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FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

FOR HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Faculty of Humanities

BACHELOR'S THESIS

Gamification in tefl

Degree programme: Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication

Mertens Alisa



Content

• Introduction
• 1. History and evolution of gamification
• 2. .Nature and main elements of gamification
• 2.1 Games
• 2.2 Simulations
• 2.3 Serious games
• 2.4 Gamification and game elements
• 3. Gamification in TEFL
• 3.1 Gamification in teaching linguistics skills
• 3.2 Digital gamifying tools
• 3.3 Gamification in ESL classroom
• Conclusion
• References

1.1 

Introduction

Methods which are used to improve student's motivation have been a part of the education throughout the centuries and were often applied in traditional pedagogy. However, not all of these approaches are as effective as they once were when they are practised in teaching students of a generation that Penksy (2001) defines as "Digital Natives". These pupils do not process the knowledge the same way previous generations did and many motivational strategies which are still used in the educational system today just do not fit the needs of contemporary students. Therefore, applying gamification approach to the modern learning process could be useful and effective. gamification game simulation digital

During last few decades, games got through a chain of significant modifications and became popular in every demographic, gender, and age group, as evidenced by the growth of games as an industry and research field. Accordingly, an emerging practice of employing game elements outside of the game setting appeared. The term gamification now describes these procedures which are often applied to advance user's activity in non-game settings and applications. It became known worldwide in 2010 and since then was actively used in marketing. Many studies have shown that gamification can act as an effective instrument in increasing the engagement and motivation of participants in a given activity (Hamari&Koivisto 2014; Huotari&Hamari 2017). Hence, it might have potential in the field of education.

However, there is a challenging area in the field of gamification. The gamifying process itself, and especially its implementation in the process of language skills learning and teaching has not been adequately discussed, what leads to the fact that the majority of gamification implementations are likely to fail due to poor understanding of how to successfully design gamification (Gartner 2012).

The main aims of this paper are:

· to identify the basic principles of gamification

· to identify game elements that can be used in the context of TEFL learning in general and developing language skills in particular

· to analyze digital tools for gamification

· to create exercises for language skills practice

For this purpose, we will employ research design, including literature review and comparative analysis. The findings of this study will shed new light on the methodology of the gamification using gamification in TEFL and specifically in learning language skills. So, access its validity in the modern educational system.



1. History and evolution of gamification

In recent years, gamification has become a widespread practice of enhancing information technologies. However, there is no universal definition of this concept. In this paper, we will use the most general definition of this concept which reflects the main componentswhich was proposed by Werbach and Hunter. Gamification is the use of game design techniques and game-playing elements in a non-game context(Werbach & Hunter, 2002).

It is difficult to discern a period when word "gamification" appeared. The first mentioning of techniques close to gamification came into sight in the 20th century. Back then those approaches were generally used for marketing. Companies were adding different prizes into products and organizing lotteries to engage buyers in consuming more. While people already started to implement early gamification, word gamification itself had not been yet used as a term.

In 1980 first academic papers and commercial books around gamification saw the world. It involves Richard Bartle, who is a noted game designer and researcher at the University of Essex in England. He also took part in the project called MUD1 (Bartle, 1996). It was the first multi-user domain or multi-user dungeon. Eventually, it turned out to be the first multi-player game. His role was mainly to gamify something that initially was a collaboration platform. The work that Bartle did was called gamification. However, it is important to mention that in the 1980s this term had a slightly different definition and usually meant taking something that wasn't a game and making it a game.

One more development that helped to lay the groundwork for today's gamification was research by educating scholars looking at the video games and learning. One of them was Tom Malone, who started doing work on early games (Malone, 1981). His aim was to show that kids could learn from playing video games.Moreover, he was able to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in education.

The same time computers started to enter the classroom,people got interested into developing more advanced gamification technologies into digital space. First computer games for an educational purpose such as Math Blaster or The Incredible Machine were often criticised for being too complicated and having no link with the curriculum. Those games were usually based on the repetitive practice of a small set of skills.

