Games that teachers play with the learners: language pedagogy in action

There is a common point of view that a game in language teaching is a method of learning referring to language didactics. However, there is some reason to believe that the game belongs to language pedagogy, which studies the conditions and ways of interaction between teachers and students, increasing the motivation of learning, as well as self-realization of participants in the educational process. Language pedagogy is an invisible aspect of teaching foreign languages. Unlike methods that consist of visible teaching techniques, language pedagogy uses deep strategies that are imperceptible on the surface running deeper. These deeper strategies are nothing but the moves in the pedagogical game that teachers and learners enter while interacting with each other during the lesson. The components of the game are "players", "goal", "obstacle", "moves" and "payoff¹. "Players", that is, teachers and learners, set goals, solve problems and make decisions, following the rules and violating them, using allowed or forbidden strategies, making successful or failing moves and, as a result, receiving or losing the payoff. The article attempts to show how the pedagogical game arises and develops in the teaching process. The study shows that progressive dynamics in teaching is possible only in the conditions of a pedagogical game involving the teacher and the learners. Without a challenging game, smooth sailing on the achieved "plateau" creates the appearance of learning.

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