| dc.description.abstract | In this era of globalization, English has become one of essential skills for International Communication, and speaking is considered the most difficult skill. In the traditional English teaching model, learners lack a practical environment to practice speaking, which leads to anxiety about speaking English, which in turn affects learners’ willingness to communicate with others. Therefore, more English-speaking practice channels and the use of different learning tools are needed.
In recent years many studies have used digital game-based learning to teach English speaking, increasing opportunities for learners practice speaking, making the learning process more interesting, and assisting learners to improve their learning motivation and learning effectiveness. In a digital game-based learning environment, the badge goals provided by the digital badge mechanism help enhance learners′ willingness to engage in learning activities. In the process of pursuing badge condition goals, learners can be given corresponding rewards when achieving different goals. Rewards and positive feedback can effectively make learners more immersed in learning activities. Although most literature shows that badge have the effect of motivating learners to continue learning, badges are not necessarily completely effective. They may weaken and lose their appeal over time. For the badge mechanism to be considered as a positive reinforcement, some research is beginning to use unexpected badges to add a sense of surprise to increase learners’ interest. Furthermore, a few studies have mentioned adding some unexpected badges to the expected badges, integrating the characteristics of the two badges, using the expected badges to conduct learners in goal setting, and adding unexpected badges to give surprises and stimulate learners′ curiosity, learning and exploration, prevent learners from studying for the sake of winning badges, and at the same time assist learners to achieve their goals and improve learning effectiveness. In addition, referring to the concept of ＂Metabadges＂ proposed by McGuire and Kampf (2015), a new unexpected multiple task badges mechanism with higher obtain conditions is added to the digital badge system, which is given to learners when they obtain badges with different task conditions, and the design considers incorporating incremental ＂sub-badges＂ to increase the difficulty level and sense of surprise of unexpected badges. Learners can only complete multiple task badges after completing the conditions of two expected badges tasks at the same time and receiving badges. Goals allow learners to demonstrate more complex learning and gaming skills, motivating and guiding them to achieve advanced learning goals.
However, not all learners are suitable for digital game-based learning mechanisms, because individual differences will affect learners’ performances in the learning process. Therefore, individual differences of learners must be considered, and anxiety is one of the important factors that affects the effectiveness of foreign language learning, because anxiety may be a factor of students rejecting foreign languages. In the past, studies related to English anxiety have mostly focused on exploring the impact on learners’ anxiety. Few studies have set anxiety as an independent variable and considered examining individual differences in learners’ anxiety in the context of digital game-based learning. Therefore, this study develops a game-based learning system ＂Legendary Island Adventure＂ that combines online role-playing with English speaking. It combines the elements of expected and unexpected badges and multiple task badges to explore the use of game-based English speaking learning environments that incorporate the unexpected badges mechanism, its impact on the learning performance, game performance, willingness to communicate and behavioral patterns of learners with different English anxiety levels and the correlation of each variable.
There were 70 learners in this study. Based on the average results of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale filled out by the learners, the learners were divided into 39 learners with high English anxiety and 31 learners with low English anxiety. The research tools included English speaking ability test, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, Willingness to Communicate Scale and system log files. According to the experimental results of this study, the main findings of the impact of learners with different levels of English anxiety in a game-based English speaking learning environment that incorporates the unexpected badges mechanism are as follows: (1) In terms of the effectiveness of English speaking learning , learners with different levels of English anxiety had made significant progress after using the English speaking learning system that incorporates the unexpected badges mechanism; and from the comparison between groups, in the pre-test of example sentences, learners with low English anxiety were significantly better than learners with high English anxiety, but there was no significant difference in the post-test and progress scores. (2) In terms of game effectiveness, since low English anxiety learners had higher English proficiency, in the game effectiveness of the learning category and the learning-related parts, low English anxiety learners were better than high English anxiety learners. For example, the number of completed learning challenge tasks and the number of times with an accuracy reach 90%, the game level, the number of hidden badges and the total number of badges in the badges category, etc. (3) In terms of willingness to communicate, both groups of learners showed significant progress after using the English-speaking learning system. From the comparison between the groups, the learners with low English anxiety before and after using the system showed significant improvement, the willingness to communicate was greater than learners with high English anxiety, but the improvement in communication willingness of learners with high English anxiety was greater than that of learners with low English anxiety. (4) In terms of behavior patterns, the behavior transfers of the two groups were roughly the same, and the total number of behavior transfers is also similar, high-anxiety learners had more learning-type behavior transfers, and low-anxiety learners had more auxiliary behavior transfers. (5) In terms of correlation analysis, there was a positive correlation between learning effectiveness and learners with different levels of English anxiety. However, in terms of willingness to communicate, there was a positive correlation between the communication willingness of high English anxiety learners and learning effectiveness, while for low English anxiety learners there was no significant correlation between the learners′ willingness to communicate and learning effectiveness.
The results of this study will be helpful for researchers who combine digital game-based learning with English speaking learning and add unexpected badges mechanisms to explore learners with different levels of English anxiety and provide future research directions. In addition, the system developed in this study can also be provided for future teachers to apply different badges mechanisms in different teaching environments. | en_US |