In 2002 Ben Sawyer and David Rajeski founded Serious Games Initiative. SGI was the first group to start using games as a training mechanism (Ahrens, 2015). US military was mainly interested in using this approach as they could simulate the battlefield and use it widely for soldiers training. However, the military was not the only one to be interested in this way of using games, and many other companies started using SGI's services. While the SGI apprises much of what gamification is today, it isn't consolidating gamification itself. The difference is that the SGI produces games from scratch to educate, whereas gamification is exerting the elements of games and consolidating them into non-game processes.

The creation of the first consulting firm, which was working specifically to help with the gamification process, is usually described as an essential event for the history of gamification. In 2003 Nick Pelling, a British game designer started a consulting firm called Conundra (Werbach & Hunter, 2002). Its goal was to increase gamification of consumers products. While the company did not have much success and did not last long, it was one of its kind to offer a service that gamified consumer products and incorporated business gamification.

2007 was a year when the first gamification platform appeared. An organisation called Bunchball set up a program for organizations to create a gamified process using pre-made mechanics like budgets, leaderboards and points (Werbach & Hunter, 2002).

Several authors (Marczewski, 2012; Penenberg, 2013; Werbach & Hunter, 2012) Different authors (Marczewski, 2012; Penenberg, 2013; Werbach & Hunter, 2012) recognise Pelling as the first person to use word gamification as a term. According to this alleged author, the word was formulated in 2002 (Pelling, 2011) and became public in 2003 in Pelling's organisation website. However, Pelling was no the only one to claim the word's authorship. There were others who claimed for themselves at even earlier dates: "a trend I call gamification, which I first identified in the early eighties" (Burrus & Mann, 2012). Other sources designate that Tim Chang from Norwest Venture Partners invented the term at an undefined period (Simхes, 2013). The first gamification application was used in 2005. Rajat Paharia founded the platform called Bunchball which was designed to boost engagement on websites by adding a layer of game mechanics (Werbach & Hunter, 2002).

The first appearance of the term in digital media happened in 2008 when it was mentioned in a blog post (Terrill, 2008). In 2009 Evo Media Group, which runs the DevHub site that lets users create their blogs and websites, relaunch its gamified version of DevHub where it is possible to create your own “online empire.”

Gamification became a buzzword in 2010, what happened mostly due to the increasing interest on the internet in general and as a learning platform. While gamification is definitely a popular term is difficult to say that it is already a developed field as it is still new and just starting to mature.



2. Nature and main elements of gamification

2.1 Games

Before we talk about gamification and its elements, we are going to take a closer look at similar interactive activities which could also be applied to thealearning process. First, it is essential to state that there is no universal educational solution that is able to fit every learning need. While almost all of the interactive events are designed to encourage, engage and motivate students, each one of them has its specific purpose. There is also a difference in result and design among them.

The first design approach we are going to discuss is a game. As gamification, the term game has a significant number of different definitions. We can understand a concept of a game as an interactive activity using a definition suggested by Kapp, who describes it as a practice in which participants engage in a symbolic challenge, defined by rules, interactivity, and feedback, that results in a quantifiable result often evoking an emotional reaction (Kapp, 2012). A game can be applied widely to the learning process and can be beneficial in reaching different goals. The type of game used in the classroom mainly depends on these goals.

· Matching games

In this type of game, participants are required to match one object to another. As the name implies, contestants must find a match for a word. It can also be a card or a picture. But matching can also be the game where it is needed to match something from the game space with something, not inside the game space. An excellent example of it is a Hangman game. Letters that players are supposed to enter in the gaps are not written down, and players recall them from their memory. It is also considered to be a matching game as letters can match the chosen gap or not.

· Building games

In this type of game players provided with different kind of materials, which they should use in order to create objects. A traditional example of building game is Jenga. Players are removing one brick at a time from a tower composed of 54 segments. Each segment removed is then put on top of the tower, building a progressively taller and more unstable structure. A more technical version of this type of game is Minecraft. This computer game provides players with a creating experience allowing them to build with a variety of different blocks in a 3D world, challenging players creativity.

