The Influence of Serious Games and Gamification in University Students of English as a Foreign Language

Many careers have changed since COVID-19 appeared. In education in particular, the use of ICT tools increased in quite a disorderly manner, and the expansion of these tools opened new opportunities to update the ways of teaching and learning. ICT tools have been used for a long time in education, but they have often been used just as support tools without any academic purpose and without achieving their full potential. If we focus on teaching foreign languages, ICT has given us the opportunity to see and experience other cultures, as well as to live experiences close to a real-life immersion, facilitating the understanding of the use of language and giving everyone a chance to learn in context. This does not only include videos or music; nowadays, we can use and connect many resources including videogames, social media, and blogs, among others. And here is where we can find great potential for development. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to present the plan for a doctoral thesis and its status, as well as some notes on the context, main motivation, literature, and methodology to be used for creating resources that help improve the 21st-century teaching and learning experience.