Ask a TESOL Leader

Reader Question: My multilingual learners of English are very competitive, and I've noticed that games really motivate them. Is it okay to gamify, well, everything? How do I find a good balance with gamification?

I am glad you have discovered the motivating power of games in your English language classroom. I love games and find that they help me accomplish many of my teaching objectives. Games provide several components that are naturally motivating. Students will often take more chances when they are playing a game than they might in other learning activities, and the fun nature of most games lowers the affective filter for students and helps them retain more learning. 

When I teach with group games, I am very intentional about how I group my students. These games provide opportunities to put stronger students with weaker students, or to put students that are more shy together, which encourages them to speak and engage. I do find, however, that you have to be proactive and monitor the progress of the game, adjusting things on the fly as you go in order to make the games inclusive—especially if you have a few dominant students. The way you organize the games is very important. 

For example, I do a lot of Jeopardy-style games, but instead of having students “buzz in” to determine who answers the questions, I take turns so every group gets a chance to participate. As an alternative, I will use a live-polling tool like Socrative, where the students submit their answers via an app. In this case, I can see all the answers and what order they were submitted in, but the students cannot. This feature lets me skip over the student who is always answering first and select other students to keep the games more inclusive.

In terms of balance, I don’t believe it is a problem if teachers gamify everything as long as the gamification serves a purpose and the students react well to it. However, one of the most engaging components of gamification is the novelty, especially if you do not use games very often. Once the novelty wears off and students are used to the games, it will not be as easy to keep them engaged.

Every game or game component you use in the classroom should also have a purpose in helping the students meet their learning objectives. Some teachers will play games during down times or simply because the students enjoy them, but these games will not lead to learning if the teachers are not intentional with the game design or the content. Everything you do in the classroom should further the learning of your students and give them opportunities to interact in the target language.

You might also try incorporating some of the motivating aspects of games into other parts of your classroom. For example, games often give students a choice about what reaction they will take to a certain situation. I use that aspect of choice in teaching reading by providing my students a list of reading “quests” they can complete over the course of a term. They get to choose when they will complete each quest, but they have to complete all of them by the end. They earn points for each quest, which I post each week so they can see how many points they have accumulated. For some students, being at the top of that list is important, and they are motivated to do more quests. I also include many of the storytelling aspects of games into my lessons, creating authentic scenarios that coincide with what we are learning in the classroom.

So yes, it’s okay to gamify your English language classroom if it motivates and engages your students in learning—as long as you design your games with intention, purpose, and inclusivity.