· Puzzle solving games

Puzzle solving is a game where trying to figure something out. There is a significant number of puzzle games today. They come in all shapes and sizes. The most popular example of that type is Tetris. The principal aim of this grid-based traditional video game is to manipulate game pieces composed of four square blocks to create a solid horizontal line. There are also many adventurous puzzle games series, where problem-solving scenarios are implied.

· Collecting games

A game where the main goal is to collect a certain number of items is called a collecting game. Usually in this type of game players will collect items to boost their character and will try to avoid different kind of traps and possible enemies as they can destroy their character. Pac-man is one of the most well-known collecting games.

· Strategy games

Strategy games require a high level of decision-making skills. In order to be successful in a strategy game, participants should know how to think independently. These skills will determine the result of the game for players. Also, for this type of games, it is important to have an internal decision style thinking and very high situational awareness. There are many subtypes of strategy games such as abstract strategy, team strategy, eurogame, simulation and wargame. Chess cab sereve as an example of an abstract strategy, where strategy is the main key to defeat a game-partner.

· Exploring games

Exploring games are those in which players mostly interact with the environment trying to find items of value. The found items may have a wide range of use, but their primary purpose is usually to help a player to go further in the game scenario and to achieve a winning state.Finding Easter eggs may also be considered an exploring game.

· Role-play games

The last type of games we will discuss is role-playing games. When playing this type of game, players assume the roles of another person in a given setting. Players are responsible for acting out these roles within a story, either through real acting or through a process of structured decision-making concerning character progress.

Games are widely used in ESL teaching today, and there are several reasons for it. They are simple structured activities which may require little language but are meaningful to learners and require not only cognition but also students' emotions thus forming strong associations with the language used (Montero et al., 2009). Games offer learners a fun-filled and relaxing learning environment. After acquiring and practicing new vocabulary, students can use language in a non- stressful way (Uberman, 1998). While playing games, the students' attention is on message, not on the language. Rather than pay attention to the accuracy of linguistic forms, most participants do their best to win. This reduces the fear of negative evaluation, the concern of being criticized and negatively judged in public, and which is one of the principal factors inhibiting language students from using the target language in front of the public(Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, 1986). In a game-oriented context, anxiety is decreased, and speech fluency is produced; thus, communicative competence is achieved.Games can also act as a great motivational tool. They add an element of competition into educational activities. These activities form a meaningful setting for the use of new knowledge. (Prasad, 2013). The competitive ambience also helps students to concentrate, focus and think intensively throughout the learning process, which intensifies unconscious acquisition of information. Most learners who had been involved in playing games during the learning process hold accurate attitudes towards them (Uberman, 1998). Action research carried by Huyen and Nga (2003), students stated that they liked the relaxed environment, the competitiveness, and the motivation that games produced during the class.

2.2 Simulations

The next type of interactive activity that could be used in the classroom is a simulation. Simulation is a realistic, controlled-risk environment where students can study behaviors and experience the consequences of their decisions (Kapp, 2012).A simulation is similar to a role-playing game, but in a simulation, students act without strict directions, they can make their own choices. Researchers claim that the use of simulations in a classroom has great motivational value (Chauham, 1979). This is one of the most notable aspects of a simulation. Through active discussion, which occurs during simulation practice, learners discover the way language works. They are also able to apply the knowledge they gathered during the class to real-life situations. One more beneficial feature of a simulation is that it is done in pairs or groups. This can reduce anxiety and stimulate teamwork. Hence, working in groups gives learners more opportunities in the use of language when compared to a traditional teacher talk lesson (Davies, 1990).

There are also many different types of simulation that can be used for learning:

· Branching story line

Branching storyline is the first type of them. It is one of the most often used type of simulation which can be used in a classroom. Practicing this simulation students have to tell a story using text, graphics, video, or animation. The primary goal of this simulation is to make students active producers of speech, not a passive observer. On each step of the simulation, students will make a decision which will get them to a specific "branch" and each time they do so the rest of the story changes. One particular simulation can be played multiple times, and every time student will get a different experience (Josephs, 2015).

· System dynamic simulation

System dynamic simulations are usually used to help learners to experience real-life situations in the form of simulation. In these simulations, a mathematical model of interrelated quantities is used to describe how complex systems operate. This type of simulationcan be very useful when explaining how business works. Using system dynamic simulations students may define all of the factors that had influenced the prices on the market; they can understand how revenue is generated and also how costs are incurred (Chilcott, 1996).

