Abstract:

School curriculums of many educational institutions are full of material that teachers need to impart while the number of hours per week is decreasing. Many educators had to prioritize some themes and skip others. In such a complicated situation, it became an urgent necessity to create new forms where it is possible to integrate different topics in the limited time of class work without losing the quality. The use of gamification in language learning can be an effective tool, especially dealing with the development of sociolinguistic competence.

According to the Russian Educational Standard, pupils begin to study their first foreign language at the age of 7 or 8 (in the 2nd form of primary school). At the same time, in the 3rd form there may appear a second foreign language as an optional element of the curriculum in order to prepare pupils for its obligatory introduction in the secondary school two years later, and the students have only two hours per week in comparison with the 4 hours of the first foreign language.

The current research concerns gamification techniques used at the additional lessons of Spanish as a second foreign language to teach young learners different aspects of the Spanish culture. To fulfil this purpose, we created a detective game, where students need to resolve the mystery of a murder. This type of games was chosen according the preferences of the children. We carried out a research where 70 children voted for this type, as detective stories are very dynamic, and it helps young learners get interested in the activity.

During the game, the pupils were offered a set of activities aimed at the development of their sociolinguistic competence while their task was to pass the game, where all cultural information was used to help them understand the story line and successfully complete the mission.
Methodologically, the cultural information was embedded in the game to create the engagement. The immediate feedback and balanced reward structure guided the students throughout the game and showed them the most important details that they needed to keep in mind in order to be able to continue the game. The new information was presented in the game as part of the plot. Language and communicative exercises backed up the new material and helped develop a range of skills required for A1 CEFR.

From the first lessons, the pupils started their journey in Spain, discovering the country’s geography. Gradually they moved from geographical names to the Spaniards’ cultural habits. All activities were created according to their level of proficiency and their background knowledge of the Russian culture. The reading and listening comprehension played an essential role in this process, as the main part of cultural information was introduced with their help, while speaking and writing let the pupils activate their new knowledge.

As a result, the children could form their first image of the country, whose language they are learning. In the course of the game, they were given opportunities to analyze the basic notions of the culture in concern and compare it with the Russian one. It positively affected their perception of the country and motivated them to learn more on their own. To conclude, we have reached our main objective to create pupils’ basic cultural background in the conditions where the time is limited, thus consider gamification techniques an effective mechanism of developing sociolinguistic competence in primary school.

Keywords:

Primary school, Spanish language, sociocultural competence, gamification techniques.