Assistant Professor
Mário Cruz
Gaming in Language Teaching
Bio
Mário Rui Domingues Ferreira da Cruz is Associate Professor in Foreign Language Teaching (English and Spanish), at the School of Education of the Polytechnic of Porto, where he teaches Spanish as a Foreign Language, Hispanic-American Literatures and Cultures, Language Didactics and supervises pedagogical practice of future teachers.
Currently, he is the Director of MA in English Teaching in the 1st Cycle of Basic Education (CBE). He is also an integrated researcher at inED - Center for Research and Innovation in Education, where he is the coordinator of the "Teacher Training” domain and directs the following research projects: "CLIL 4 U - implementation, monitoring and evaluation of bilingual teaching projects", "PEPPA 6/7 - Primary English Practice Program for Ages 6/7”, Schoolers & Scholars - Role-Playing Games (RPG) in the teaching and learning process of the 1st CBE and 2nd CBE” and "VarLang - Linguistic and cultural varieties in the teaching of foreign languages."
He holds a PhD in Didactics and Training from the University of Aveiro, a PhD in Linguistic Studies from the University of Vigo and multiple MA: MA in Didactics of Languages (University of Aveiro), MA in Teaching English and Spanish in Basic Education (Polytechnic of Porto) and MA in Teaching English and Spanish in the 3rd CBE and Secondary Education (University of Aveiro).
At the moment, he is also the Coordinator of the International Relations Office at the Escola Superior de Educação and the local co-manager of the Education field at the European University ATHENA, led by the Polytechnic of Porto.
Abstract
Keywords: 21st-century Learning, Languages Learning, Gamification, Experiential Communicative Approach
​
Present-day teaching and learning should involve the tackling of the so-called 21st century skills, namely communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, collaboration and entrepreneurism.
In fact, pupils shall be engaged in activities that cater to the development of a pro-active citizenship, i.e., “education (…) needs to equip students with the skills they need to become active, responsible and engaged citizens” (OECD, 2018, p. 4).
In this way, teachers would act as agents which foster pupils’ empowerment, by engaging them in activities which imply thinking globally in order to find solutions to problems they encounter in society, promoting collaborative work with the Other in an intercultural dialogue that seeks to create consensus and, last but not least, involving pupils in the creation of original projects to overcome social problems.
An holistic and experiential approach, in which students are not spectators, should allow them to develop playful and hands-on activities, reflect upon what they are learning, relate to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives (Chickering & Ehrman, 1996).
Through hyper-sensory activities, based on a multisensory approach and on realia/digital resources, which allow them to better “understand how society is organised and evolves, as well as decoding the challenges of our times that are not linear, simple or unidimensional” (Sá, 2007, p. 38), students should be able to “act on society, to decide, to participate actively and responsibly on world problems, with the awareness that it is possible to change the society in which we live” (Martín-Díaz, 2002, p. 58).
In fact, we believe that all this can be achieved by implementing the so-called Didactics of Gamification in Languages Teaching, by which teachers avoid that learners stick to their places within the classroom and simply memorise pre-packaged topics and answers.
Instead, by incorporating “game design elements in non-game contexts” like education (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled & Nacke, 2011, p. 9), students can be motivated and challenged in order to develop through the stimulation of their senses and to experience the activity as something meaningful, alive and active.
This presentation will focus on the Didactics of Gamification and its contributions by incorporating the Core Drives of the “Octalysis Model” (Cruz, 2019).
On the one hand, we will focus on the following concepts: Experiential Communicative Approach and Didactics of Gamification. On the other hand, practical projects will be presented and analysed, taking into account the Octalysis Model.