Games and Gamification for Language Teaching: What Do We Mean?

Deborah Healey

English language teachers are generally quite familiar with using games in their
classrooms. We often use competition to enhance motivation with spelling, verb
tenses, vocabulary, and more. Teachers can employ ready-made language games
or create their own from templates, such as Snakes and Ladders or Jeopardy. But
just what counts as a game?

According to a number of writers, a game is any system with the following elements:
• Rules
• Some sort of challenge
• Feedback of some sort
• Interaction
• Fun
• (Often, but not always) an emotional response
An activity that is fun and challenging but has no rules should be called play rather than a game.
Gamification, on the other hand, is using game elements in non-game contexts.

TeachThought describes the difference as follows:

Gamification is the application of game-like mechanics to non-game entities to encourage a
specific behavior.
Game-based learning is simply learning through games.
This means that gamification is first and foremost about encouragement mechanics and the
system that promotes them, while game-based learning is first and foremost about the game
and its "cognitive residue" (whether from the game's content, or traditional curriculum.
Both can be use dot promote mastery of academic content. (2013, image on initial screen).

About game-based learning

Noted computer game creator Jane McGonigal talks about "hard fun" (2011:32).
Challenging games such as chess are hard fun. These can give us a sense of
mastery when we succeed. In the classroom, we might use easy fun, a simple
game that everyone can play successfully, in the last five minutes of class.
When we want students to gain more, however, it's time for hard fun. Everyone
can participate in this mental challenge at his or her level if students play in teams.

The computer game Trace Effects was designed for use in the English language classroom. It is
both a fun activity for language learners and as a teaching tool for teachers. The main character,
Trace, has to accomplish certain tasks to complete each of the seven chapters. The player
chooses what Trace does and says to the other characters. Players get points for choosing
appropriate language – relevant and polite – in conversations with the game's characters. The
language and game play in the game get more difficult with each chapter. After completing a
chapter, the player has access to a graphic novel version of the chapter. The CD for the game
includes additional language practice relevant to each chapter and language games. The
Teacher's Edition DVD includes an extensive teacher's manual with suggestions for game-related
classroom activities. The Teacher's Edition also includes a video walkthrough of the game.

D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu 2018 1

Teachers can use the video to show specific clips from the game in class. Using Trace Effects is
a great example of game-based learning.

About gamification
For gamification, teachers need to think about using "game mechanics" in the classroom.
Manrique describes 35 game mechanics in A Simple and Easy to Use Toolkit for Gamification
Design (2013). Teachers already use several of these, such as:
• Collaboration (Party/Team) and competition (Player vs. Player)
• Rewards (such as stars)
• Experience Points (numerical value for actions, such as grades)
• Game Constraints (rules)

Game mechanics that teachers could add would be

• Levels (points lead to rewards)
• Badges (visible/digital signs as rewards)
• Progress Display (visual depiction of progress, always
increasing)
• Quests (a mission with objectives, as in project-based
learning)
• Epic Challenge (the sense of accomplishing something
big, such as a project that goes outside the classroom).
These are further explained in Gamification for Teachers: Game Mechanics (Healey, 2017).

The video Gamifying Education (Extra Credits, 2012) explains why gamification could be good
in education. One reason is persistence, the willingness to keep trying and not give up. This is
closely related to resilience, the ability to come back from failure. Gamers try to learn from their
mistakes and keep playing. The video also offers a concrete suggestion for teachers to encourage
persistence and resilience. In games, the player starts with zero points, and points add up. In a
classroom, learners start with 100% and lose points with each mistake on an assignment and quiz.
A change in grading to add up rather than down would give the learner points and a sense of
success with each assignment.

Gamification is more than just adding points, badges, and levels. As Dodson points out (Catalano,
2012), "the way the user experience is framed – providing feelings of competence, of being in
control and that the outcome matters – is critical." As teachers, we should see our learners as
active in the classroom – as "players," with choices. Learners need to do more than accumulate
points for the work they do. Badges can be used to reward collaboration or other
desirable classroom behavior. The levels that students achieve via points should be
meaningful, showing actual achievement. Major projects can be described as Quests.
Activity and sharing outside the classroom can turn Quests into Epic Challenges.

Teachers can start small. Vocabulary or grammar work can be gamified first, for
example. Adding game elements and gamifying thoughtfully is the key to adding
motivation that is effective in the classroom.

Game on!

D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu 2018 2

References
Catalano, M. (2012). What's the difference between games and gamification? Retrieved from
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/08/21/whats-the-difference-between-games-and-
gamification/
A look at the difference, some suggestions, and some pitfalls to avoid when gamifying.
Extra Credits. (2012). Gamifying education [video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDLw1zIc94
This very fast-paced YouTube video gives reasons why gamifying education could be a
good thing.
Healey, D. (2017). Gamification for teachers: Game mechanics. Retrieved from
https://sites.google.com/site/gamificationforelteachers/game-mechanics
A description of game mechanics that often are and could be used by teachers. The site
also includes a number of additional resources for gamification.
Manrique, V. (2013). A simple and easy to use toolkit for gamification design. Retrieved from
http://www.epicwinblog.net/2013/10/the-35-gamification-mechanics-toolkit.html
A toolkit that provides 35 mechanics, with explanations. You can download them online
or pay for a print copy.
McGonigal, J. (2011). Reality is broken: Why games make us better and how they can change
the world. New York: Penguin Books.
An intriguing book about game elements that make us better, and the ways that games
can be created and employed for social good.
Pixabay.com (2017). Images: soccer player from https://pixabay.com/en/boy-soccer-football-
playing-kids-1292242/; chess from https://pixabay.com/en/chess-play-relax-think-chess-board-
1019908/.
Images are Creative Commons licensed. Pixabay is a good source for free images.
TeachThought. (2013). The difference between gamification and game-based learning. Retrieved
from https://www.teachthought.com/learning/difference-gamification-game-based-learning/
A short and useful reading, but with a lot of intermingled ads.
U.S. Department of State. (2012). Trace Effects. Material available at
https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/trace-effects and
https://www.deborahhealey.com/trace
Free video game, teacher's manual, graphic novels, and supplemental material designed
for English language teaching and learning. Chapter 1 is playable online; downloathe
game and extensive material on the websites. The mini-game app Trace Word Soup is
available at http://m.bi.nu/ae/

D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu 2018 3