Sustaining connections: in-class learning and game-based learning in ELT

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Sustaining connections: in-class learning and game-based learning in ELT

Summary

Nowadays, it is a deal of big significance to make our teaching innovative and enjoyable for the students. One of the ways is to implement online learning games in our ESL classes. There is a necessity to develop language in different contexts, but some students are becoming successful only under certain learning conditions. The way to deal with and proceed is building connections between learning contexts using scaffolding, reflecting upon students' prior knowledge, and using students' implicit, intuitive knowledge.

Keywords: English language teaching, SLA - second language acquisition, scaffolding, game-based learning, in-class learning, implicit knowledge, explicit knowledge, learning chunks, Bloom's Taxonomy

Introduction

Today, it is a deal of big significance not only to teach language but to teach it in different learning contexts with a sense of flow and enjoyment and extend language knowledge beyond classrooms. For example, one of the ways to make students enjoy learning is to digitalize classrooms with online learning games. However, we are always facing new difficulties to solve as far as learning via games and traditional learning are a significant difference. According to '`Scaffolding gamebased learning: Impact on learning achievements, perceived learning, and game experiences" by Ina Blau and Sarit Barzilai, one of the major challenges while gamebased learning is sustaining connections between knowledge students acquire while at school, being exposed to formal learning in traditional classrooms, and knowledge they acquire while playing learning-games [1].

As a result, the necessity of building connections lies in differences in two learning contexts: learning while playing and traditional in-class learning. The arising difficulty within the classroom is, to be specific, that some students show successful results while playing Kahoot or different learning game modes on Blooket, but, in the long run, end up not capable of showing similar results within the learning contexts of traditional classrooms. This leads us to the necessity of maintaining close connections between in-class and game-based learning and even extending this knowledge to the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and beyond the classroom, as far as our final goal is never successful drilling or great results in learning games and always is reaching highly productive language knowledge our students acquire and can implement in grounded contexts of ESL usage.

Building connections between learning contexts

At this point, the question emerges: what are the causes of this phenomenon that happens in different learning contexts? According to "Learning context and its effects on SLA" by Joseph Collentine, and Barbara F. Freed, and considering the context sensitive theory of SLA, learning contexts determine the second language usage and acquisition [2]. language scaffolding intuitive

To be specific, the causes of this difficulty are:

- Differences not only in a context but in complexity

- Difference between students' explicit and implicit knowledge within two learning contexts [3]

- Different learning contexts include different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

- Overexcitement while playing results in losing connections with the learning purposes of an activity

Suffice it to say, that building connections between the following learning contexts is a valid way to deal with extending students' knowledge beyond the border of a learning game to proceed with higher levels of productivity.

What should be remembered is that one of the effective ways to build this connection is to scaffold game-based learning using a variety of scaffolding strategies, especially breaking learning into chunks to reduce the influence of a complexity and productivity gap between learning contexts, making our learning more gradual by splitting it into smaller parts that are easy-to-comprehend. Consequently, it is easier for students to make connections between them [4].

What has to be mentioned: another effective strategy is to reflect upon students' prior knowledge by making communicative context grounded for the students' experience [5]. Additionally, by creating similar linguistic (common vocabulary units) and communicative (purposes of language usage, narrative components of an activity) contexts within in-class and game-based learning. The matching communicative contexts encourage students' implicit knowledge to wake up and give teachers a chance to connect it to explicit knowledge.

Additionally, game-based learning brings us the challenge of students' overexcitement while playing. For instance, some students are seen to be overexcited competing while playing Kahoot or Gimkit (the last one is claimed to be "Kahoot on steroids"). As a result, the game itself becomes students' main priority. Flow and enjoyment while playing have to be a stimulus to learn, but not substitute learning entirely. Consequently, that is precisely why finding balance between a sense of flow and learning is an essential element of successful game-based learning [1]

Summing up the first and the second part of this article we are in front of a challenge of building connections between traditional in-class and game-based learning so that students' knowledge doesn't exist only within the borders of learning games.

Practical employment. Positive and negative outcomes

At this point of discussion, we are craving the practical employment of connecting knowledge within the learning game with the one acquired in the classroom. We conducted practical research with a group of 5 students aged 13-14 years, who were taught Past Simple via game-based learning. To implement learning games into the classroom and to scaffold it successfully, we used the EdApp web platform that gave us instruments to scaffold game-based learning via breaking it into chunks, giving visuals and audio recordings - courses on EdApp are made in a form of presentations preceded by learning games or quizzes. The choice of a web platform was based on the necessity to maintain a balance between enjoyment and learning - EdApp was an excellent option because it is not overwhelming us with playing sections and it is rather formal. Generally speaking, the structure of the lesson can be expressed by a "study and play" game-based learning approach, in which learners, via each separate chunk, are first introduced to the formal representation of information and then can play learning games [1] and do quizzes.

To be specific and give more details let us take a deeper look at the structure of the EdApp course:

Table 1

General information about the class