· Software/equipment simulations

A software/equipment simulation provides a representation of software or mechanical system. A good example of this simulation type is a flight simulator. It accurately represents an aircraft, with mimicking the pilot's view and the aircraft's motion. The demand for accuracy on this type of simulation is

Simulations are pretty similar to games. Both of them have a competitive aspect, and some of them can have scores and even leaderboards which would be used to represent student's achievements. Simulations and games are both approaching storytelling, but they are doing it differently. Although simulations do not have to be 100 per cent accurate they still have to represent real-life situations and to be as precise as it is possible. Games, on the other hand, do not have to be that accurate or represent real-life anyhow. They also have fewer boundaries, as they are usually more playful and imaginative. One more similarity is that they both entail a rethink of “traditional” instructional design methodology. The way the subject is learned using these methods differs from the traditional one.

2.3 Serious games

During the last ten years, the interest in serious games has undoubtedly increased. Today they are used in a broad range of fields and also in education. As for gamification, there is also no universal understanding of serious games. One of the most used definition was provided by game designers Michael and Chen (2006): “A serious game is a game in which education (in its various forms) is the primary goal, rather than entertainment” (p.17). Nevertheless, serious games could also be used not only for educational objectives. For instance, some serious games are meant to distract patients who must undergo unpleasant therapy.World Without Oli is an excellent example of a serious game which was designed to spread awareness about the oil crisis and serious consequences it might have. The game drafted the general conditions of a lifelike oil shock then called upon gamers to picture their lives under those conditions.

2.4 Gamification and game elements

The great interest of people in gaming in the 21st century lead to interference of game-based activities and approaches in the educational sphere and all of the interactive activities which we discussed before played a crucial role in the creation of gamification as an educational approach (Kapp, 2012). They served as a basis and a source of game elements for gamification.

Gamification is a relatively new and cumbersome term and as we already had mentioned there is no standard definition of this concept. However, there is a solid agreement amongst contributors(de Sousa Borges et al., 2014; Perrotta et al., 2013; Simхes et al., 2013; Webrach& Hunter, 2012), who understand gamification as a method of applying game features (elements, integration, mechanics, frameworks, dynamics, aesthetics, thinking, metaphors) into non-game settings. Gamification is closely related to a game, but there are some clear differences. A gameis an independent unit. Players engage in a defined "game-space". There is a definite structure of the process.Each game has it's beginning, middle and end. Within the game the winning state is clear and defined. Players know and understand all the rules, that they should follow in order to win the game. The rules are part of both game and gamified activities. Usually, a game consists of a number of connected game elements. While activity can be gamified using just one independent game element. These independent elements are used in order to encourage participants to engage more with the provided activity and to advanced towards a goal without forming a self-sustaining unit or a complete game.

In order to better understand the nature of gamification, we should distinguish the difference between not only games and gamification but also between serious games and gamification, as the boundaries between those two are not clearly established. The main peculiarity is that rather than employing games for non-entertainment objectives, gamification uses game practice provided by one or more game elements to increase engagement. Serious games are created for a particular purpose related to training, not just for entertainment or fun. They are closely related to games rather than gamification as they have almost all features of a game except for the different purpose of the activity.

Due to the fact, that gamification is a relatively new phenomenon in education there is a notable absence of research on this topicin the academic sphere. However, interest in gamification is growing every year as researchers are willing to understand this concept better and examine its influence on students' performance. For this purpose, several literature reviews were conducted in recent years. It was found out that gamification technologies are actually commonly used in the educational field (Hamari and Koiviso, 2014; Nah et al., 2014). The main beneficial aspect of gamification that is mainly mentioned in the educational context is its ability to motivate and engage students (Lee & Hammer, 2011).

De Sousa Borges, Durelli, Reis, and Isotani (2014) conducted similar research. They were examining a number of studies on a gamified teaching process. In their study, it was found out that both research objectives and context were essential for the use of gamification. They also found out that gamification in educational settings was primarily used within higher education. Researchers suggest that the main reason for it is the popularity of eLearning among higher education schools. As eLearning platforms were also created using many elements of computer and video games.

