The use of Fortnite in the teaching of English as a foreign language

In recent years, the methodologies applied in the teaching of English are very diverse. The traditional way of teaching in which the teacher was the main source of information and the students were the receivers is losing followers, and more and more teachers are advocating a more active methodology in which the students are the protagonists. During the two internship periods at the CPRI-INPRISE Escuelas Pías, Escolapios, it was observed that there was little participation on the part of the students, both in the oral activities and when correcting the exercises. In order to meet this need,it was proposed to work on 21st century skills, such as creativity and collaboration, as well as to improve student motivation and participation by introducing a topic that was of interest to them.This approach has been combined with Task Based Learning framed within the Project Based Learning structure, and always taking into account the communicative approach. The proposed didactic unit called “Fortnite 'n' English'' is characterised by applying the aforementioned approaches with the aim of making students create a final project in which they change the game to their liking. In order to exploit the video game genre, a corpus has been carried out in which each of the characteristics and how they can be extrapolated to teaching were analysed in depth. Finally, to promote studentparticipation, most of the proposed activities are carried out in groups or pairs in which an atmosphere that facilitates student participation is created.<br /

Virtual worlds and online videogames for children and young people : promises and challenges

Online virtual worlds and games provide opportunities for new kinds of interaction, and new forms of play and learning, and they are becoming a common feature in the lives of many children and young people. This chapter explores the issues that this sort of virtual play raises for researchers and educators, and the main themes that have emerged through empirical investigation. I focus on children and young people within the age range covered by compulsory schooling, providing illustrative examples of virtual environments that promote play and learning as a way of underlining some key areas of interest. Drawing on work from a range of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives the chapter emphasises how these environments have much in common with other imagined worlds and suggests that looking at the ways in which the virtual is embedded in everyday contexts for meaning making provides an important direction for future research