Gamification, Anxiety, & Motivation in Second Language Learners: A Qualitative Systematic Review

For second language learners, anxiety poses a major hurdle in the use of the second
language in a myriad of contexts, including in the classroom. Teachers and schools often
make use of technology in order to better serve their students in a variety of ways, and
many teachers chose to use gamified educational platforms in order to enhance their
classrooms; however, second language anxiety remains pervasive. Since second
language anxiety is a major hurdle for students, one should expect newly developed
courses and platforms to attempt to reduce negative affective states. Gamification of
educational content is a flourishing industry with notable sites such as Duolingo that can
be counted among those that make use of it. This systematic review aims to determine if
specific gamified elements can be found to be related to student anxiety and confidence
so that recommendations can be made to teachers and developers to further improve
those elements. The results of this analysis show that quests, narratives, and storytelling
along with more immersive gaming experiences commonly co-occur with classroom
environments where students felt less anxious and more willing to communicate with
their peers in their second language. Additionally, awards or points were commonly
present with a decrease in anxiety and increase in confidence. Competition was not
found to be connected to decreases in anxiety, and this could be a significant area for
improvement among second language learning platforms as competition has been
previously shown to lead to anxiety, and in second language learners, it has also been
shown to lead to negative self-perception. This study posits that reducing competitive
elements of gamified platforms and increasing cooperative- and narrative-based
elements would lead to more equitable classrooms where second language students feel
more comfortable in expressing themselves.