This research also highlights that a vast majority of studies which were examined had engagement as a principal objective. According to Lee and Hammer (2011) “Gamification can motivate students to engage in the classroom, give teachers better tools to guide and reward students, and get students to bring their full selves to the pursuit of learning” (p. 1). However, in their research, Lee and Hammer (2011) also offer reasonable drawback of gamification. They claim that gamification may be pretty demanding on teachers and it may lead to an inefficient distribution of instructors' effort.

As we already mentioned gamifying process involves the employment of game elements to a non-game setting. So, it is challenging to understand such notion as gamification without distinguishing the game design elements. To do so we carried out a review of the literature on game design elements in educational context.

Game Design Elements	Outcomes	Reference
Points, Levels, Leaderboards, Challenges, Badges	Increased engagement and competitiveness	Barata et al. (2013)
Experience, Points, Levels, Freedom to choose difficulty level		Betts et al. (2013)
Points, Prizes	Increased motivation	Brewer et al. (2013)
Levels, In-game rewards, Points for experience	Increased engagement, Feeling of enjoyment	de Freitas & de Freitas (2013)
Unlockable content, Onboarding, Points, Levels, Replay, Badges, Challenges, Customization	Increased engagement, Feeling of enjoyment, Productive learning experience	Eleftheria et al. (2013)
Badges	Increased motivation and engagement, Sense of achievement	Gibson et al. (2013)
Experience points, Levels, Achievement	Increased engagement, Sense of accomplishment	Goehle (2013)
Leaderboard, Badges	Increased motivation, Satisfaction, Empowerment	Hanus& Fox (2015)
Feedback, Storytelling	Increased engagement	Kapp (2012)
Levels, Points, Badges	Partially increased motivation	Koivisto&Hamari (2014)
Badges, Levels, Stages, Points	Increased engagement	Kumar &
		Khurana
		(2012)
Leaderboard, Visual elements, Goals, Points, Progress bars, Badges, Storyline	Increased engagement and performance	O'Donovan et al. (2013)
Frequent feedback, Rewards, Character upgrades, Progress bar	Increased engagement	Raymer (2013)
Badges	Feeling of achievements and recognition, Increased motivation and engagement	Santos et al. (2013)
Feedback, Points, Avatar, Badges, Rewards	Increased interest in course	Todor &Pitic (2013)
Scoreboard, Storyline	Increased engagement and motivation	Villagrasa& Duran (2013)
Achievements, Avatars, Collection, Content unlocking, Points, Badges, Leaderboards	Increased engagement, Feeling of enjoyment, Sense of accomplishment	Werbach & Hunter (2012)

Based on the results of literature review we identified seven-game design elements mostly used in educational context:

1. Levels

In order to provide learners with a sense of succession throughout a course or a class level system is usually used. Levels represent defined steps of learners' improvement. As in most of the games, first levels are easier to complete, whereas advanced levels have more challenges and demand more effort and more knowledge. Levels also provide a transformation which serves as a sign of achievement. That gives students a feeling of satisfaction and motivation as they are being rewarded for achieving a new milestone on the way to the main goal of the course (Barata et al., 2013; Betts et al., 2013; Koivisto&Hamari, 2014).

2 Points

Points also serve as a representational tool. It measures learners' success and accomplishments in a numerical system and represents the progress in the game. Different games can have different types of points. For example, points can be employed as a currency in role-playing games or as an symbol of experience, when points gained by finishing tasks (O'Donovan et al., 2013). In an academical environment, credits can be also considered as points (Kumar & Khurana, 2012). The points system can be used as a reward or as a motivational tool which can help to achieve a specific goal (Barata et al., 2013; Werbach & Hunter, 2012)

3 Badges

Badges are visual/decorative displays of marks which are given to students for a particular achievement or obtaining a specific skill during the course. They are useful in order to maintain students motivation on their way of achieving the main goal(Kumar & Khurana, 2012). Badges also have potential in students' engagement as in Santos ae al. (2013) study students felt that badges influenced their performance and were helpful for engaging them more into the learning process.

