Examining the Effects of Gamification on Chinese College Students' Foreign Language Anxiety: A Preliminary Exploration

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is considered as a strong predictor of students' performance in second or foreign language learning. Although studies of implementing gamification to facilitate language learning are drawing more and more attention, limited research has been conducted to explore the effects of gamification on FLA. By conducting semi-structured interviews, this paper investigated students' perceptions of gamification and their FLA in the preliminary stage of a gamified College English Listening and Speaking (ELS) class. Two major findings of this study are reported: 1) Students believe that gamification is helpful in visualizing their learning goals and creating a relaxing learning environment, but they can be frustrated by some complex game designs; 2) Students' FLA mainly comes from speaking English publicly, lacking preparation, fear of making mistakes, and introverted personality, and the alleviating effects of gamification can vary according to the sources and levels of students' FLA. For students who feel anxious due to their introverted personality or lacking preparation, the effect of gamification on reducing anxiety is less obvious. For students with lower anxiety levels, gamification alleviates their feelings of embarrassment and nervousness and promotes their classroom participation in a relatively more remarkable way comparing to their counterparts. This study is expected to contribute to the literature of gamification and foreign language education by exploring the preliminary effects of gamification on language learners' anxiety and providing references for further longitudinal research.