Yearly in Mauritius, only a few Special Educational Needs (SEN) and especially Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) students manage to get a passing mark in French language at elementary level. As at date, literature suggests that there is hardly any French language learning tools connected with pedagogical knowledge and technological tools suitable for those children. The rationale behind this paper is to show how gamification of French learning resources can positively affect SEN and especially DHH students' understanding and level of achievement in the language. Research questions were posed about the difficulties faced when students of that specific group learn to read and write in French, about how the gamification of textual resources can be used to improve the students' learning, and the impact the games have on the students. The aim of this research is to embed gamification in the teaching and learning process of French language. Advocating for both qualitative and quantitative methods, the project based itself on the pragmatic paradigm while the theoretical framework is based on action research. Using my methodological inventiveness, data was gathered using techniques such as surveys, interviews, observations and focus group discussions through the lenses of narrative inquiry. On average, most students already did quite well when subjected to their teachers' teaching methods only and showed a slight improvement for some students when games were added as learning aid.

For over 30 years, literacy has been recognized as a key concern in Special Education Needs (SEN) and especially in Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) education. No different in Mauritius, these children struggle to get passing marks in French language at elementary level. Addressing this concern, literature has been reviewed in the context of games for SEN and DHH education. Taking advantage of the potential of gamification, simple letter games have been developed using LiveCode. The games were administered to a sample of 14 SEN and DHH elementary students using the underlying action research theoretical framework. To assess the effectiveness of the games, the students' level of motivation after using the games was measured using the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS) based on Keller's (2010) ARCS motivation model. The results demonstrated the potential of using LiveCode to develop timely serious games to support SEN and DHH students' literacy skills.