In a period of the continuous development and changes in the educational sphere, teachers, mentors and lecturers are constantly searching for new methods of teaching a particular material and means of their implementation in practice, in particular if lessons take place in an online format. This also applies to the selection, application and introduction on a permanent basis of new digital tools and resources into the educational process in universities, including within the teaching of future philologists. Since students, whose education is closely related to the study of the language itself, its features, history and stages of development, the linguistic and cultural communities, literature written in this language and many other aspects, receive professionally oriented knowledge and form their hard skills daily, a modern lecturer needs to have a number of tasks in their professional arsenal. A branching scenario is one of such digital tools, and if successfully incorporated during a double period or through students' independent work hours, it can be both an interesting and useful exercise meant for practicing, revising, or even testing the knowledge of university students.
Branching scenarios are interactive forms of learning that involve questions or situations with branching options [1; 2], where each subsequent link depends on the student's answer or choice of option. They are somewhat reminiscent of a maze or parallel worlds, depending on the type, in which students use their knowledge to pave their way to the finish line. The gamification element makes this task less intimidating and serious and allows students to feel less stressed, and therefore read the terms of each block or each subsequent question carefully and think with a level mind. The scenario resembles a certain simulation [2], but is based on real teaching/ learning material and is aimed at developing and training the necessary micro and macro skills. In addition to the fact that this task can be used for theoretical disciplines, it can also be successfully implemented in a practical discipline teaching, in particular in a foreign language and its basic aspects. For example, a branching scenario can be organically incorporated into a topic on phonetics or speech practice in English, stay interactive but serve different purposes at the same time. Further on, I offer to consider the features and benefits of using a branching scenario in the abovementioned aspects using an English program for first-year students of the School of Foreign Languages as an example.
One of the topics offered to freshmen in Phonetics is “Sentence (post-lexical) stress and intonation patterns. Rising and falling tones”. Within its framework, students pay attention to the procedure of stressing and unstressing the main and additional elements in sentences, consider tone models and learn to understand the intentions of the message. Practice usually involves oral discussions; however, students can be offered tasks for self-study in the branching scenario format on an interactive platform chosen by the teacher as additional practice and revision. Genially is an example of such a platform, where the lecturers use a ready-made template and substitute their material or create a block of scenarios themselves. For instance, in one such scenario, students need to read a dialogue between two people (which is more difficult than analyzing oral speech due to the lack of intonation, tone, and pitch of the speakers to rely on) and recognize the message of the communication participants, hidden meanings, and ultimate goals of the conversation based on the emphasis placed in the sentences and the context. For each stage of the communicative situation, students are offered a part of the dialogue and a question to it with answer options. If they click on the wrong answer, the interactive platform directs them to a slide with a suggestion to return to the question and think about the situation again. Clicking on the correct answer takes students to the slide with the next question, and so on until they analyze the entire conversation.
Branching scenarios can also be used from a speech practice perspective as a preparatory stage for a presentation on a given topic. Instead of simply giving everyone the same topic for an oral presentation, students can be asked to take a survey where each subsequent question is reflected depending on the answer to the previous one, leading each student to a different topic for a speech at the end of the scenario. The requirements for the answer should remain the same while the answer topic is selected for the student based on their choices in the branching scenario, for instance: prepare a 2-minute description of a specific room in a specific type of house using at least 5 active vocabulary word-combinations on the topic "There is no place like home". Whether it is a kitchen or living room in a detached house or flat depends on the options that students have chosen in the preparatory task, including encountering active vocabulary in situations offered in the scenario and checking their understanding of the topic.
The lack of a time limit, the concise and clear interface of the platform, and the sequence of the task itself allow students to fully immerse themselves in the story or a survey, and, most importantly, use the acquired knowledge and skills on the topic in practice, during the task itself or afterwards during reflection. A branching scenario is not meant to be used as a main studying tool, however, if implemented in a clever way from time to time, it can help put students into fantasy or true-to-life situations tightly interwoven with the language learnt, boost their motivation to study and still incorporate the important elements of the taught material.
References
1. Branching Scenarios in Storyline: Layers or Slides? URL: https://christytuckerlearning.com/branching-scenarios-in-storyline-layers-or-slides/ (Last accessed: 24.03.2025).
2. How to create branching scenarios? Examples and templates! URL: https://www.iseazy.com/blog/how-to-create-branching-scenarios/ (Last accessed: 24.03.2025).
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