Language learners, especially learners of a second or foreign language, often need continuous motivation or drive to keep learning and eventually master the target language. Classroom gamification is an effective approach - but how can tools like Kahoot! and Socrative be further improved? Thanks!
I think the danger here is an over-reliance on specific tech tools or software. The 'Communicative methods' approach in language acquisition has long pushed the field, ahead of its time, towards concepts such as social constructivism, social capital development and gamification - a mindset that seems harder for people to adopt in other subjects but which comes fairly easily to second language specialists. We know that language is not learnt in textbooks but in context and therefore the move away from traditional teaching, seeing knowledge as a commodity, has been easier for the field of language acquisition - particularly second language acquisition - to embrace. There is a rich body of literature here. We now need to use that body of literature - which predate digital technology - to choose the tools that fit our purpose -and not vice versa. Tools and software will come and go. It is the pedagogical intention of what we wish to do with them that remains steady, constant and anchored in best practices. Whenever I have in-service teachers in my MEd courses starting to over-focus on software, I ask them to return to the intention, then to select digital tools that suit their aim. A very healthy habit.
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