Patricia FOURNIER-NOËL et Philippe LÉPINARD et Odile SOLNIK, Using Tabletop Role-Playing Games to Teach English in a University School of Management

Dans le cadre de nos activités d’enseignement et de recherche au sein d’une école universitaire de management, nous avons imaginé et déployé un dispositif ludopédagogique original s’appuyant sur des jeux de rôle (JDR) sur table dans l’enseignement de l’anglais de spécialité. En effet, nous avons expérimenté, pendant trois années universitaires consécutives (2019 à 2022), l’implémentation d’un JDR fantastique dans deux classes différentes de 3e et dernière année de Licence de Management. L’implication des étudiants était particulièrement importante et nous avons pu constater une réelle libération de la parole.

Mots-clés : ludopédagogie, apprentissage expérientiel, jeu de rôle sur table, pédagogie actionnelle, anglais de spécialité (ASP)

Abstract

As part of our teaching and research activities at a University School of Management, we have designed and integrated an original game-oriented learning set of activities based on tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs) into English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses. Indeed, during three consecutive academic years (2019-2022), we have experimented using a fantasy TRPG with two distinct classes of 3rd-year (final-year) BSc Management students. Their engagement was particularly visible and they seemed to find it easier to speak English during these role-playing sessions.

Keywords: ludo-pedagogy, game-based learning, tabletop role-playing games, action-oriented approach, English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

Since the early 2010s, there has been significant renewed interest in tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs) as a leisure activity. However, this interest has not really translated into significant experiments and research aiming at testing the potential of TRPGs for the teaching of management in higher education. This is the starting point for the EdUTeam role-playing game (RPG) project, a sub-part of the EdUTeam^[1] pedagogical and research project which focuses on using a variety of existing games for educational purposes in management courses. One of the objectives of the EdUTeam project is to extend game-based learning experiments to subjects other than management, particularly English language courses. This is the reason why our testimony may be useful to lecturers in Applied Modern Languages (Langues étrangères appliquées, LEA) as it deals with the integration of TRPGs into English for specific purposes (ESP) courses for 3rd-year (final-year) BSc Management students enrolled at IAE Paris-Est School of Management, Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC). These students have a similar profile to LEA students insofar as they are required to develop both their management and their business English language skills.

Our initial objective was to adopt an action-oriented approach, as defined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR),^[2] and implement it in a less formal atmosphere which would give all the participating students the opportunity to take part in an immersive experience.^[3] We then assessed the impact of this approach by asking students to fill in a feedback questionnaire based on Level 1 (Reaction) and Level 2 (Learning) of the Kirkpatrick training evaluation model.^[4]

We will first focus on the context in which the experiments took place and how they were carried out, before analysing the results we reached through observation and the feedback questionnaires.

Designing and Rolling out the Experiments

The experiments we conducted built on previous work which had demonstrated that students reacted positively to TRPG activities being introduced into an English language course, although an elective one,^[5] and that this new pedagogical method did not incur too many logistical challenges.^[6]

We first tested a TRPG set in a fantasy world with a group of 3rd-year BSc Management students majoring in Business Administration in 2019, before extending the experiment to a second group majoring in Information Technology and Management. The point in using a fantasy TRPG as part of a business English class was to allow the students to practise their speaking skills in a different context to complement the work which they were doing on business communication as part of the course, as well as give them more room for creativity in their interactions, since creativity is a skill that management students need to nurture. However, the first TRPG we used contained some fantasy references that were far removed from the contemporary varieties of English which the students needed to develop so we decided to use a different fantasy TRPG, “The Strange”,^[7] as an inspiration for the background universe to our subsequent experiments.

We were able to carry out these experiments over three consecutive years (2019-2022) with the two different groups mentioned, taught by two distinct lecturers. We thus integrated from 3 to 5 TRPG sessions into a compulsory business English course that lasted for 9 to 10 sessions, depending on the group. We considered transforming the whole course into TRPG sessions but the two English language lecturers felt that the experiment would be more relevant if it was used to reinforce existing business English skills, by transferring them to a different world, rather than fully replacing the work on business English. Moreover, one of the challenges of teaching English at university being to avoid repetitive tasks that tend to make students lose motivation over time, TRPG sessions were seen as a way to diversify English language activities.

