Gamification in learning English as a second language (LESL)

Abstract

Introduction. Gamification is the use of game mechanics and dynamics together with the game thinking of players in non- game contexts and applications, such as education. A common problem in education, perhaps always, has always been to get students to achieve an adequate level of motivation and greater engagement in studying a subject. Gamification aims precisely to boost students’ motivation, effort, dedication and satisfaction. It should be clarified that the educational use of gamification should not be confused with the use of educational games (there are thousands on the web and in toy stores), serious games (video games with specific learning objectives in some discipline), simulators (games to imitate real- life situations and scenarios for learning and training purposes) or game- based learning, which consists of using games such as SimCity, Civilization, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, etc. in educational contexts. There are numerous research papers that report good practices and success cases in introducing gamification into the classroom. Yukai Chou (2021) shows a list of successful use cases of gamification in education including many of the most successful online education platforms, such as TEDed, Khan Academy, Coursera, Udemy, Microsoft Virtual Academy, SoloLearn or CodeAcademy. [...]