I think the practice of gamified learning is a brilliant strategy that incorporates the interests and strengths of adolescents into their own learning. It must first be noted that gamification shouldn’t be employed just for the sake of being engaging; many teachers mistake this strategy as a mere reward for students, dangling it as the carrot on their stick for the end of a lesson. These kinds of free play experiences certainly have their places in our classrooms, but truly gamified learning still presents and expands on new material and encourages students to use critical thinking skills. The example we spoke about related to Minecraft’s educational mode is a good example of this. The interactive online interface  provides a digital space for students to test out  scientific principles, with mods that demonstrate actual principles of electrical engineering or chemistry. As far as English goes, I think games such as Minecraft are powerful tools for allowing students to imagine the settings of the novels they’re reading, and the collaborative aspect of online servers mixed with the boundless creativity of the game could be a unique way for learners to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. I think French in particular would be a fun subject to teach through a game, as video games present a wealth of applicable vocabulary that students would need to master in order to communicate with one another and accomplish goals within the game. There are, of course, real life activities that could accomplish these same goals, but video games are intrinsically multimodal and therefore deepen the learning experience by providing visual, tactile and audible components. Online games also promote digital literacy, a skill that’s becoming ever more essential in our technologically advanced society.

 When I teach core French, I intend to utilize one of my past teacher’s activities and set up an ongoing roleplay scenario for my students in our classroom. This activity will cast them as residents in a French apartment building, Castaways on an island, or any other number of engaging scenarios. The character building involved will help them acquire essential communication skills and vocabulary, and utilizing online building games like Minecraft or the Sims could help create a visual element for our role play. Having students create their apartments and label elements of them in French could be a fun alternative to traditional drawing exercises, or having them go through an escape room style Google Slides could engage visual analysis and critical thinking skills that might not be addressed with a simple worksheet. Overall, gamification aligns with the principles of multiliteracies and is a brilliant tool to increase both engagement and learning in our classrooms.

Any other cool ideas for gamifying the language classroom? Let me know in the comments!

Photo by Diego Marín on Unsplash