Gamification as technology enabler in SEN and DHH education

Yearly in Mauritius, only a few Special Educational Needs (SEN) and especially Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) students manage to get a passing mark in French language at elementary level. As at date, literature suggests that there is hardly any French language learning tools connected with pedagogical knowledge and technological tools suitable for those children. The rationale behind this paper is to show how gamification of French learning resources can positively affect SEN and especially DHH students' understanding and level of achievement in the language. Research questions were posed about the difficulties faced when students of that specific group learn to read and write in French, about how the gamification of textual resources can be used to improve the students' learning, and the impact the games have on the students. The aim of this research is to embed gamification in the teaching and learning process of French language. Advocating for both qualitative and quantitative methods, the project based itself on the pragmatic paradigm while the theoretical framework is based on action research. Using my methodological inventiveness, data was gathered using techniques such as surveys, interviews, observations and focus group discussions through the lenses of narrative inquiry. On average, most students already did quite well when subjected to their teachers' teaching methods only and showed a slight improvement for some students when games were added as learning aid.