Gamification or traditional methods?: a study on different methodologies to teach grammar

Abstract

[eng] The issues surrounding grammar teaching have been a topic of debate for decades. From Krashen’s Natural Approach, which states that the important aspect for learners to acquire is the ability to convey messages (Krashen, 2002, p. 1), to Azar (2007) affirming that students who have been taught grammar are more likely to grasp the complexity of meanings of texts formed by various structures which are related to each other (p. 3), there have been many diverse opinions as far as the pros and cons of the instruction of grammar in high schools. Moreover, the methodologies focused on teaching grammar have also been questioned. Some authors, such as Deng and Lin (2016) and Benitez-Correa et al. (2019), explored the possibilities of teaching grammar in two different ways, deductively and inductively. As far as methodologies are concerned, there have been several proposals over the years that have been used in the teaching of grammar. One of these is the so called ‘Audiolingual Method’, which is based on the principle that learners acquire a language through memorisation and drilling (Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2016, p. 35). Another one, is ‘Gamification’, which consists of incorporating elements of games into the classroom to engage students in the learning process (Kapp, 2012, p. 10)1 . This paper explores how grammar is acquired by applying the previous two methods into English lessons in a high school classroom. The main objective is to test the usefulness of these approaches in the acquisition of grammar. Lastly, since the results extracted from the case study determine that students acquire a similar level of grammar irrespective of the methodology followed, this paper includes a didactic proposal, in which activities to teach certain grammar points in each methodology have been designed to better exemplify what types of grammatical structures can be taught through each method.