The Impacts of Digital Gamification on Writing Organization, Engagement, Self-Regulation, an‎d Discourse Competence of EFL Students in Railway Engineering

1/27/2027 12:00:00 AM

The study investigated the impact of digital gamification on the writing organization, engagement, self-regulation, discourse competence, as well as the challenges involved, among 62 Railway Engineering students enrolled in a two-hour-per-week ESAP course at Iran University of Science an‎d Technology (IUST). Using a mixed-methods experimental design, both groups were taught the same instructor-adapted materials; the experimental group engaged in brief, session-embedded digital games via Nearpod immediately after the instruction, whereas the control group received the same content without gamification. The analyses regarding the quantitative stran‎d of the study proceeded in the sequence reported in the thesis (i.e., the sequence of the research questions): baseline equivalence between the two groups was checked through an independent-samples t-test; changes within each group across the pretest, midterm test, an‎d posttest were eva‎luated separately using one-way repeated-measures ANOVA; an‎d, finally, posttest performance between the two groups was compared through ANCOVA while adjusting for pretest scores. Descriptive trends favored the gamified condition, an‎d inferential results showed that the experimental group’s gains in writing organization were statistically significant an‎d exceeded those of the control group at the posttest after covariate adjustment. The qualitative stran‎d included three open-ended questions documenting students’ learning experiences, preferred game elements, an‎d perceived challenges, in addition to analysis of field notes to document students’ in-class engagement during Nearpod-based gamified activities. The thematic analysis of the open-ended responses revealed gains in effective learning, systematic review an‎d reinforcement, an‎d immediate feedback for checking understan‎ding an‎d learning from errors, alongside practical constraints such as limited time, connectivity an‎d device issues, occasional vocabulary unfamiliarity, an‎d concerns about fairness. The results of the paired-samples t-tests also indicated significant gains in self-regulation an‎d discourse competence from the pretest stage to the posttest stage within the gamified group. In general, findings validated the pedagogical effectiveness of systematic, session-based digital gamification for writing organization, self-regulation, an‎d discourse competence in the ESAP contexts, while highlighting implementation considerations, including time an‎d infrastructure for the course design.

#نوشتار_آكادميك , #سازمان‌دهي_نوشتار , # بازي‌وارسازي_ديجيتال , #مشاركت , #خودتنظيمي , #شايستگي_گفتماني , #چالش_ها

#Academic_writing , #Writing_organization , #Digital_Gamification , #Engagement , #Self-regulation , #Discourse_competence , #Challenges

Fatemeh Nodeh

Dr. Mahboubeh Taghizadeh