Abstract

Judging from what has been said about the lack of motivation or interest and the poor academic performance of ESL students, the need for new effective and efficient teaching methods has become a priority. This research study seeks to explore the impact of implementing a gamified instructional design on ESL students’ motivation and engagement. A convenience sample of 8 grade 10 ESL high school students participated in the study. An online gamified program called Classcraft was selected as the main study platform for its potential to allow the participants to experience gamification elements such as rewards, challenges, points and the sharing of their progress online. A mixed methods approach was used where quantitative and qualitative data were collected, analyzed separately and then merged in discussion and interpretation. The quantitative component of this study consisted of survey questionnaires administered before and after the gamified intervention. The qualitative component, which employed a constructivist grounded theory approach, included a focus group interview and field observations. Results showed that gamification elements design has a very positive impact on the participants leading to a potential increase of their motivation and engagement.