facebook games and english language learners: what student teachers say?

Facebook Games and English Language Learners:

What Student-teachers Say?

Presented by:

Entisar Elsherif, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Fatma Dreid, University of Tripoli

Digital Literacies SymposiumDigital Literacies in and Beyond the L2 Classroom

Hosted by the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy

Outline Introduction

Facebook Games project

Research Questions

Research Design

Results

Conclusion

References

Photos of Facebook Games

Introduction

“The learning process should be interesting, easy and it should be fun to learn. It also should fit with an everyday task and the working environment in order to achieve optimum results”

(Pivac & Dziabenko, 2010, p. 1).

“Games are effective tools for learning because they offer students a hypothetical environment in which they can explore alternative decisions without the risk of failure. Thought and action combined into purposeful behavior to accomplish a goal. Playing games teaches us not to strategize, to consider alternatives, and to think flexibly”

(Martinson & Chu, 2008, p. 478).

The idea of this study came out of Dr Gian Pagnucci’s class. In his Technology & Literacy course, Entisar and her peers were asked to play Facebook games for a week, reflect on the experience each day of the week, and post the reflections on their research blogs.

After that, we discussed the idea of conducting a study on using Facebook games to explore our student’s views about using games in the English classroom.

Since our students use Facebook for communication why don’t we encourage them to use games for game-based learning.

Facebook Games ProjectStudents choose from a list of Facebook games

They play Facebook games for a week then do the following:

- prepare a PPT presentation

- present their game and their views about the game

- write reflections about the games and their experiences

Students chose from the following list of Facebook games:

Royal Story

Words of Wonder

Village Life

Lucky Supermarket

Hidden Chronicles

Photos of the games are listed after the references.

Criminal Case

Zoo World

FarmVille

Hay Day

Threads of Mystery

CityVille

Students prepare a presentation in which they answer the following questions:

Describe the game (Use pictures and illustrations). Would you recommend the game? Why?/ Why not?

Was there anything you didn’t know before playing the game? What did you do to understand the tasks of the game? What kind of knowledge did you gain while playing?

Reflect on your group work: what did you do as a group to prepare the presentation? How did you find playing the game together?

As a future English language teacher: do you think that Facebook Games might help English learners improve their language proficiency? How? If not, why? How might you use Facebook games to teach English?

Students write one-page reflections that include:

What do you think of this project?,

Do you think games can be used as language learning tools?,

What would you recommend to improve this project in future classes?, and

Any other ideas or points of view you would like to share.

Research QuestionsWhat are the Libyan English language student teachers’

views about using Facebook games as a language teaching tools?

After playing Facebook games for a while, do they plan to use Facebook games in their English language classroom?

Research DesignMethodology: Qualitative Case Study

Study site: English language teacher education program at the Faculty of Education at a Libyan university.

Participants: 25 Libyan student-teachers taking the Eng214 Listening & Speaking 3 Course

Data Collection sources: students’ presentations, students’ reflective journals, and interviews.

Data Analysis: line-by-line reading and memoing, and then coding.

Since this project is still in progress, this presentation details the results derived from the student teachers’ presentations and reflective journals.

The following slides are some of the student teachers’ presentations and parts of their reflections.

Examples of Student Presentations

Criminal Case Hay Day

ResultsWhat are the Libyan English language student teachers’ views

about using Facebook games as a language teaching tools?

Data indicated that most of the student teachers found playing Facebook games as beneficial to language learners. Only five student thought that Facebook games were “waste of time” and should not be used in the language English classroom.

After playing Facebook games for a while, do they plan to use Facebook games in their English language classroom?

Students who were in favor of using Facebook games in the English language classroom plan to use these games to teach vocabulary, reading, listening and speaking, and writing.

Most of the student teachers’ comments were positive.

Student teachers’ positive comments showed that they enjoyed playing the games individually and in groups.

Student teachers’ comments also showed that they learned while playing.

Student teachers’ comment showed that games-based learning is motivating.

Student teachers thought that Facebook games:

A great source for vocabulary learning.Teach how to follow instructions.Fun to learn while playing. Great for learning problem-solving

strategies.Playing as a group enhances group work.Some games were suitable for various

levels of language proficiency.

Student teachers preferred using Facebook games to teach vocabulary since they found many new words. They also thought that Facebook games gave them the chance to learn words from context.

Since they presented about the games, they reported the benefits of using Facebook games as topics for classroom discussion.

Student teachers believed that reading the instructions or any information s provided in the games help English learners improve their reading skills.

Student teachers stated that Facebook games could be used for descriptive writing.

Some of them, however, thought that Facebook games are waste of time and:Time consuming.Discouraging, because in some games, they

faced difficulties in getting the tasks done.Boring, because they were repeating the

same task everydayNot suitable for students with high levels of

language proficiency because they didn’t enjoy them or they didn’t find any new information.

ConclusionFacebook games are not only a source of entertainment, but also can

be used as source of learning. Properly designed activities that include Facebook games can stimulate students language learning.

Even though 5 student teachers thought that using games in the English language classroom was not beneficial, 20 student teachers found Facebook games motivating and effective in English language teaching and learning.

This is an exploratory study. So, our results can not be generalized. However, these results can provide a platform for other studies and can encourage language teachers to use Facebook games for games-based learning.

Further research is needed, a research design that includes a control group and an experimental group might provide a more complete picture about using Facebook games in the English language classroom.

ReferencesForeman, J. (2003). Next generation educational technology

versus lecture. Educause Review, July/August, 12 – 22.

Pagnucci, G. (2014). Assignments. http://www.english.iup.edu/pagnucci/courses/808/ assignmentdeadlines/assignments-2014fall.htm

Martinson, B. & Chu, S. (2008). Impact of learning style on achievement when using course content delivered via a game-based learning object. In Ferdig, R. E. (ed.). Handbook of research on effective electronic gaming in education (pp. 478 – 488). Pennsylvania: IGI Global.