Integrate digital games into the language curriculum to lower affective barriers and encourage L2 interaction¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article recommends that teachers consider integrating digital games into the language curriculum because games are said to be motivating, to lower affective barriers, and to encourage L2 interaction, and because the study's results bear on "the way teachers might integrate games into the curriculum". The strategy rests on the finding that gameplay lowered participants' affective barriers and increased willingness to communicate.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A sustained game-based learning program (the study used fifteen weeks) with opportunities for learners to interact in the target language.

Constraints¶

• Evidence comes from a small qualitative study of five students at one Thai university; the authors call for further research.

Target Learners¶

• Foreign or second language learners at university level

Target Learning Goals¶

• Reduced language-learning anxiety and increased willingness to communicate in the L2

Claims¶

• Gameplay increased participants' willingness to communicate in English [+W]
• Gameplay lowered participants' affective barriers to learning English in a fifteen-week game-based program [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Hayo Reinders and Sorada Wattana. (2015). Affect and willingness to communicate in digital game-based learning. ReCALL, Volume 27, Issue 1. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0958344014000226