TEACHING SLANG THROUGH THE EDUCATIONAL GAME

KAHOOT!
AS A MEANS OF INCREASING STUDENTS' MOTIVATION
IN LEARNING ENGLISH

Duisenbay Aruzhan Askarkyzy

Student of Arkalyk Pedagogical Institute named after I. Altynsarin
Scientific supervisor: Asel Sapargalikyzy
Arkalyk,Kazakhstan

Annotation: The article is devoted to the study of slang through the

educational game Kahoot! as a means of increasing the motivation of high school
students. The paper examines the issue of the popularity of slang among young
people, describes the educational platform Kahoot! and its possibilities for creating
lexical games, as well as analyzing the results of students playing the game
"Slang". Most high school students noted the positive impact of this type of work
on motivation to learn English.
Keywords: teaching English; slang; motivation; gamification.

In the modern world, knowledge of a foreign language has long been an urgent
necessity for any person. Children now begin to learn foreign languages even
before kindergarten, but at school age, problems may arise with mastering a more
complex level of language, and in adolescence, problems of lack of motivation are
also added. One of the means to increase motivation to learn a foreign language
The study of slang can serve, since slang is the language of youth, and
communication is the leading activity for teenagers. Knowledge of slang can to
help students understand modern songs, communicate with peers from other
countries, participate in youth forums and online communities. Modern
information technologies, such as gamification, can serve as another incentive for
learning a language (and slang, in particular).The study of various aspects of slang
has always been popular in linguistics. As a result of a search for keywords,
annotations or titles of articles containing the word "slang" in the largest scientific
electronic library elibrary.ru the search query produces 3579 results, Moreover, 30
of them have been published since the beginning of 2020. This indicates the
relevance of this research topic, the purpose of which was to establish how the
study of slang with the use of gamification technologies affects the motivation of
students when teaching English in high school. In English lexicography, the term
"slang" became widespread around the beginning of the 19th century. The
etymology of this word is controversial. J. B. Greenow and J. L. Kittridge
characterized slang as follows: "slang — language is a tramp who loiters in He is
in the vicinity of literary speech and constantly tries to make his way into the most
refined society." The concept of "slang" is mixed with such concepts as
"dialecticism", "jargonism", "vulgarism", "colloquial speech",
"vernacular" [1, p. 84]. The Longman Dictionary gives the following definition of
the term “slang” – “very informal, sometimes offensive language that is used
especially by people who belongs to a particular group, such as young people or
criminals” [2]. E. Partridge identifies the following reasons for the special
popularity of slang in youth environment: 1) "for entertainment"; 2) as a
manifestation of a sense of humor; 3) in order to emphasize their dissimilarity,
originality; 4) to give speech more brightness and imagery; 5) in order to surprise;
6) to avoid cliches and
verbosity; 7) to enrich their vocabulary; 8) to give specifics to abstract phenomena;
9) to minimize solemnity, sadness, tragedy; 10) in order to "become one's own" in
the company; 11) to create a friendly, intimate atmosphere; 12) to demonstrate
belonging to any social group, class, following fashion, superiority over the
interlocutor; 13) in order to conceal the subject of communication [3]. Thus, it is
obvious that slang, as a very attractive part of the English vocabulary for high
school students, can be used as a means of increasing motivation for teenagers and
high school students. Also, many modern educators use the phenomenon of
learning gamification to increase motivation and student engagement.
Gamification refers to the use of gaming techniques in non-gaming situations.
Experience has shown that using this approach can significantly increase the
effectiveness of the educational process [4, p. 314]. Currently, there are many
educational resources that apply gamification technologies in various forms:
Quizlet, Kahoot! and others. The educational game Kahoot was chosen to
implement this research.
To create on the Kahoot! resource 12 slang expressions were selected from the
popular online slang dictionary Urban Dictionary [5]. The expressions were
selected based on the frequency of use in online forums, blogs, chat rooms and
other English-language resources. The list of slang expressions, their definition are
presented in Table 1.

Slang expressions with definition

Table 1.
 Slang
Played on 12 Apr 2020
Hosted by rocky-ghu115
Played with 31 players
Played 13 of 13

Overall Performance
Total correct answer (%) 37,47%
Total incorrect answers (%) 62,53 %
Average score (points) 4478,55 points

Table 1. General statistics of the game "Slang"

It can be seen here that the total percentage of correct answers is only 37.47%,
which
is expected, since most of the participants were not familiar with these slang
expressions at the time of the game. The goal of the game was to introduce them to
them. Each player can complete the game several times to consolidate the material.
If the player is not registered on the Kahoot! platform, then the game chooses a
random username for him; in this case, he needs to remember his nickname and
tell the teacher so that he can find his result for grading, if required. The last
question of the game ("Have we enjoyed the quiz?") was used for diagnostic
purposes and had the following answer options, which are presented in Table 2.

Table 2
Answers to question №13 "Did we like the quiz?"

Answer Quantity Percent

Yes I did! That was quite entertaining! 13 54%
I prefer traditional learning: books,dictionaries... 0 0
That is definitely useful, sure it'll become handy 4 17%
Of course there is a room for improvement, but 7 29%
overall seems quite LIT! :)

As expected, the answers to the last question show that this type of training seemed
to the students to be "entertaining" (i.e. entertaining) – 54% of the respondents; a
large percentage of participants also positively assessed the game, although they
recognized that there was something to improve – 29%; 17% appreciated the
usefulness of the game. None of the respondents said that they prefer traditional
teaching methods based on textbooks and dictionaries. All this indicates that games
of this kind can be effectively used in teaching foreign languages, and slang is a
particularly interesting and relevant topic for students.
To summarize, this article shows In the future, this technology of creating
educational games can be used with other lexical topics. Students can also create
games for their classmates themselves, this will help them feel like a teacher
themselves, learn the material even deeper, and motivate their friends to go through
their game. Thus, it is obvious that slang, as a very attractive part of the English
vocabulary for high school students, can be used as a means of increasing
motivation for teenagers and high school students. Under gamification refers to the
application of gaming techniques in non-gaming situations. Experience has shown
that using this approach can significantly increase the effectiveness of the
educational process.

References:

1. Galperin, I. R. Essays on the stylistics of the English language – M., 1958. – 459 p.
2. Longman's Dictionary [Electronic resource] – Available at:
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/slang
3. Partridge, E. The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Non-traditional English /
E. Partridge, T. Dalzell, T. Victor. Taylor and Francis, 2006. pp. 2189.
4. Varenina, L. P. Gamification in education // And COM. 2014. No.6-2.URL:
https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/geymifikatsiya-v-obrazovanii (date of access:
03/11/2020).
5. Urban Dictionary [Electronic resource] – Available at:
https://www.urbandictionary.com