This article was written by Jennica Grimshaw and Walcir Cardoso, both from the Department of Education at Concordia University. It introduces the idea that it is normal for ESL students to experience anxiety when speaking a second language, especially when they are in large classrooms. In a recent study, they have found that using mobile gaming can actually reduce this anxiety and encourage oral fluency in ESL students. Most of the time, teachers are focusing on teaching new content rather than allowing students to practice what they already know. A mobile game, Spaceteam ESL, has been designed to allow ESL students to practice what they already know and gain valuable peer feedback while doing so. This game is a modified version of Spaceteam (created by Henry Smith), and has been developed by two researchers from Concordia’s Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, David Waddington and Walcir Cardoso, in collaboration with Smith.
In the game, players must speak in order to keep a spaceship from crashing. The researchers developed a way for players to communicate in English and develop language skills. The vocabulary in the game is based on lists of the most frequently used words in English presented at different levels of difficulty. Players must speak to and communicate with teammates. If an instruction isn’t completed because a teammate didn’t speak clearly, their spaceship will start to crash.
I think this is a really neat game for ESL students to play. While I definitely think that high school and middle school students could benefit from it, I would have to see how it would work in my second grade classroom. When I looked further into this and examined their website, I couldn’t find any age guidelines. I think that once my students got the hang of it, they would be able to understand how it works, and it would benefit them. I’m sure that students would see this as a game rather than as a tool to learn. I think it is definitely a tool to look into with ESL learners, especially as it is free!
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