Résumé:
Communicative competence is considered crucial in social and academic contexts in general,
and in foreign language learning in particular. However, due to the lack of sufficient
opportunities for practical applications, many EFL students encounter serious difficulties and
challenges to enhance their communicative competence. Therefore, EFL teachers have to be
aware about how to improve such fundamental students’ needs. The present research aims to
investigate the impact of communicative games on EFL students’ communicative competence
in oral expression classes. It is then hypothesized that the implementation of well -designed
games in EFL oral classes may develop EFL students’ communicative competence. In order to
achieve the research aim, answer research questions, and test hypothesis, a mixed method
research was adopted. More precisely, a questionnaire was administered to collect data from
twenty oral expression teachers at the Department of Letters and English Language, University
of 08 Mai 1945, Guelma. In addition to students’ classroom observation of two groups of Firstyear LMD level in oral expression classes for the academic year 2023/2024. Based on the
interpretation and the analysis of the results, the hypothesis is confirmed and revealed the
positive impact of gamification on EFL students’ communicative competence. Moreover,
teachers have positive attitudes towards the use of games on the improvement of
communicative competence of their students. The assessment of students’ communicative
competence before and after the use of games proves that this technique has a positive effect
on their communicative competence. It is then highly suggested that oral expression teachers
should incorporate games as an engaging teaching strategy or technique into their course
content.
