Gamification: an effective way of learning English

     As I mentioned in my last blog post, gamification which has been involved in language teaching and learning becomes to be a popular concept that more and more language instructors and teachers would like to have a try in their language class. It is truth that having games in a language class could be considered as an effective and meaningful way that not only help raise students' interests on learning a language but also actually encourage students to involve themselves in language learning and practice as much as they could.

     This time, I chose and tried an serious game, Third World Framer, which could be recommended by language teachers to their students as a good online game that students could play outside the classroom for autonomous learning.

     I played this game twice, and I would like to say that this game could be considered as a reasonable choice for English learners, especially intermediate English learners. When I played this game, I found that players need to plant some crops and wait for harvest to earn money to support their families and farms. Through this game, English learners would be able to learn a lot of new vocabulary, especially many farm words; for example, corn, wheat, and peanut since this game is a kind of management game which allows players to manage a farm and a family that in a third world. Additionally, this game provides language learners an opportunity to practice their English reading and comprehending abilities as players are required to read some hints and make decisions according to these hints. Moreover, this game also provides a good entry for intermediate English learners to learn something about cross-cultural knowledge because this game lets players to experience some cultural issues by themselves when players are playing this game.

Performance Indicator-ESL.I.5-8.1.1
Students learning English as a second language will use English to acquire, interpret, apply and transmit information for content area learning and personal use. They will develop and use skills and strategies appropriate to their level of English proficiency to collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts.

      As the article Kyle Mawer's task type notes, in order to assess if the learning objectives have been met, it is rational to give a small quiz on vocabulary to assess that if students have mastered the new vocabulary and then discuss the game strategy with students, encouraging students to describe their attitudes toward the game, and ask students for their reasons and decision making.Through the small quiz and discussion on various aspects of this game, teachers would be able to indicate that if students have mastered some new words,comprehend the context, and learned something about cross-cultural knowledge.

Playing the Game in an ESL class: Heart of Tota

     Involving games in a language class could be considered as an effective and interesting way to help students learn a language better, especially some digital games which are available online. Through these games, students are able to raise their interests in participating and practicing.

     I tried an online game names Heart of Tota. This is an adventure game which could lead students to keep exploring on an island to look for a rare artifact, "Heart of Tota".

     I played this game for twice. During playing this game, I felt that this game is easy to control since I just need to use my mouse to click on items to collect and directions to go. Through this games, students will be able to learn some new vocabulary and phrases since they are required to collect items such as tools to help them during their exploration. In addition, students will gain the ability of giving directions with the assistance of their teachers.

     During playing the game, it would be reasonable to consider the teacher as an instructor and monitor. Firstly, teachers could go through the instruction with the whole class, for example, asking students to read the instruction together, and provide more details to students if they are confused. This is a good opportunity for students to practice their reading and speaking skills as well as their comprehension competence. Also, teachers could show an example of how to play this game before letting students play by themselves to make sure that students are on the right track. In order to make sure that all students are actively involved, it may be better if teachers could divide students into teams and ask them to compete with each other by counting times they spend and checking times that they click until they find the "Heart of Tota". In order to assess if the learning objectives have been met, teachers could prepare a small quiz which includes vocabulary appears in this game. Additionally, teachers could ask each team to write down their own walkthroughs, and then check the provided walkthroughs with students together, especially the learning objectives are related to vocabulary and giving directions.

     From my own experience, I would like to say that having games in class is a good method to not only raise students' interests but also help students develop their own learning abilities through letting students explore by themselves.

Performance Indicator-ESL.E.2-4.1.1.3
Students select information appropriate to the purpose of the investigation, and relate ideas from one written or spoken source to another.

Games Inspire Learning

     Gamification is a concept which involves games in teaching and learning, and its goal is to help language learners to develop their abilities and skills in language learning when they are engaged in games. Compared to traditional language teaching, involving games in language education becomes more and more popular, even in higher education. As the article 7 Things You Should Know About Games and Learning notes that "the interactive dynamic of games has the potential to benefit teaching and learning". Since during classroom-based games, students are able to develop their own abilities and language skills while they are engaged in games. Involving various games in language class not only aims to have something for fun but also to encourage students to actively participate and practice what they have learned and to provide feedback which will be helpful for students' future learning. Another significant feature of involving games in language teaching could be motivation. Motivation plays an important role in learning, especially in language learning; with motivation, students will be able to hold a positive attitude and keep exploring their own potential abilities on language learning. Moreover, students who have motivation in learning usually learn better and behave more effective than students who lack motivations. Therefore, through games, students are able to gain more interest in learning, to know what they have learned, and more importantly--to realize what they need to improve. The more they are encouraged and inspired, the better they learn.

