The exploitation of social and immersionoriented game elements holds great promise to create interactive and immersive language learning opportunities.

Gamification, defined as the use of game elements in a non-gaming context (Deterding et al., 2011), has been increasingly implemented in education settings across the globe. This research is set against the backdrop of the sparked interest in using gamification to promote language learning in both industry and academia. Past studies have demonstrated the educational benefits of digital game-based learning on language education (Acquah & Katz, 2020). However, the full potential of gamification for language learning purposes remains unexploited. On top of that, no significant emphasis has been placed on teacher facilitation strategies for incorporating gamification in language education. This project aims to develop pedagogical strategies and practices of gamifying the teaching and learning of English language.   

Most current gamification studies focused on achievement-oriented game elements (e.g., points, badges, levels and leaderboards). So far, not much attention has been given to social (e.g., social discovery, social status and social networking) and immersion-oriented game elements (e.g., avatar, narrative and storytelling). The exploitation of social and immersionoriented game elements holds great promise to create interactive and immersive language learning opportunities. Building on the Principal Investigator’s previous studies, this project will develop a Collaborative Immersion-Oriented Gamified System (CIGS), a system that applies social and immersive game elements to support students’ cognitive, affective and social development.   

This two-year project will be conducted in out-of-class time in a junior secondary school in Hong Kong. Design-based research will be adopted, involving 2 iterative cycles (iteration A and B). The PI will establish partnership with secondary school teachers and undergraduate students to co-develop, implement, evaluate and refine the gamified system stage by stage. Three (iteration A) to four (iteration B) classes will be recruited and randomly assigned into either intervention classes using gamified systems or control class using a business-as-usual teaching approach. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be obtained from multiple sources to investigate how gamification influences students’ language learning performance, motivation (attitude, confidence and classroom anxiety), engagement (behavioural, cognitive and emotional engagement) and collaboration skills.  

This project will enrich the knowledge of game design elements and contribute to designing effective gamification-based interventions for English language learners. It will assist educators, researchers and industry developers in exploiting gamification for language learning purposes. For wider implementation, a set of gamification design principles, pedagogical strategies and context-aware practices of using gamification approach will be proposed.