The development of multiliteracy in English as a Foreign Language through a gamified project: “Stranger disappearance”

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Our society is immersed in a technological environment which influences not only students learning process but also the methodological approaches. Teenagers spend part of their free time playing with videogames or publishing posts on their social networks through their cellphones. This interest towards technological games can be the excuse to implement methodologies where technology takes place. Besides, these social shifts have transformed the concept of literacy, that is how to read and write into the notion of multiliteracy (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009; New London Group, 1996) where these two skills are developed through multimodal channel not only the written mode. One of the active methodologies which could be implemented when teaching English as a foreign language is Gamification since it could foster the development of literacy through a multimodal channel since it combines visual, auditory and written mode. One of the advantages of this active methodology is the increase of motivation and engagement towards the learning process. However, to become a fluent reader in English as a Foreign Language is not an easy task since there is not a total correspondence between the graphemes and phonemes hindering the comprehension of what it is written. The purpose of this study has been to prove if the implementation of a gamified project could strengthen the multiliteracy process and increase motivation towards the learning process. The results show there have been an improvement not only in the comprehension of written texts but also in the level of motivation towards the work of that specific skill.