Innovation in Language Learning

The past three years have seen increasingly rapid progress in using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), i.e., education delivered online on specific platforms to refine or teach several subjects. The COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the planet pushed many people towards finding new tools to experience and learn simply, effectively, and directly from home. In particular, this research will examine how the use of Gamification mechanics and rules can be used to increase motivation and trigger the interest of foreign students enrolling at the University of Genoa to learn A1 Level Italian through a MOOC. Gamification has been extensively used as an educational tool in recent decades, but despite the benefits that this approach has shown over the years, there are few experiences applied to teaching a new language that are not based on the mere use of the pointsification technique. Gamification is often equated with the triad 'PBL', i.e. Points, Badges and Leaderboards, the only necessary elements that can be easily integrated everywhere. Of course, gamification is not that, it cannot be integrated into everything and it is also unthinkable that it is always useful for the purpose, rather it should be seen as a tool to be associated with healthy and not unhealthy experiences. Kapp already defines it as not perfect in every situation while Werbach and Hunter, in the re-edition of 'For The Win' [1]., correct the shot by calling it a mistake to consider PBL as the solution. Instead, they expand on the concept by pointing out that adopting overly competitive approaches would put those who do not feel triggered by the competition at a disadvantage and end up feeling demotivated by finding themselves at the bottom of the league table. The project will consider the differences between Erasmus students, foreign freshmen and/or students who decide to move to Genoa and attend vis-à-vis classes. Then a series of typical university life situations will be identified in order to help students engage with others in context that may potentially be experienced as threatening or challenging, such as lectures, admin offices, canteens. Topics will be delivered on the EON Reality XR platform enabling students to access brief texts and/or audio contributions as well as 3D models – e.g. of some concepts dealt with by lecturers in class.