The game of goose is a classic board game. Ours is an educational version: it serves as a pathway for an oral expression exercise in French. And it is one of the new free educational resources that we offer on our Free Resources in French page.

How can we encourage speaking in French? How can we encourage everyone to speak in front of the other members of the group? Games can be a big help when learning languages:

• it promotes a playful, relaxed atmosphere that has a positive influence on the fear of making mistakes and speaking in public, which often paralyses beginners.
• the random nature of the dice game gives everyone the same chance of “landing” on a question they know the answer to, whether they feel comfortable with it or not.
• the game helps to energise a virtual classroom, which can otherwise quickly discourage those who are not participating.

Genially: the advantages of remote board games

We all know that Snakes and Ladders and other board games create a festive, relaxed atmosphere.

Genially had the brilliant idea (unintentional repetition) of adapting it for online use. Personally, I adapted it for use in French as a foreign language classes.

This game is a free resource available on our page Free resources in French. Like all our free educational resources, it is published under Creative Commons licence.

In this game, I created the dice using Genially's new ‘Widget’ feature. This feature allows you to integrate preconfigured objects into your media. These can be:

• a dice like this one
• a timer
• a stopwatch
• cards
• a carousel
• etc.

Simply click on the image of the dice to activate it: you will hear the sound of dice being thrown onto a board while the dice ‘rolls’. When the dice stops on a number, you can move one of the four pawns along the board. Each square on the board is interactive: by placing the cursor on a square, you can display its content, i.e. the question asked to the player:

• what is your favourite animal?
• can you describe your house to me?
• what is your parents name?
• etc.

I have used this course in class with migrants learning French as a foreign language, and I can attest to the dynamic atmosphere created by the game.

A board game that can be played remotely

This isn't the first time I've mentioned Genially on this blog: we even have a page dedicated to resources created with this site in our free resources.

But the new version also allows you to play remotely. This is a ‘beta’ feature, so it is still in the public testing phase. But it looks promising.

To activate it, click on the ‘Present’ link and then on ‘Live’.

This will open a new window displaying a QR code and a link to invite participants to the game. Then click on the ‘Start’ button and play!

At the end of the game, the results are recorded.

If you have also tried this new feature, please let us know in the comments below.😉

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