Abstract 

Feedback researchers have given little attention to how administration of language-focused instruction before writing in a second language combined with subsequent error correction after writing can affect the grammatical accuracy of learners’ future writing. Moreover, the mode of the instruction has also been undervalued. To address these gaps in the research literature, Taiwanese university student participants were randomly and equally divided into two experimental and one control group: teacher instruction with error correction; digital game-based instruction with error correction; and error correction only. Participants were asked to write three letters of application to three similar job advertisements as a pretest, immediate segment, and delayed segment. Gain score results in the immediate segment showed that the teacher instruction with error correction groups significantly outperformed the error correction only group's whereas gains in the delayed segment showed the teacher instruction with error correction and the digital game-based instruction with error correction groups significantly outperformed the error correction only group. Results indicate that pedagogical practices that provide focused grammatical instruction with direct focused feedback are more beneficial to L2 writers than only providing error correction. Furthermore, the just-in-time grammar feedback provided during game play afforded learners with opportunities to engage in awareness-raising language related episodes. Such game play combined with written corrective feedback resulted in stronger retention of grammatical knowledge compared to learners that received teacher instruction combined with written corrective feedback.

We are living in an endless debate about the needs of a new generation and the methods  and instruments that schools should provide in order to satisfy those needs.  Every year, teachers must face new terms, ideas, and concepts that pop up as if they were the only definitive solution to all the problems in education. The truth, education is not a problem to solve, and there is not anyone or a unique solution that will improve the teaching-learning process entirely.

The key is to diversify, to try out different solutions, and to analyze the results.

One method that can be easily used in the classroom is Game-Based Learning (GBL).

The results of using this teaching strategy have proven that incorporating games is highly effective because they can facilitate and encourage student motivation (obviously, and without a doubt, keeping students motivated is one of the main problems that teachers must confront in the classroom).

If you wish to find out more about new methodologies and tools to help motivate your students, check out our teacher training courses.

But what is GBL? “Game-Based Learning is designed to balance subject with gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject to the real world.”

Acer for Education, an education-oriented software company, is currently working hard to develop and combine innovative methods with technology in education. They claim that GBL is: “an effective method for making students work toward a goal, allowing them to learn through experimentation, practicing behaviors and thought processes that can be easily transferred from a simulated environment to real life.”

It could be said that GBL is basically a game, and games are one of the earliest ways people engage in learning; babies and kids play games to discover the world and to learn.