus: ClassCraft

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

OVERVIEW

Readings
• (Gibbens, Gettle, Thompson, & Muller, 2015)
• (Ling, 2018)

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

1. Introductory Padlet

Gamification vs Game-Based Learning. What's the Difference?

https://padlet.com/javiercanas/6hvqqbp
0j95aj0wo

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

2. Introductory Video
Games Vs Gamification:
What's the Difference?

There's a lot of
overlapping attributes and
elements to game-based
learning and
gamification, but they
really aren't the same
thing!

https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=kHn0Maj8ygs

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

What is gamification? Is it the same as

game-based learning (GBL)?
Examples?

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

Examples:
Examples:
• Hangman
• Duolingo • (Words) Bingo
(https://en.duolingo.com/) • Stop!/Scattergories
• Habitica (https://habitica.com/) • Story cubes

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

Examples for Gamification: Examples for GBL:

• Quizlet • Monopoly
• Who is Who
• Quizizz
• Simcity
• Kahoot (GBL too)
• Minecraft
• Educaplay • Pencils Up (or Tutti Frutti)
• Edpuzzle
• Taboo
• Scrabble
• Socrative
• Escape Room
• Genially • Trivial
• Plickers • Anki

• Classcraft

• Silver/Golden cards It all depends on

• Flora – Green Focus how you use each
one!

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

Is gamification/GBL more appropriate

for a specific age range?
Why?

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

• For everyone because everyone enjoys playing games (even

adults) and tracking their progress.
• The game should be appropriately chosen depending on the age
and the way you use it.
• It increases motivation.
• Depends more on their behaviour and commitment than their
ages.
• Depends on the teacher-students relationship.
• Some games more appropriate than others depending on age
• Examples: Jeopardy (teenagers), Simon says (younger learners).

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

Is gamification/GBL more appropriate for a specific linguistic skill

(writing, reading, listening, speaking)?

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

Examples:
• Can be used to improve all skills but depending on
• Ss write one or two sentences, fold the paper and hand the
the age.
paper to the next person and the next person has to
• Listening and speaking seem easier to include. continue the story.
• Chinese whispers (speaking and listening).
• It depends on the game-elements that you are
• Sentence races (reading and writing).
going to use.
• Students in groups have to write all words they know about
a topic. Then, they say all the words, they got 2 point per
• Writing might be more difficult to improve.
word, 1 if the word is said by the other group. Later, they
• Depends on what you as the teacher need it to have to say or write one sentence using as many words as
they can. They got points per word. Then, the other group
focus on, what your objective is for that hour. has to continue the history with other sentence.
• Mention 5 key words in a well-known fairy tale + 1
unrelated word. Then write a new story with those 6 words
(for writing or speaking)
• ‘Simon Says’. (speaking and listening)
• Treasure Hunt (reading and listening).
• Read a story and write a possible ending (reading and
writing)
• Puzzles (listening and speaking)
SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22
3. General Questions

How important is motivation when

learning?
Are there different types of motivation?

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

• It is highly important.
• 2 basic types of motivation:
• Extrinsic: students want to do it for an external
reason.
• Intrinsic: students want to do it because they like it.
• 2 additional types of motivation:
• Integrative: cultural purposes (e.g. desire to know
about a specific culture)
• Instrumental: pragmatic purposes (e.g. desire to be
promoted)

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

How can students’ motivation be increased?

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

• Students must feel comfortable.

• Students’ interests must be considered when designing the activities/games.
• Don’t be boring, predictable…
• Set achievable goals.
• Foster sense of autonomy to increase purpose / sense of pride.
• Stimulating students’ background knowledge.
• Encouraging feedback, varying things a lot to meet different types of learners' needs.
• Do things which they can relate to the real world/their own lives (significant learning).
• Get them emotionally involved
• Adapting yourself and the course to your students instead of adapting students to
yourself and the course.
• Not penalizing Ss for making mistakes.
• Avoid correcting every single mistake students’ make as it leads to frustration.
• Know how and when to correct.

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

What are the advantages and

disadvantages of
gamification/GBL?

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

3. General Questions

Advantages: Disadvantages:

• Motivation and engagement are • Too much noise.

increased. • Overexcitement.

• Improves knowledge and retention. • Competition might be risky.

• Access to digital games may be limited or unavailable to

• Provides immediate feedback.
people with certain disabilities.
• It creates a meaningful and
• They can start to appreciate gamification less if we
authentic context.
overuse it.
• Shy students can participate in a
• Students focus on being rewarded and not on the task
more natural and comfortable way.
and the learning process.

• Teacher can lose control of the class.

• Students might be used to games and they might be

expecting them in every single class.

• Not all institutions have devices.