     A number of games which are regarded as effective games could be considered by language educators. One of the types which is typical and popular in our modern society might be the digital games which requires the use of technology while teaching. In the article "Just Playing Games? A Look at the Use of Digital Games for Language Learning", five key elements--goals, interaction, feedback, context, and motivation, which are meaningful in language learning have been emphasized. Especially the key feature of context, it serves an effective function in language learning since authenticity is considered importantly in language teaching. Digital games could provide multi-dimension contexts which are powerful to develop communicative competences to language learners; therefore, through digital games, students can gain more opportunities to practice how to use language in a real world.

     This point of view was also mentioned by Tom Chatfield in his speech Tom Chatfield: 7 Ways Games Reward the Brain. And he brought up with another important feature of games-- rewards. As Tom said, rewards encourages development. The more rewards a learner gains, the more participation he/she wants to produce. Therefore, this process becomes a circulation which encourages the learner to participate more, practice more, and receive more feedback. Through games with rewards, learners will develop clear goals in order to complete the games and gain rewards, and they will try their best during the process of games. All these will benefit the learner for better language learning.

     

     

Twitter: It Helps Teaching!

     In our contemporary society, with the development of technology, using Internet tools, especial social media becomes more and more useful and meaningful since we can not only keep connection with the world but also learn something new every day through social media. However, if we combine education with social media, what will happen? I believe that this combination would be significant.

     Using Twitter is a good example. As the article Teaching with Twitter notes, "today it seems everyone is on Twitter, following and being followed". This is true. Nowadays, more and more teachers are trying to use Twitter as a part of their teaching. For me, as a future language teacher, I believe this would be benefit, not only for me but also for my students, especially language students. I agree with the idea that Twitter provides students, especially shy students who do not like sharing their opinions or comments with a place to talk. Through Twitter, students are encouraged to share their experiences and make contribution without feeling pressed and embarrassed. Everyone in this community feels free to talk. Moreover, students can leave comments and receive feedback from others as soon as they have just posted their Twitter. An other advantage that encourages me to involve Twitter in my future teaching is that it is convenient to search or make hashtags. Therefore, during my teaching, I can easily create hashtags which are relevant to my class, and then encourage my students to join in the discussion with people all over the world who are interested in these topics.

     In addition, in the article The Teacher's Guide to Twitter, some tips for teachers who would like to have Twitter in their teaching are listed. One tip that I feel useful is to "Share Your Resources", which will be helpful for many teachers for their future development. Since sharing some awesome resources will provide us more opportunities to join in this community. Moreover, the more we contribute to this community, the more we receive from it. Through sharing, we are able to share good educational resources with other educators from the whole world. During this process, we are not only sharing but also learning from each other since different countries have different education systems, and different teachers have different teaching styles.

     Teaching with the assistance of Twitter not only benefits our students but also ourselves since through this social media, we are all involved in this communicative community which provides us with a number of awesome resources to help us improving our teaching.

Attending Twitterchat #ntchat

   

     This is my first time to attend the Twitterchat. I followed the #ntchat on Wednesday night. This #ntchat was provided for new teachers. The topic of this week was about social studies, and four discussion questions were posted during the one hour chat:
     Question 1: What do you think is the purpose of teaching social studies in the classroom?
     Question 2: What strategies can we use in social studies to reach beyond the classroom walls to make global connections?
     Question 3: Do social studies textbooks still have a place in today's classrooms?
     Question 4: How can social studies be integrated with other subject areas in a meaningful way? Thoughts?

     Through this one hour discussion, I got an opportunity to develop my knowledge on social studies. Moreover, I learned some new and meaningful ideas from others who participate in this chat. For example, I agree with others' opinion on it is important to involve social studies in classroom since students will be able to know the whole world rather than a small area where they live.

     Therefore, I feel that Twitterchat can be used as a good way to learn some new ideas while sharing my own opinions with others, especially other experienced teachers who have more knowledge. Additionally, Twitterchat provides me with a chance to get connections with different teachers and educators all over the world. This is important and meaningful since I am able to learn different cultures and education systems from different countries. Through this one hour chat, I effectively connect myself with the whole world. As a future language teacher, I think learning about multicultural is important. In addition, many of the discussion questions in the Twitterchat are questions I have never thought about, so I gain a good opportunity to think more, share more, and receive more through this Twitterchat, which will help me to build more professional knowledge on my future teaching.