How to Help Students Learn French Vocabulary With Magimot

Magimot is a game that adds a touch of magic to the task of learning French vocabulary. The more words the student spells correctly, the more gold coins they collect. They can then use the coins to buy magical powers so they can cast spells on monsters.

Why use Magimot in your classroom? There are many advantages: 

• You can use the word lists in a variety of ways: 
  • Your students can personalize their lists by choosing from a bank of over 10 000 words to practise the ones they have the most trouble with.
  • You can refer your students to Alloprof’s codes for preset vocabulary lists, organized by theme and grade level. 
  • You can even generate your own word lists with codes to help students review the week’s vocabulary words. 
• The game’s visuals are designed to stimulate engagement and motivation, and there are several worlds for children to explore. 
• Magimot even adapts to special occasions, with new festive worlds to discover at certain times of the year, inspired by the tunnels in the game Potager en péril.

Magimot is aimed primarily at elementary students in Grades 2 to 6, but can be used at any age to learn or practise spelling words. It can be used in conjunction with the interactive French vocabulary exercise, as the same word lists can be used in both learning resources. 

After selecting their word list, the student is ready to start the game. As soon as the game starts, the player needs to pay attention to the word being pronounced, so they can spell it correctly. The bad guys keep attacking while the player thinks and move faster or slower depending on the chosen difficulty level. For example, if the child’s typing skills are less developed, they can select the easy level. That way the enemies will advance more slowly, which gives the player time to finish typing the word and prevents frustration. 

Whether or not the word has been spelled correctly, the game pauses and gives feedback to the player. If they make a mistake, the game will show the correct spelling of the word, so that the user can take the time they need to read the correct answer and learn. Magimot is also designed so that words the student misses are repeated more often, giving them a chance to work through their challenges until they succeed. 

The game can be played on several platforms: On a computer via the Alloprof website, or on tablets and cellphones via the Magimot application.

In addition to creating personalized lists to help your students study their French vocabulary words, you can easily use Magimot in the classroom, whether your students play as a large group, in teams, or independently. Here are a few ideas you can try: 

• If your students are reluctant to work on their vocabulary and have never played Magimot, demonstrate how to play it for your class. Who knows? Maybe they will be tempted to try it too! 
• Why not try playing together as a class? Put one student in charge of typing and ask the others to take turns spelling the words. Try setting the difficulty to an easier level at first to build their confidence! 
• If you have a computer lab or several tablets, you can schedule a play period dedicated to Magimot! Walk around the classroom to look at your students’ game summary screens. At a glance, you will be able to see which words your class is struggling with the most. 
• Encourage your students to play at home and talk to their parents about Magimot—it will be screen time well spent. To add another element of fun, ask your students to write down or take a screenshot of the words they find easiest and those they have the most difficulty with. At the end of the week, compile the results and make a class vocabulary chart, exploring together why some words are harder to learn than others.