+ Serious Play Tilly Harrison

+ Serious Play? “Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold” Joseph Chilton Pearce Play suggested by Johan Roos and Bart Victor in 1980s as a management strategy to foster new ideas Lego now sponsors ‘LEGO Serious Play’ as a corporate activity

+ Serious Games? Clark C. Abt wrote a book called ‘Serious Games’ in 1987 suggesting games as a way of solving problems in industry, government, education and personal relations Serious Games’ simulate life but allow for ‘experimental and emotional freedom’

+ Gamification Technology has facilitated a huge rise in use of computer games / video games Coincidental with the rise of ‘Serious Play’ and ‘Serious Games’ The ‘gaming’ factor has lead to ‘gamification’ of ordinary processes such as shopping, sport, … education

+ Key Concepts Play – playfulness Game – “gamefulness” Gamification Fun Engagement

+ What kinds of fun? Hard fun Emotions from Meaningful Challenges, Strategies, and Puzzles Easy fun Grab Attention with Ambiguity, Incompleteness, and Detail Social fun Create Opportunities for Player Competition, Cooperation, Performance, and Spectacle Serious fun Meaningful personally

+ Language Teaching Games by W.R. Lee (founder of IATEFL) Dedicated book to ‘All teachers who believe that in foreign language teaching enjoyment and success go together’ “It is now very generally accepted that ………not merely can be but should be enjoyable. This is not to assume that it is easy, but only that there is no need, by excluding enjoyment, to make it more difficult’ ‘Gamea are enjoyable’…

+ Lee’s Game elements ‘ outstripping in friendly fashion, someone else’s performance (Competition) Bettering one’s own performance Goal is visible and stimulating Working in groups or teams (cooperation) Pleasant, informal relaxed atmosphere favourable to language learning Banishing boredom

+ Language learning benefit Language used for communication with added benefit of: Gestures Handling and touching things Incidents and activities Pictures Dramatization Stories Games Not thinking about the language but using it as a means of considering something else Repetition of successful and interesting communication Motivation

+ Importance of Games Offer Experiential Learning Confer power, trust and respect Enable facilitator to get to know participants better Should be fair and safe to participate Give the thrill of the unknown Repetition often built in There is a problem to solve

+ Classroom Game elements Teams / groups – names? Keep group through whole year? Teams bigger than groups Evenly matched Room arrangement – flexible Scoring – appropriate charts

+ Ensuring participation Allow some silent preparation Reminder words, hints Substitution table Learners do the leading Randomise selection Team game repeated as a group or pair game Mutual help

+ Games v Play Games include playfulness but play is not necessarily a game Games have rules, objectives, an end point. Play is free, creative, an end in itself