Deceptive Diplomacy

Abstract

In this master's thesis, I have implemented and developed a scenario-based role-playing game, Deceptive Diplomacy (DD), where the aim is to promote verbal communication skills and especially oral production of language among ninth and tenth graders. The rationale for the study is the importance of English communication skills in a realistic context. Furthermore, the Norwegian curriculum shows varied working methods for communication and learning communicative competence which motivated the study. Taking the principles of communicative language teaching (CLT) as a starting point, the task aims to create engaging and educational moments.

The aim of the thesis is to investigate the research questions:

To what extent does DD facilitate students’ English language production? How do the scenarios in Deceptive Diplomacy engage students to interact in English with their peers?

With this, theoretical framing and previous research on communicative competence, CLT, oral production, gamification, role-playing and engagement and motivation were used. The strategy for implementing DD was to create low-risk environments for oral production, and use principles of game thinking and role-playing The data collection methods I used were observation, video filming, audio-recording and interviews with teachers and pupils. This was approved in advance by Sikt and was further guided by the ethical considerations and principles involved in educational design research. When analyzing my data I used thematic analyses, I created categories: oral production, game design, engagement and role-playing, which enabled a comprehensive understanding of the data and what implications it had for my research question.

The findings from the study indicated that DD helped by offering opportunities to practice the production of English, and student engagement through realistic scenarios and game-like elements.

Keywords: Oral production, Gamification, Low-risk, Engagement and Game design