Abstract:

The pressing need to transform pedagogy so as to respond to the new societal and professional demands which today’s rapidly changing world is placing on the individual has underlined the need for a paradigm shift from transmissive approaches to autonomy-oriented, experience-based approaches in which learners play a more active role in their learning process and apply the knowledge they gain to the real world. To participate effectively in our present-day society, learners need to develop the ability to solve problems, exercise independence, make informed decisions, and be creative, entrepreneurial and adaptive individuals. The main aim of the present paper is to describe a teaching innovation project aimed at encouraging learner motivation, autonomy and agency through gamification and an action-oriented approach in which learning is linked to the real world. This teaching project is addressed to university students studying a subject on English for Tourism in the Degree of Tourism at the University of Granada (Spain). In the subject, the students cover different contents related to tourism industry (e.g., niche market, sales and costs, and marketing strategy) that lead them to the completion of a final project in groups: starting their own business related to tourism. Thus, throughout the different sessions of the subject, the students complete various games developed by means of different digital resources (Lyrics Training, Quizlet, Socrative, Kahoot, and BookWidgets) whereby they obtain points that determine the budget they will have for the creation of their business and the role each of them will play in it. In order to start their business, the students work on an interactive map of Granada in which they have to choose a store to rent for their business and come up with their tourism business idea. They make these decisions based on their budget, a study of the neighborhood, and a pre-SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. In the creation of their business, they have to take into account different aspects such as offer, prices, the competition, human resources, advertising, expected expenses, and legislation. The presentation will be of great value to those teachers teaching tourism in undergraduate and postgraduate education.

Keywords:

Gamification, Tourism, English as a Foreign Language, Higher education.