Motivation • Room 107 • 11:00
Using Board Games for Conversation Practice
Learner motivation / creativity
Board games can be valuable resources to support conversation practice in many settings including public schools, after school programs, English centers, universities, hagwons, community-focused programs, and language clubs. But some promising-looking games don’t actually motivate much language use, and board games can be expensive. In this session we will explore reasons why some games fall flat, some offer diminishing returns of usefulness, and some seem to almost magically help learners produce language and enjoy communicating in English. This session will include discussion and advice about which games are really worth investing in, and which can be worth adapting for our learners. In addition, the presenter will share some insights from scholarship on ‘language play’ and his own research into the relationship between playful feelings and language production during gameplay, and offer participants opportunities to reflect on and understand learners’ language play experiences.
About Bryan
Bryan Hale teaches at Yeongam High School in Jeollanamdo. He has worked with all age groups, but especially tweens and teenagers, and previously spent several years teaching elementary and middle school students in both public and hagwon settings. He has recently completed a Master of Applied Linguistics (TESOL) research project exploring the relationship between learners’ experiences of playfulness and language production during speaking games.
