With the consistent popularity of and research regarding games and game play, the educational strategy now known as “gamification” has come more into focus. “Gamified” study tools have begun to populate the market but these tools are almost all designed for solo use. Many pre-existing language learning strategies, and indeed language itself, center around group interaction and are thus less compatible with single player study tools.
A study was performed to isolate the variable of group play (multiplayer) in a game based language learning environment. Those participants who reported that they enjoyed the multiplayer game sessions more than the singleplayer session or thought them to be more effective at conveying new grammar displayed a distinct set of characteristics. Namely, these players were regularly more eager to seek out the opinion of others, offer their own opinion, and generally be outgoing. Those who reported the singleplayer sessions to be more enjoyable were regularly more focused on the game elements and less likely to participate in group discussions relating to the language exercises within the game. This suggests that while multiplayer, gamified tools can be effective, they require a certain type of learner or a great deal of intentional design to cater to those who do not naturally gravitate towards such learning styles.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:masters_theses_2-1413 |
| Date | 07 November 2016 |
| Creators | Baylis, Craig |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Masters Theses |
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