Gamification in the MFL classroom: My favourite games at each learning stage

 We are finally on holidays and as we unwind after a hectic academic year, in this heatwave, I would like to share my favourite games in the classroom. I believe in gamification as it is a quick way to motivate students at all different stages of learning. My experience is that adding a game/competition element to any activity works wonders with ALL learners.  

The key is to carefully plan gamification and not to fall into the fallacy of carrying out games just in order to have fun, but to think of gamification as a methodical and planned strategy at all stages of the learning journey to increase motivation and, therefore, to support learning. 

These are some of my favourite games at each stage of the learning journey, following a lexicogrammar approach to teach MFL. 

Modelling games

Dictation with mistakes

Dictation is key in my teaching/learning routine and this is a classic! I dictate a text, based on a given sentence builder, interleaving material from past ones, with deliberate grammatical or phonetic mistakes. Students carry out the dictation and then, in pairs, highlight where the mistakes were and correct them.  They get a point for each spotted mistake and two extra points if they correct them correctly. I keep a tally on the board with the points of all teams. I give thinking time after the dictation for students to discuss with their partners the text.

Read, stop and finish the sentence

For this easy game, students work against a partner. I read a sentence, stop mid way and students finish the sentence with something that makes sense, in their mini whiteboards (MWBs)!  This is great for collocations.  The fastest student in the pair to do so, gets a point. To make it more fun, I also finish the sentence on my own MWB. If their finished bit coincides with mine, El Gordo, they get two extra points!  The person in the pair who ends up with more points wins. 

Random Dictation

I dictate random sentences, from our current Sentence Builder and past ones (interleaving). After students write down the sentences in MWBs, in pairs, they must put the sentences in a paragraph that makes sense. I do this under time conditions. The pair or pairs who finish the earliest are the winners. I love this activity because it allows me to provide good models of potential pieces of writing and at a second stage, students translate their paragraphs, analyse the text and even better, improve it! 

Fireball

I took this idea from Simona Gravina. It is a great way to gamify cold calling in the classroom. The idea is to have a soft toy or ball which is on fire! I pass it to a student, who I choose, so no way to get out of it, and students just need to repeat the sentence/ chunk I say, translate a sentence into TL or English, or answer a question from a given topic (great for GCSE oral practice). This is a great activity for retrieval practice as a starter/ plenary activity. Students get a point when hit by the fireball, so they want to be asked and hit! Students can pass the ball to me or to another student, which will allow them to be teachers!  I tend to allow students to pass the ball to another student so they practise asking questions. 

Structured Practice Games

Jenga

I love this game! In our department, we have lots of Jengas (they are cheap on Amazon and a great investment) and a giant one to play outside with a whole class divided in two teams. In the classroom, students play in pairs with their own set. They are given a series of sentences in English. Before having a go at the Jenga tower, they need to translate one of these sentences, which recycle the Sentence Builder we are working on.

I personally play this game with a wheel of names which students have in their laptops. They love it!  Instead of sentences, you can have vocabulary for students to put in a sentence or a verb they must conjugate in a given tense and then put in a sentence. It can be adapted to anything!

Connect 4

I play this exactly in the same way as Jenga but with a digital version from Genially, which students display on a computer between pairs. We also have a giant physical Connect 4 game which we carry out outside when the weather allows it! If you are not keen on Genially, you can also use a PowerPoint template game. 

For a wide range of PPT game templates, use this link.

Or this one for 10 more templates.

Wheel of names/Spinner Wheel

You all know how much I love Wheel of names  or Spinner Wheel (same as Wheel of names but you are allowed up to 8 wheels in one screen). I use them as a whole class task, giving individual points when sentences are translated or verbs conjugated, but also, my students use them in pairs, using OneNote, as I share the link with them and play Piedra, papel, tijera (Stone, paper and scissors) each time they spin the wheel. 

Example of Spinner Wheel here

I love the wheels because they can be updated to GCSE questions, grammatical items, vocabulary etc.. 

Battleships

I have to include this game as it works for me each time I use it!  I use Battleships in the Modelling stage too, as a listening activity, have a look at this past blogpost here, but mainly at this stage of learning. Students play in pairs. I create a Battleships worksheet, see below. Students choose 7/8 boxes and tick them at random. The aim of the game is to try to find out where the ticks (ships) of their partner are,  by creating sentences according to certain coordinates. I love this game, because it can be used at any level with simple or more complex language. The beauty of it is that it can lead to a homework task, where students are asked to write down 20 sentences from their battleships before embarking on their own creative writing. 

Fluency Games

Any of the games from the Structured Practice stage, can be used at this stage but giving a time constriction, 30 seconds, 20 seconds etc.. to promote Fluency. Having said that, these are my favourite games at this stage.

Dice Games

Super simple! Students work in pairs and I display numbered questions on the board: 6 if using a dice, from 2 to 12 if using two dice or from 3 to 18 if using 3 dice. Students roll the dice and answer the question linked to that specific number, under 20 seconds, which their partner times. I combine this with a Jenga game or Connect 4 game.

Spider Game

This is a great game for the last stage of learning! I get a cheap wool ball, which I throw at a pupil while I place a question. The student answers the question, under time constriction, holds a piece of string from the wool and throws the ball at some else while posing a new question. The second student, gets hold of the wool thread and throws the ball at someone else, while keeping hold of the thread, and so on. We practise this game outside, if possible, while everyone sits down in a circle. The result? a Spiderweb formed with the wool string that each student holds! 

Speed Dating

Another favourite! For this game I take everyone outside the classroom, in the corridor and divide the class into two rows, facing each other. I clap my hands and students, facing each other, must ask each other a set of questions, which we have extensively practised inside the classroom. I gave them 1 minute to ask each other and I clap again. Students on the right stay where they are but students on the left, move a space facing a new person. This is a fun, simple way to practise questions and answers. 

Piñata Game

This is a another Genially game, which I adapted from Marie Allirot. We play it as a whole class which is divided in two teams. Someone from each team, which I nominate (cold calling) must answer a question spontaneously. I also allow students in their team to improve the answer! 

That student chooses a number from the board, which will reveal points for their team, negative points, a robber taking all points or the arrows showing an exchange of points between teams. I keep a tally on the board. Students absolutely love it!!!! I can adapt it to any questions and levels and it requires zero preparation. 

Finally, sites such as The Language Gym, LearningApps, WordWall, Blooket, Quizziz, DeckToys, Textivate or Sentence Builders are great game tools, especially as these sites allow you to  generate your own tasks based on your own vocabulary and structures.