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

4. Specific Questions

Give some reasons why teaching writing may

be difficult.

How would you address those difficulties?

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

4. Specific Questions

• English writing:

• Spelling is very different from pronunciation.

• I think it is difficult because there is a lot of things to keep in mind: spelling, connectors, grammar,

vocabulary, expressions, collocations...

• Possible solution: Text-to-speech apps. Portfolio, working cooperatively, peer correction, PBL

• General writing:

• There is a wide range of genres. There is a lot of information to learn in order to be proficient at

all of them.

• Writing is a skill that requires the knowledge of rules, spelling, grammar, organization...

• Put thoughts together in a coherent and cohesive way.

• Find relevant texts for them to read.

• Solutions: find interesting topics to write about. Follow a model; give students time to process all

those information. Teach prewriting strategies. Tips for correct spelling, grammar, etc.

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

4. Specific Questions

Give some reasons why teaching

reading may be difficult.

How would you address those

difficulties?

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

 4. Specific Questions
• Struggle blending words.
• Some of them dont even
Check out like reading in their L1
https://es.fictionexpre • Vocabulary: glossaries and
ss.com/ to find ways lists of high frequency
words.
to foster student’s
• Correlation between letters
reading skills. and sounds.
• Entonation and emphasis.
• Pronunciation.
• Translations from native
language to understand
meaning.
• Storytelling with drawings
and dialogues
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Possible solutions:
• Library corner: pick up
a book they find Here’s a nice comic
interesting and read it. book for teens This
• Sentence structures: Was Our Pact by
subjects and verbs. Ryan Andrews.
• Audiobooks for reading
and pronunciation.
• Bookflix.
• Readers clubs
• Literary gatherings
• Dialogic Reading
• Universal classics.
9/9/22
4. Specific Questions

How can gamification/GBL be

applied to improving written
(writing and reading) skills?

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

4. Specific Questions

• Sequencing activites, for example a story cut up into paragraphs.

• Fill in the gaps
• Crosswords/Wordsearch
• Hangman for spelling
• Phonetic Bingo
• Story Cubes
• Words Domino Check out The Grammar of
• Kahoot or Plickers apps Fantasy, a book with inspirational
• Running Dictations. They work in groups and they have some text or words ideas about story-based activities.
stuck on the class' walls. One member of the group runs and memorizes a You can find it ‘Recursos
part of the text, and then comes back to the group and dictate them the text, complementarios (PE)’ folder.
the roles can change from dictating to copying to reading. The group who
finishes first win, and then they can reflect on their texts.

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

4. Specific Questions

Do you think the two strategies described

in the papers are a good strategy for
teaching?

Would you use them if they were

available for you? Why?

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

4. Specific Questions

• They seem great but there was a lot of preparation for the teachers,
• Yes since they seem to scaffold or support the students steps by steps
and breaking the tasks into pieces so that, they can reach the final
goals by doing previous tasks through the use of games.
• Both focus on the active participation of the students, in the writing one
the students have to manipulate the text for example.
• Everything is useful if you apply it appropriately.
• They reflect flipped classroom methods.

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

5. Recommended Video
The Power of Gamification in Education | Scott Hebert | TEDxUAlberta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOssYTimQwM

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

6. Bonus: Classcraft

https://www.classcraft.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQfNFTMc8kA

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

Assessment Activities

Webinar 1 - Gamification vs. Game-Based

Learning (10%)
• Conclusions from the Webinar
• One page maximum
• Individually

Go to the VIU CAMPUS > ‘Actividades

aplicativas’ and download the document for
Webinar 1.

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

References
• Gibbens, B. B., Gettle, N., Thompson, S., & Muller, K. (2015). Using Gamification to Teach
Undergraduate Students about Scientific Writing. CourceSource.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Seth_Thompson5/publication/282155216_Using_Gamification_to_
Teach_Undergraduate_Students_about_Scientific_Writing_Lesson/links/56055c6608ae8e08c08c00b3.
pdf
• Ling, L. T. Y. (2018). Meaningful Gamification and Students' Motivation: A Strategy for Scaffolding
Reading Material. Online Learning, 22(2), 141-155.

• Webreferences:
• https://www.bookwidgets.com/
• https://www.classcraft.com/

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

 Live Session 5: Videoconference 2
• Second and Foreign Language Teaching
Methods. The New Learning Environment.
New methodologies and Resources
• Bloom's Taxonomy and Gardner's Multiple
Intelligences
• Communicative approach to language
teaching
• New learning methodologies
• Testing and assessment methods
DATE: 09/12/2022
TIME: 8 – 10pm
How to prepare for Videoconference 2:
• Read Unit 5 of the course manual.

SESSION 4: WEBINAR 1 9/9/22

Questions?