The effect of gamification on English language anxiety and grammar achievement

The contrasting nature of English language proficiency test which has been regarded to be anxiety-provoking by most students in English proficiency test preparation classes and the digital games which have successfully appealed and stimulated the players for the fun, pleasure and entertainment they offer has inpired the researcher to investigate the possibility of integrating the digital game concept into the non-game context which is called gamification (Deterding et al., 2011) to reduce the students’ foreign language anxiety. This gamification intervention is aligned with one of five points suggested by Young (1990) for reducing the students’ anxiety in the classroom--playing language games with emphasis on problem solving-- which would fit the nature of English proficiency test preparation class that have more focus on solving the test problems. This quasi-experimental non-randomized pretest-posttest research design was conducted in two English proficiency test preparation classes to see the effect of gamified activities on the students’ foreign language anxiety and grammar performance which resulted in positive outcomes that gamified grammar activities have a significant effect on the students’ foreign language anxiety and grammar performance