2. Leaderboards

Leaderboards are visual representations of learners' progression andaccomplishment. It is usually presented by the scoreboard that is showing the names of the leading students involved in the task or the course ranked by their scores/achievements (Kumar & Khurana, 2012). They do not display all of the students and usually will show only top 5-10 scores. They also can be used without any names of the students; in this case, they are only representing the scores. The main objective of this tool is to keep the students motivated and create a feeling of competitiveness.

3. Prizes and Rewards

Prizes and rewards can serve as effective motivational tools in the learning process (Brewer et al., 2013). However, in order to achieve the motivational effect, it is essential to think about the timing and scale of the reward (Raymer, 2011). Several small rewards are normally working more efficiently rather than one big. The way prizes are distributed can also influence an increase in students'motivation. Rewards should be equitably distributed during the learning process (Raymer, 2011).

4. Progress bars

Some researchers (Raymer, 2011; O'Donovan et al., 2013) have employed bars which represent progress to gamify learning. While badges demonstrate achievements towards a particular remarkable goal or level, progress bars are applied to follow and demonstrate the overall goal progression. In the learning field, progress bars are utilised as a demonstration tool to stimulate students who are close to accomplishing their educational goal or specific task.

5. Feedback

There are several features of feedback which are helpful for student's engagement: intensity, immediacy and frequency (Kapp, 2012; Raymer, 2011). The main thing that distinguishes feedback as a game element from traditional is its frequency. In games, it is almost constant. With an increasing feedback frequency, the effectiveness of learning and engagement of students is also increasing.



3. Gamification in TEFL

3.1 Gamification in teaching linguistics skills

Process of learning a new language is incredibly energy consuming. Students must have maximum physical and mental involvement in this long-term process to achieve any results. Motivation is a key point in this process and may effectively help students to stay on a learning track. One of the key tasks fora teacher is to ensure high motivation of students and their engagement into the process. It can be a complicated task for many teachers as a foreign language is studied for a very long time and maintaining students' motivation is rather laborious for any educator. A great number of motivational models that have been used in the past are no longer suitable for modern students. When applying gamification in the learning process, students are getting more engaged in the process and their level of motivation is rising (Lee & Hammer, 2011). For these reasons, the use of gamification in learning a foreign language can be useful in maintaining students' motivation and involvement in the process.

There are two main ways gamification can be applied to a second language learning process.

• The first one is the usage of online tools which contain game elements.

• The second one is creating game-based activities in a classroom without using digital tools (offline).

The first way of using gamification is closely linked to the use of technologies in education. Throughout several decades digital technologies changed the world and became an integral part of a great number of spheres and education is no exception. Students, who are now getting school education, were growing up having access to the internet and almost all modern technologies. Their generation considered being digital natives (Prensky, 2001). This type of learners mostly prefers web-based interactions and it is easier for most of them to express their vision and emotions rather in offline environment. The way of these learners processing the information makes teachers adapt their teaching strategies by including more Information and Communication Technologies (ICT's), Game Based Learning and Mobile Learning resources (Figueroa, 2015). According to the NMC- Horizon Report (2014), gamification is winning over teachers and the time of adoption is approximately three years. The report established that:

“the Gamification of education is gaining support among educators who recognize that effectively designed games can stimulate large gains in productivity and creativity among learners” (p. 42).

Gamification has also become a trend in professional development for teachers and online learning in general. The paper used as a precedent Kaplan University, where Gamification software was installed to the LMS.

The application of gamification in the process of Teaching English as a Foreign Language has been a subject of discussion a few years now. The main objective for integrating Gamification towards Teaching English as a Foreign Language(TEFL) is to provide students with a more effective, attractive and useful learning experience. As Figueroa states:

the objective for integrating Gamification towards education is to unchain a more attractive and effective learning experience for the student. Following this aspect, the L2 learner feels attracted towards having this experience. This is based on the idea the L2 education has been immersed in technology innovation for many years. In order to change or set off a specific behaviour, the learners need to be motivated and Gamification opens the door for the L2 learner to enhance its language learning experience and at the same time acquire the skill to solve any task or challenge the class, the unit, or the topic presents. In addition, Gamification offers the learners an opportunity to interact among them as it's implied in a social game. Following this criteria Gamification and several of the most common approaches and techniques in L2 teaching and are being integrated. Another detail is that when people perceive any form of social presence they tend to respond in a natural way to feelings such as happiness, empathy, and frustration, or even follow social rules like taking turns. (p. 43)

In his article, Figueroa (2015) also presents a five-step model, taken from Huang's and Soman'sstudy (2013) to implement gamification in education

which could be also used in TEFL.

