The role of ludic activities in primary English classrooms - do they really help children to learn?

• Autor(a) principal: Miletic, Eunice Ascensão Nascimento
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/21868
• topic: Inglês; Escola primária; Motivação; ludicity; Lúdico; Aprendizagem; Motivation; English; Primary school; Learning process; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Ciências da Educação

The present study is relevant at a time when English has become a curricular subject from grade 3 in the first cycle of Portuguese primary school. The main aim was to verify the possible benefits of using ludic activities in English language learning and teaching by analysing the effect that they have in enhancing and maintaining student motivation and participation in class. First, I defined ludicity, then analysed the activities implemented in ten taught lessons. I gave two questionnaires to students and also collected their oral feedback, in addition to keeping a teacher diary. Doing this study helped me realize how I could be more proactive when planning lessons by implementing engaging activities and creating my own ludic resources to complement the course book. I also realized that it is not the activity per se that is ludic, but the way the activity is set up that makes it ludic. An activity can be complemented by pre-, during or after activities to bring ludicity to the activity and to engage students. My definition of ludicity and the results from this study may help teachers adapt or follow a ludic approach to complement a course book as a way to facilitate the learning process, resulting in students being more relaxed, motivated and participative.