From 2019 to 2022, a total of 178 students participated in the experiments. Their levels of ability in English mostly ranged from B1 to B2, although the students in the IT and Management group tended to have more heterogeneous levels of English than those in Business Administration. Each TRPG session lasted for about 2 to 3 hours (traditional business English sessions usually last 3 to 3.5 hours). Each session started with a briefing activity, including some background reading giving information about the TRPG’s universe and characters. Then, the students were divided into small groups to play the day’s scenario – we developed 4 scenarios, including an introductory one. Each group consisted of a game master (GM) and 2 to 4 player characters (PCs) (Figure 1). All students got to play the role of GM during a scenario, starting with the students we felt would be more comfortable in this role. The actual TRPG sessions were conducted in an informal atmosphere in which the lecturers merely observed and supported the students – when they experienced communication difficulties or were not progressing as anticipated in the game – but did not otherwise interfere. Lastly, the session ended with a debriefing activity, either orally or in writing. At the end of the last TRPG session, all the students were asked to fill in an anonymous feedback questionnaire.

Furthermore, during the 2020-2021 academic year, at a time when all classes had to be held remotely, we maintained the TRPG experiment but moved it online. This gave us the opportunity of testing the compatibility of our role-playing game activities in a remote setting.

As regards the rules, we worked on making them as easy to understand as possible for students who may not be familiar with role-playing games so that all the participating students could start playing quickly and enjoy the game from the beginning. PCs worked as a team. They were encouraged to choose complementary character profiles, with predetermined characteristics, and they rolled dice to overcome the obstacles they faced as they made progress in the story. GMs were briefed about the scenario while PCs read the background information for the adventure. GMs were then left free to manage the game in a creative way, adding difficulties if PCs were moving forward too fast towards completing the game or giving PCs extra clues if, on the contrary, the game was moving too slowly.

We designed a fairly simple introductory scenario (Figure 2) in order for GMs and PCs to test their understanding of the rules and put them into practice. PCs had to find a warbot on a campus and fight hostile creatures they may encounter on the way. The other three scenarios also involved fighting a couple of hostile creatures but different tasks were added. For example, the second scenario involved answering a quiz. The third scenario was based on a maze which the PCs had to map in order to recover files from a computer and find their way out. It included clues PCs had to use so as to find the computer password. The fourth and last scenario had a time limit (60 minutes) and PCs had to rescue a fictitious character by exploring a city’s sewers and solving riddles before their time was up.

Figure 1 – Example of a team setup during a TRPG session

Figure 2. Sample map from the introductory scenario, ©Monte Cook Games, LLC.

Taking Stock of the Experiments

Both the observations carried out during the TRPG sessions and the results of the feedback questionnaire have shown that the management students who participated in these role-playing game activities were strongly engaged in them. They enjoyed this pedagogical activity and found it relevant for the development of their English language skills (Tables 1 and 2).^[8]

Table 1 – Results from anonymous questionnaires – Summary of scores (out of 4 points) for Level 1 of the Kirkpatrick training evaluation model covering the 3 years of experiments, 165 valid questionnaires, 92.7% response rate

Table 2 – Results from anonymous questionnaires – 2022 experiments (characteristics taken from the first two levels of the Kirkpatrick training evaluation model, i.e., reaction and learning)

 However, some students felt that this activity did not really help them significantly improve their English language skills (Table 2). This is partly due to the fact that there is no real-time feedback during the actual TRPG activities, so as not to interrupt the students during their game. Moreover, the students who were less fluent in English prior to the experiment sometimes found it difficult to keep speaking English for the duration of the game and were tempted to fall back on French when they encountered communication difficulties. One potential solution would be to support these students more by giving them some additional linguistic tools before the game.

As regards the online sessions during the 2020-2021 academic year, which were implemented using a videoconferencing application and involved virtual dice rolling, they resulted in strong student engagement that was similar to the level of engagement found in face-to-face sessions, though slightly lower (Table 1).^[9]

In terms of linguistic skills, the evolution of students’ levels of ability was more difficult to gauge as this would have required the administration of a diagnostic test before the first TRPG session and a second test after the final TRPG session, including knowledge and competences practised during the different TRPG scenarios, which were played in various ways by the different teams of students. Moreover, the limited number of TRPG sessions (4 per group on average) was not likely to have a significant impact on the students’ level of fluency. However, we included questions about linguistic skills in the feedback questionnaire and were able to identify the skills which students felt they had practised the most during the experiment. The results showed that the sessions were useful for students to practise their oral pragmatic skills, around communication, action-oriented communication (reaching an objective, getting things done) and interactions as well as practising specific vocabulary, less so for grammar and writing skills.

During the 2021-2022 academic year, we asked students to fill in self-assessment forms both before the first TRPG session and after the last one, in order to complement the feedback questionnaires. We identified two pragmatic competencies from the CEFR^[10] which the experiments were likely to foster, i.e., “flexibility” (adapting language to new situations) and “propositional precision” (explaining something in detail), which together contribute to “fluency” (being at ease speaking spontaneously and over extended periods). Based on the results from the two self-assessment forms, most of the students were convinced that their competence in those two pragmatic areas had improved, more so in “precision” than “flexibility” however.

