Since April 2020, many Japanese institutions have organised their courses online amid the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, we had to rethink and reorganise our French language courses at the University of Tokyo and Keio University.
Our previous research used board games to help our students practice French as an Additional Language or FAL (Douglas Fir Group, 2016). We found that games allow learners to forget their actions' consequences and free speech (Agaësse, 2022, 2018, 2017; Silva, 2008, Brougère, 2005). Moreover, games help learners have higher confidence and interact more, encouraging them to invest in developing their FAL skills. As a result of this work, a new problem emerged: how to adapt board games to a digital medium, such as video games, using remote devices?
In this article, we start by presenting the Japanese context of our research with a focus on the sociocultural background, the educational system's characteristics and the role of foreign languages. In this work, we explore what can constitute a hindrance or, on the contrary, promote their engagement in using FAL in an online teaching-learning context. Then, we leverage theories from neurobiology and psychology by introducing Panksepp and Biven's Basic Affective Systems (2012) to analyse the use of games in classes and its impact on the behaviour of Japanese students.
To adapt to the new online class format, we developed and implemented a framework to use digital versions of board games on the Steam digital game platform. The objective of these activities was to encourage FAL learners to develop their language skills and collaborate more with others actively. At the end of each play session, we distributed feedback questionnaires to learn more about the students' lived experiences. We analysed the effects of playing on language acquisition, interactions and the need for support and guidance. This research results indicate that using digital board games allows learners to overcome some of the barriers associated with online courses and develop more personally, socially, culturally and linguistically.
bibliography :
Agaësse, J. (2022). Le jeu des émotions dans les dispositifs d'enseignement-apprentissage : Une perspective énactive et émergentiste de l'enseignement-apprentissage du français langue additionnelle au Japon avec des jeux de société. Thèse de doctorat en didactique des langues. Université Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès.
Agaësse, J. (2017). « Les jeux de société et la didactique des langues : À vous de jouer ! » Revue japonaise de didactique du français, 12(1-2), p.194-204.
Agaësse, J. (2018). « Les émotions dans la classe de langue étrangère ». Revue japonaise de didactique du français, 13(1-2), p.6-19.
Brougère, G. (2005). Jouer/Apprendre. Economica.
Douglas Fir Group (The). (2016). "A transdisciplinary framework for SLA in a multilingual world". The Modern Language Journal, 100 (supplement), p.19-47.
Panksepp, J., & Biven, L. (2012). The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions. New-York. W. W. Norton & Company.
Silva, H. (2008). Le jeu en classe de langue. CLE International
