THE USE OF GAMIFICATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING: A CASE OF STUDY

Gamification represents a promising trend in education as a means of increasing students’ motivation to learn. By using game elements –like competition or rewards– students are engaged in interactive learning processes that challenge their skills in a more compelling way that traditional lecture classes do. Despite an increasing interest in gamification there is a scarcity of research on the subject specially related to the type of video games genres used in gamification. This research focuses on analysing a complex video game genre –adventure games– to better understand how this type of video game genre can be used to teach a foreign language (L2). In doing so a case study –Trace Effects, developed by the United States Department of State– is analysed. A mixed narratology and ludology approach was used to analyse how storytelling and game elements were used to teach English to speakers of other languages. Main results show how adventure video games can be used to teach complex English grammar encouraging students to use the principles of English grammar to create sentences that allow them to achieve the game goals. Based on cognitivist psychology principles students are encourage to logically analyse the information presented in the game, to store this information, and finally to retrieve this information to achieve different goals –like delivering sandwiches to the right person or following instructions to find objects that are needed to accomplish a given task–. The game is also used to encourage students to participate in additional learning activities that reinforce the principles of English grammar practice while playing the adventure. Our analysis also show that along with the main goal of the video game –this is, to teach English grammar– such educational games can be used to educate students in values such as women empowerment or win-to-win strategies.