Boosting language learning motivation in tertiary students through gamification in the GenAI age

This presentation reports on the effects of an online language game designed to motivate students in their language learning. With the emergence of GenAI, some students perceive a reduced necessity for fundamental language training. To address this issue, language teachers need to enhance student motivation in language learning and integrate language training into their curricula. Data for the reported study was gathered from a critical thinking course at a major university in Hong Kong. The course required that students complete a 10-module online language game consisting of six contextualized cohesive sentences. Students who successfully completed the modules received 5% of the course mark. Each module was timed, and the names of the students with the top 10 average completion times were displayed on a constantly updated leaderboard. Results from a student survey and a focus group interview at the end of the semester indicate that a majority of students found the game both engaging and useful for reviewing grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure. Completion rates and repeated attempt rates, based on data analytics, were also relatively high.