Escape Rooms in English for Specific Academic Purposes

Abstract

This chapter explores the theoretical underpinnings, advantages, and potential limitations of employing a game-informed educational escape room in an online learning environment. Drawing on the wealth of literature published thus far on the virtues of such active methodologies for second language learning pedagogical contexts, the author explores its viability for a transnational education context. A Sino-British transnational education partnership was chosen as the didactic setting in which the proposal is grounded with a specific focus on a preparatory ESAP pre-sessional course prior to the commencement of the cohort's final and postgraduate year at the partner institution. The details of the learning design have been provided together with a final critical discussion that aims to inspire like-minded teaching practitioners to adapt and reflect on what has been written and experiment in their own classrooms.