Games-Based Learning: An experience report in teaching English during the pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 has already taken over millions of lives and has brought the entire world to a halt. It has been a great challenge for teachers and students alike, especially for children. The area of education has reimagined itself. Children began to actively learn through the screens of their computers, tablets, and some, even cellphones. This article brings an experience report about strategies involving the principals and themes of Role-Playing Games used for online classes of English aimed at Brazilian children around the ages of five to nine years old. Role-playing games (at times also spelled as roleplaying games; abbreviated to RPG or RPGs) are games in which the people participating in them (players) assume the roles of characters within a fictional setting. The idea of using RPG strategies to retain the attention of children while teaching from afar, via Zoom, Skype or any other platform that allows the direct interaction between educator and student comes from RPGs’ incredible capacity of transporting the mind of children to a different space, a space of attention and entertainment. As perceived by Tolomei (2017) and also shown in this experience report, motivation and engagement are enhan­ced through game mechanics. The technique also fulfills the need for human relationships, which has been taken away by COVID-19.