THE LUDIC COMPONENT AS A PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGY FOR THE ACQUISITION OF FRENCH GRAMMATICAL TERMINOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY CONTEXT

Abstract

It is well known that the ludic component positively influences the teaching and learning process of a foreign language, especially at the elementary education levels, where students feel uninhibited and more predisposed to language acquisition. In this study we want to determine if this observation holds true in higher education, with a cohort of learners of French as a foreign language (FFL) in the 2nd year of the bachelor’s degree in Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Santiago de Compostela. To this end, we designed and implemented a ludic-pedagogical activity in the classroom to enhance the learning of grammatical concepts and assess the level of acquisition of these concepts. Taking inspiration from the classic game Taboo, we created cards that included French grammatical terms, resulting in the so-called Grammatical Taboo (GT). In teams of two or more, students could test their linguistic skills and gauge their knowledge of metalanguage in a pleasant and enjoyable environment. The results of this teaching experiment reveal that the board game, in our case the GT, serves as a valuable resource for teaching and learning French grammatical terminology in the university context and can generate satisfaction among virtually all participants.