Ling, L. T. (2018, June).

Meaningful gamification and students' motivation: A strategy for

scaffolding reading material. Online Learning, 22, 141-155.

Research Questions

What the impact of meaningful gaming on students’ motivation in a higher education setting?

Participants

The participants were students at NUS who were in their first year of study.

Students were from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India and Thailand. The ratio of

male to female students was about 3:1. Ages ranged from 19-25.

Research Design/Procedures

A gaming module was created in conjunction with material that was covered in class. Students

would play a game connected to certain things they were expected to cover in class.

Pretests were administered before every use of the game to assure that the material covered by

the game was new to them. A posttest was also administered after the study to test the students’

knowledge of certain grammar principles. After playing the game the participants would fill out

questionnaires to describe their enjoyment, interest, tension and stress regarding the use of the

game. The quantitative and qualitative data was collected and then analyzed and the responses

were grouped into different categories and rated on their level of intensity.

Results

The majority of participants stated for the most part that they found the game fun and engaging.

They also said that they found the game more interesting than taking a traditional quiz.

Many participants also stated that their understanding of the reading improved after playing the

game, particularly in clearing up misconceptions that they had. There was a strong correlation
between being engaged in the material and comprehension. This was evident from comparing

how the students rated their interest in the gamification to their scores of comprehension.

Discussion

Student not only expressed interest excitement and confidence with their gaming experience they

also felt they experience an increase in competence after playing the game. From the results of

the surveys the conclusion could be made that gamification does indeed increase the motivation

of students when learning a language.

Critique

I felt while I read this article that they were not upfront with the number of participants that they

had in the study. Often when dealing with qualitative data is common not to have as many

participants when compared to quantitative studies but I would have expected it to have been

better stated the number of participants in the study. I feel that this type of research could be very

important to teachers teaching foreign language. If gamification increasing the motivation and

interest of students then of course teachers would love it. The concern I have is if teachers would

be able to replicate the same type of gamification that was used in this study. It might be

complicated for them to do so. Unless they received permission to utilize the same program that

was used in this study, they would have to create their own program to mimic the platform. This

would be very difficult and time consuming. Teachers would need to focus on how to implement

gamification in their own way in their own classroom. However, it would reduce the likelihood

of them producing the same results. Additional studies would need to be performed to test the

effects of different types of gamification and its impact on students in the classroom.