A Didactic Proposal for an EFL Course Based on Game-Based Learning

Abstract

During my Master’s internship, completed in a secondary education center, I was able to observe how English as a Foreign Language (henceforth EFL) students behaved inside their classroom. I could perceive an apparent lack of motivation towards the study of the English language. Most of the students whom I was able to observe appeared to be primarily focused on the obtainment of good grades, rather than on benefiting from the process of learning. This phenomenon can be connected to one of the most recognized dichotomies of the construct of motivation, postulated by Ryan and Deci (1985), namely intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The former is conceived of as a state in which an individual engages in an action as a response to emotions such as curiosity or amusement. The latter refers to a state in which the person focuses on the attainment of a practical and external reward. In education, and specifically in language learning, being a motivated student and being committed to the process of learning implies that the intellectual efforts to be made throughout the course have a greater chance of resulting in academic excellence (Inglés et. al., 2009; Steinmayr & Spinath, 2009). Several studies (Carver, Howard & Lane, 1999; Carnevale, 2005; López, 2015; Wang & Lieberoth, 2016) have connected the use of games to an enhancement of the students’ levels of motivation. For that reason, Game-Based Learning (henceforth GBL) is the basis of the didactic EFL proposal presented in this paper. The main objective of this paper is to design and present a pedagogical proposal, based on GBL, intended to foster students’ level of intrinsic motivation towards the study of English. Originally, the proposal was meant to be part of an action research study; nevertheless, and due to the sanitary emergency caused by COVID-19, the action research experiment could not be implemented. Consequently, this dissertation presents the pedagogical proposal mentioned above, and is thus framed within the sixth modality, according to the Final Master’s Dissertations regulation.