Gamifying The EFL Class: attitudes toward learning and improvement in the recognition and correction of false friends among adult learners

Abstract

False friends area frequent source of mistakes among non-native speakers in EFL comprehension and production. Like many other aspects of the English language,false friendsare often taughtthrough conventional approachesthat do not help contextualize the new lexis. Meanwhile,the popularity of gamification techniques in education has spread worldwide in recent years. Yet, research on the effectivenessof gamificationfor EFL —especiallyamong adultlearners—is scarce. This paper intendsto observe the effects of gamification amongadult EFL learners:itseffectiveness for the recognition and correction of false friends in the immediateand long term, and the self-perceived attitudes and emotionstowards the experience. With this aim in mind, two groups of EFL students with an upper-intermediatelevel of English (B2, CEFR) were exposed to two alternatives of the same didactic intervention: one with a high degree of gamification components, and the other following conventional structures and resources. This paperfollows two groups of adult learners and theirevolution in the ability to recognizeandcorrectmisusedlexis beforethe didactic intervention, immediatelylater,and after a nine-weeklapse.Results suggest that those participantsreceiving the gamified intervention had a more prominentgrowth in their ability to recognize and correct false friends, both in the immediateand the long term. As for their attitudes, participants self-reported to enjoy time constraints and competition among peers, whileparticipantsfounduninteresting features such asthestatus of winnerand the obtention of a prize. Hence, the study demonstrates benefits of the gamification approach bothas a class-management tool, as well asan effectivetechnique in the learning of English as a foreign language.