Abstract: Learning difficulties and inappropriate and disruptive behaviors in the classroom are today the main risk factors for students’ exclusion from school. The ongoing investigation aims to contribute to the consolidation of empirical knowledge in the area of digital games with regard to the analysis of behavioral, affective and cognitive involvement of students at risk from the experiential perspective of interacting with digital games in a collaborative English language learning environment at an elementary level. The study integrates action research as a methodology and involves 21 students at risk belonging to the 9th grade in a junior high school in Portugal and takes place in a school library for a period of 3 months. Following the interaction with digital games oriented to learning in the school library, the researcher interacts with all students in class to get to know the aspects of the game that they liked the most, what they felt during the game and explanatory reasons, the students’ perceptions about the lessons learned and the factors that favored or hindered learning.

The study collects empirical data from students, incorporating their collective responses to those questions and subsequent analysis and in particular it provides an analytical view of the self-regulating component of learning through effort and persistence, as well as the components of attention, concentration and absorption in promoting student behavioral involvement and positive emotions of pleasure, satisfaction, interest and enthusiasm in stimulating emotional involvement. The study also focuses on the analysis of English language learning activities carried out with digital game applications, particularly oriented to the teaching-learning process, formulated in the practice of collaborative oral interaction, recommending the training of grammatical structures, training in argumentative writing and vocabulary training. The study also explores the role of self-efficacy and its motivational effect in developing the abilities of the student at risk. Finally, the study addresses the role of digital games in the development of feelings of school relatedness, stimulated by the bonds of intrasocial affective relationship between teacher-student and peers, aiming at promoting inclusion, self-efficacy and improvement of learning, and constituting itself as protective mechanisms of school exclusion phenomena.

Key words: experiences with digital games, behavioral, affective and cognitive engagement, self-efficacy, school relatedness, self-regulation, emotion, oral interaction, inclusion