Game-based approach and language learning: theoretical cornerstones and didactic benefits, A research project on EFL for ten children in the concrete operational stage of cognitive development.

This thesis aims to show the importance of visual support in the process of acquisition of abstract words in foreign language, in the case of the present study in English as a foreign language (EFL). Word-image associations make the learning process of learning new terms more effective and more consistent in terms of long-term retention. As being experimental, this thesis proposes some field research; since ten Italian children aged 9 to 11 studying English have been involved. The children have been divided in two groups; each group had therefore five components. One group have been presented new English abstract words accompanied by images, while the other one have been presented the new English terms without the visual support. The pictures have been taken from the board game “Dixit”, since they are very evocative and open up to possible interpretations by the children. The results show differences between the two groups, in particular in learning the new English words and in their long-term retention. This research is fundamentally focused on the main learning theories, especially cognitivism, and on the personal and didactic benefits of the game-based approach in language learning.