Regardless of the discipline you teach, chances are that at one moment or another, your questions have been met with students giving you the blank stare. This challenge is especially present in language learning, where proficiency is developed through repeated risk-taking and practice. This led me to become interested in the concept of “deliberate play,” a pedagogical strategy adapted from the evidence-based “deliberate practice” model of skill development.
Because play is a strategic way for students to take the necessary risks in a context that feels less threatening, it has the potential to transform learning into a more engaging, effective, and enjoyable process. In this article, I explain what deliberate play is and how I integrated it in my English as a second language (ESL) course—with a little help from AI.
Understanding deliberate practice and play
Deliberate practice, a concept popularized by researchers like Karl Anders Ericsson and, more recently, Malcolm Gladwell, is defined as “the individualized training activities specially designed by a coach or teacher to improve specific aspects of an individual’s performance through repetition and successive refinement.”
It involves focused, structured repetition of tasks with the aim of mastering a specific skill. In other words, to make it highly effective for skill acquisition in fields ranging from music to sports, this evidence-based approach focuses on extrinsic motivation in the form of a specific, measurable goal. It is underpinned by:
- clear goals
- high levels of task-based effort
- immediate feedback
Deliberate play, a concept that has begun to gain traction in educational circles, harnesses the benefits of deliberate practice while emphasizing a more intrinsic, enjoyment-driven learning experience. It allows learners to experiment, explore, and engage with content in a low-stress environment that encourages creativity and risk-taking.
In the words of Adam Grant: “Deliberate play is the combination of practice and play, where you take the skill you’re trying to build, break it down into core elements, and make those elements fun.” Put differently, while still being focused on specific learning outcomes (this is the “deliberate” part), it:
- focuses more on the process than the result
- encourages students to learn from holistic experiences
- foregoes the immediate pressure of correctness
The following table summarizes the key components of deliberate practice and deliberate play:
| Feature | Deliberate Practice | Deliberate Play |
| Outcomes | Improving performance in a skill | Improving learning of a skill |
| Nature | Highly structured with specific, measurable goals | Based on flexible rules to allow for creativity |
| Motivation | Extrinsic: individuals invest effort and concentration, which is demanding | Intrinsic: individuals engage in play because they find it enjoyable |
| Mistakes | Mistakes are closely scrutinized to identify areas for improvement | Mistakes are low-stakes, part of the fun and learning opportunities |
| Feedback | Formal feedback is provided by an instructor | Informal feedback comes from the activity itself |
Deliberate play in ESL
Mandatory ESL courses in General Education often face the challenge of maintaining student engagement and motivation. The acquisition of grammar and vocabulary based on rules and memorization can lead to disengagement, alienate learners and hinder their ability to use the language creatively and confidently.
Deliberate play addresses these issues by incorporating elements of fun and creativity, fostering both cognitive and emotional engagement, making learning more appealing and authentic, and less daunting for students. While this applies to all courses and disciplines, for ESL learners specifically, this means:
- learning and understanding specific language structures (deliberate)
- using them in meaningful, enjoyable ways that resonate with them (play)
Benefits of deliberate play
The benefits of incorporating deliberate play into ESL teaching are multifaceted:
- Enhanced motivation and engagement
Making learning playful reduces anxiety and fear of failure, which are significant barriers to language acquisition. - Improved language skills
By engaging in diverse communicative contexts, students can improve their fluency and grasp of the language. - Increased creativity and flexibilityDeliberate play encourages out-of-the-box thinking, which is crucial for language learners to adapt the use of new vocabulary and grammatical structures across different communicative contexts.
Designing and implementing deliberate play activities
While the benefits of deliberate play are clear, there are challenges to its implementation. Teachers need to carefully design activities that align with learning objectives while ensuring that they are both educational and engaging.
Incorporating deliberate play into the ESL classroom can take various forms, depending on the objectives and the learning environment. But, as Adam Grant points out, deliberate play is not always about playing games and is not equal to gamification: “Deliberate play is about actually changing the learning or the practice itself to make it enjoyable, as opposed to just adding some features that try to trick you into enjoying it.”
Deliberate play activities include:
- Role-playing scenarios and simulations (e.g., students prepare and act out skits representing how they envision their field in 2050)
- Creative storytelling (e.g., students take photos around the campus or neighbourhood and then describe them using vivid adjectives and verbs)
- Problem-solving tasks (e.g., students need to interact using past tenses to gain the necessary information to resolve an enigma in a pedagogical escape room)
Need some inspiration? Have a great idea but lack the time to execute it? Generative artificial intelligence (AI) can help!