In terms of the effectiveness of these TRPG activities for different types of learners, we observed that level of ability in English was not the only factor. For example, some less advanced students were really motivated by these game-based activities and were thus active despite their difficulties in English whereas others found it too daunting to communicate in English for such an extended period of time. At the other end of the ability spectrum, some advanced students were not taken in with the playful dimension of the activities and did not participate as much as could have been expected based on their fluency. Nevertheless, as already mentioned, the majority of participating students found the TRPG activities motivating as they gave them more opportunities to be creative in their interactions in English than other more structured class activities.

Conclusion

 Our TRPG experiments clearly show that such a game-based approach is relevant for students of management and potentially other students in applied modern languages programmes such as LEA. This is a way of reinforcing students’ autonomy in oral communication and interactions as well as their creativity. Most students would have liked more time to be devoted to game-based sessions. This could either be achieved by increasing the number of role-playing game sessions within business English courses or by introducing similar activities into management courses such as intercultural management. One could also design an interdisciplinary role-playing game project based on management skills and business English communication. Lastly, other types of game-based activities could be introduced for first- and second-year Bachelor’s degree students that would not require a game master and would thus be more suitable for students less comfortable in oral English communication. We have actually started experimenting the use of detective board games, which integrate more reading activities than TRPGs and allow students to work as a team in order to solve a given conundrum or crime investigation.

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NOTES

^[1] EdUTeam Project website: [https://eduteam.fr/].

^[2] COUNCIL OF EUROPE, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, [http://www.coe.int/lang-cefr]; Laurent PERROT, Kathleen JULIÉ, Enseigner l’anglais, Vanves: Hachette Éducation, 2017.

^[3] Patricia FOURNIER-NOËL, Philippe LÉPINARD and Odile SOLNIK, “Enseigner l’anglais grâce aux jeux de rôle sur table : le cas de la mise en œuvre de la pédagogie actionnelle en école universitaire de management”, 4^e colloque international Game Evolution, online, 2020.

^[4] James D. KIRKPATRICK, Wendy Kayser KIRKPATRICK, Four Levels of Training Evaluation, Alexandria: ATD Press, 2016.

^[5] Josée VAQUIÉRI, “Le jeu de rôle en cours de langues”, Forum des initiatives pédagogiques, 2018, [https://amupod.univ-amu.fr/video/1712-josee-vaquieri-le-jeu-de-role-en-cours-de-langues/]; Josée VAQUIÉRI, “Le jeu de rôle”, AMUpod, 2019, [https://amupod.univ-amu.fr/video/2569-joseevaquieri-le-jeu-de-role/].

^[6] Philippe LÉPINARD, Josée VAQUIÉRI, “Le jeu de rôle sur table dans l’enseignement supérieur”, 3ème colloque international Game Evolution, Créteil, 2019.

^[7] See presentation of fantasy TRPG “The Strange”: [http://www.legrog.org/jeux/strange/strange-en]; Bruce R. CORDELL and MONTE COOK, The Strange: Player’s Guide, Monte Cook Games, LLC, 2014.

^[8] Patricia FOURNIER-NOËL, Philippe LÉPINARD and Odile SOLNIK, “Mise en œuvre de jeux de rôle sur table dans l’enseignement de l’anglais en école universitaire de management : Synthèse préliminaire du projet EdUTeam JDR après trois années d’expérimentation”, 6e Colloque International Game Evolution, online, 2022.

^[9] Patricia FOURNIER-NOËL, Philippe LÉPINARD and Odile SOLNIK, “De la table physique à la table virtuelle : mise en œuvre du jeu de rôle à distance dans l’enseignement de l’anglais”, 5e Colloque International Game Evolution, online, 2021.

^[10] COUNCIL OF EUROPE, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment – Companion volume, Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, 2020, [www.coe.int/lang-cefr].

Patricia FOURNIER-NOËL

Associate Professor in English, Univ Paris Est Créteil, IMAGER, F-94010 Créteil, France

patricia.noe l@ u-pec.fr

Philippe LÉPINARD

Associate Professor in Management Information Systems, Univ Paris Est Créteil, IRG, F-94010 Créteil, France

philippe.lepinard @ u-pec.fr

Odile SOLNIK

Senior Lecturer in English, Univ Paris Est Créteil, IRG, F-94010 Créteil, France

odile.solnik @ u-pec.fr