The implementation and use of gamification in foreign language classes (PhD project) (completed)

The aim of this project is to develop and implement a gamification app to learn and teach French in Norwegian upper secondary schools and to analyse how the students are using and perceiving this new resource.

About the project

Games have become a part of our daily lives as shown by the increase of casual gaming on mobile phones. In the last decades they have been used in school in different ways and subjects. Could we take this a step further? Could we, instead of bringing games into the classroom, use their characteristics to increase students’ engagement?

In this project I want to develop a new learning tool based on game design principles and task-based teaching theories. It is not yet another educational game. This tool will be a web-based application meant to complete the teacher’s pedagogical resources. It will frame the learning situation and encourage the students to participate in more knowledge-creating activities.

The three aspects at the core of this project are: student agency, collaboration between peers and use of technology. 

My project is divided in three steps and relies on the creation and use of a gamification app. During the first step I will in collaboration with teachers and EngageLab create a digital tool to implement a gamification process in videregåendeskole French classes: a mobile application or a website. The creation of this tool will be based on design research and game design principles. Then I will use interaction analysis to observe the interactions between the students: how they collaborate, how they negotiate around the tasks and how they are using (or not) the tool. The third step will take place after the intervention is done. It will consist in follow-up interviews with the students and teachers. The interviews will focus on how they experienced the gamification process but will also be used to get more information on their gaming background: what is their previous relationship to games. The aim of this research project is to study how the students, and the teachers, integrate and use the app in their learning and teaching.

Key points about the project

  • Design-Based Research project
  • French as a foreign language class; upper-secondary school
  • Development of a gamified app
  • Implementation in two second-year classes for a whole school-year
  • Analysis of students’ use of the app and of their experience through video recording, interviews, and data-gathered by the app; in addition to regular ‘after-class’ interviews with the teachers.
Screen shots of an app-based learning tool.
Screenshot of the different categories of the gamified app.

Research category

Basic research

Publications

  • Cruaud, Caroline (2016). The playful frame: gamification in a French-as-a-foreign-language class. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching.  ISSN 1750-1229. doi: 10.1080/17501229.2016.1213268

Press articles about the project

 

Published Sep. 5, 2013 4:22 PM - Last modified July 6, 2023 12:16 PM

Contact

Caroline Cruaud

+47-22840827

caroline.cruaud@iped.uio.no

Participants

  • Caroline Cruaud Universitetet i Oslo
Detailed list of participants