HE GILT! - Higher Education Games in Language Teaching Department of Languages, Cultures and Film
Learn more about HE GILT on this page. Discover the workshops we offer, as well as past and upcoming events, and listen to our podcast.
We offer:
- Interactive, specialist-led workshops on
- Ludo-pedagogy (language teaching through games)—available both in person at your institution and online
- Escape rooms for language teaching and learning
- Games for intercultural learning
- A welcoming space—both in our workshops and on Facebook—where educators can exchange ideas and strategies for using games in modern language teaching.
- The HE GILT! network shares practical game-based learning strategies through workshops designed for Higher Education, secondary schools, and informal language learning contexts.
- Our workshops explore the design of escape rooms and games that foster intercultural understanding.
Online workshops are supported by the University of Liverpool’s Centre for Innovation in Education (CiE).
If you have any questions or would like to host us to deliver a workshop at your institution, please email the organisers:
- Hanna Magedera: hofhansl@liverpool.ac.uk
- Dorit Fellner-Whitgreave: dorit.fellner@manchester.ac.uk.
Upcoming events
Autumn 2025
Escape Rooms in Language Teaching
2 September 2025
Games as the Key to Intercultural Communication. New developments and trends in Deutsch als Fremdsprache (DaF), at the 93rd Conference of the Association for German Studies (AGS), University of Oxford, 1-3 September 2025.
Past events
20 June 2025, Games as the key to unlocking intercultural competences, Interactive Workshop, University of Leicester (closed event).
14 May 2025, Escape Rooms in Language Teaching, University of Manchester. With Angélique Arts (King’s College London).
8 April 2025, Ludo-pedagogy, „Spielen ist lernen – es gheat afoch vü mehr g’spüt“. Online workshop for Lektor:innen and assistants of the OeAD Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation via the platform SpatialChat (closed event)
13 February 2025, Online workshop for XJTLU via the platform SpatialChat, supported by the DAAD German Academic Exchange Service and the University of Nottingham. Conducted in collaboration with Lena Nielinger (University of Liverpool), Lei Peng (University of Liverpool), and Jane Lowe (University of Nottingham).
14 September 2024, Workshop, “Games as the Key to Unlocking Intercultural Competences”, Multilingualism and the Anglosphere, XVII CercleS conference, Durham University.
6 September 2024, Online Workshop via the platform SpatialChat, University of Liverpool, 4 p.m. – 6 p.m., University of Liverpool, supported by the DAAD German Academic Exchange Service. Conducted in collaboration with Jane Lowe (University of Nottingham), and Tina Notthoff (University of Nottingham).
14 June 2024, Online Workshop via the platform SpatialChat, University of Liverpool. Conducted in collaboration with Jane Lowe (University of Nottingham), and Tina Notthoff (University of Nottingham).
16 April 2024, King’s College London (closed event)
7 November 2023, University of Nottingham, “Ahead of the Game”. Conducted in collaboration with Tina Notthoff (University of Nottingham), and Jane Lowe (University of Nottingham).
1 November 2023, University of Liverpool, “More than just a spiel”
28 April 2023, University of Manchester, “More than just a spiel”
2 November 2022, University of Liverpool, inauguration of “More than just a spiel”. In cooperation with CTELL Centre for Teaching Excellence in Language Learning at the University of Liverpool and DAAD UK.
About us
The concept of game workshops emerged in November 2022 when Dorit Fellner-Whitgreave (University of Manchester) and Hanna Magedera (University of Liverpool) sought an opportunity to exchange in-person ideas for language-teaching games after an overabundance of online activities during the lockdowns.
These workshops have been hosted at various higher education institutions across the United Kingdom, where participants learn about analogue and online games, try them out, and evaluate their effectiveness immediately.
At each workshop, the participants are encouraged to share ideas about games that they themselves have successfully deployed in the classroom and to contribute new ideas for playing or modifying existing games.
Handouts, incorporating insights from each seminar, are provided in both hard and digital copies, allowing participants to adapt games to their target language and learner needs while continuing to reflect on gaming practices. The handouts are primarily in English, though some games are available in German, French, and Mandarin Chinese.
We do not distribute handouts to non-attendees, as our experience shows that only games experienced firsthand in group settings are successfully implemented in foreign language classrooms.
Our applied gaming practice personalises game ideas for different levels from A1 to C2 according to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), and both Latin-script and non-Latin script, escape rooms and games for intercultural learning.
We warmly welcome your ideas and invitations to try out games, whether classic favourites or fresh new concepts.
Our podcast
Check out our first podcast on intercultural learning, titled "Play the game, feel the culture":
