Lasallian success at the first edition of the CGE Awards for Pedagogical Innovation! The "Escape in Language Classes" project, developed by Beate Muzard with the help of Jan Mertens, a teacher at ESSEC, and Zandokán Villareal, author of the Spanish translation, won the "Coup de Coeur" award in the "Gamification" category.

Beate Muzard, a teacher and coordinator of the LV2 program at UniLaSalle, developed this linguistic escape game to facilitate the revision of concepts and vocabulary learned in class throughout the semester. "Escape games allow us to introduce vocabulary and grammar concepts in a different way," explains Beate. "We found that skills like cooperation and stress management pushed students to understand the importance of communication within the group and allowed for the inclusion of students who were usually on the fringe of the language group."

The concept? A good scenario which, by putting it in context, allows students to mobilize vocabulary through one or more themes, a few QR codes giving access to exercises to solve and a code to find to open the safe which will allow them to retrieve the keys opening the classroom.

Through this innovative pedagogical project, the teacher also intends to dust off language learning, which still too often remains in the classic scheme of "teacher facing his learners, lists of words to be learned each week, control", a method that is sometimes decontextualized and without any real usefulness perceived by the students.

For Beate Muzard, "the fact of testing one's knowledge in a group with a reward such as a "treasure" or a key to get out of the room and be released creates a contagious enthusiasm in the group for the success of all. Students forget about being in class and help each other. The acquisition of vocabulary, grammar, or other language skills is similar to traditional review, but creates more enthusiasm and therefore a more favorable anchor for long-term success."

Our congratulations to Beate Muzard for this award, which recognizes the efforts made by UniLaSalle's teaching teams in terms of pedagogical innovation, as well as to the 7 other winners.