1.Knowing the audience for which gamification will be used and understanding of the context in which gamification will be implemented. Possession of this information will allow the teacher to choose appropriate game elements to use gamification and wisely design program for which gamification can be used for a specific audience.

2. Defining the main aims of the learning process is a success in an educational programme. General, behavioural and specific objectives must be taken into account here.

3. Rotting the program into separate parts and setting the main points of the program, allows clearly distinguish educational goals that students need to archive during the process.

4. Establishing the game elements that are going to be applied, which would be appropriate for the given group of people considering their previous steps.

5. The process of implementing game elements itself.

Today there are many different tools, apps and website that people can use to gamify activities and it can be a very difficult job to find the right one for the teacher's purposes.

Sarah Albrecht suggested a list of questions teacher should answer before applying gamification through digital tools in order gamification to be effective in the process of TEFL (Cambridge English, 20019).

1. How accessible is it?

This is the first thing to think about when considering adding digital component to your lesson. Firstly, is the platform widely accessible for the learners? I t is crucial to choose a platform that will be accessible for every single student and will not exclude anyone from the learning process. Some platforms are designed for specific software, so that not every gadget can be used when working with them. The best option is to choose the most universal tool in this context.

2. What year was it published? Is it updated?

Although it might not seem obvious, the year app was published can have various knock-on effects. For example, if it seems outdated learners won't engage with it.

Tools which are not regularly updated may also not be comparable with the hardware.

3. What age group is it aimed at?

Almost all web tools are developed with a target audience in mind. It is very important to make sure that the tool that you select is appropriate for your learners and for their age. Some tool are great to use with young learners, but they will be much less effective when using them with business people.

4. What is the source language?

The source language is the one that is used for the main interface features. Teacher should make sure that students are able to understand this language to get a full access to the tool. Most of the tools have English as a source language, but sometimes it might be challenging for students with a lower level of language knowledge to understand the mechanics of a tool in the beginning without the help of their native language. If tool has students' native language as a source language, it does not mean that exercises will be provided in that native language.

5. What skill is practised?

Different tools are designed to practice different kinds of skills, so it is important to choose the right tool which will be able to help learners improve their weak points. It is also important to look at all the possible variants of activities, that the tool is providing as sometimes they are not presented as something for specific skill training, but still can help students to improve some kind of specific skill.

3.2 Digital gamifying tools

Nowadays, there is a significantly small number of studies conducted on gamification in TEFL. The vast majority of the studies are concerned with the implementation of gamification in marketing rather than an educational field. However, there are some studies which explore gamification use in learning in general and in TEFL in particular.

In their study, Hasegawa, Koshino, and Ban (2015) applied gamification approach when developing a special mobile application aimed to develop vocabulary skills of English as a Second Language(ESL) learners. According to them, “A smartphone is effective for independent learning such as English vocabulary memorization because a learner can use the smartphone anytime and anywhere when the learner has only little time” (p. 1). In this study, researchers used several game-elements for the application: ranking, character growth and time trials. Despite using the most popular game-elements, like badges and leaderboards, it was found out that gamified modifications of application influenced participant's motivation towards learning.

On more study on gamification in vocabulary learning was conducted by Lam (2014): using two online games (“Fling the Teacher” and “Jeopardy”), participants, who were students between 18 and 20, were learning and reviewing new English vocabulary. The study aimed to get students' opinion on the gamification in vocabulary learning and practice using online games. Results showed that students were in favour of using this type of learning because of two main reasons: firstly, most of them were excited during the whole process and got more fun compared to the previous way of learning vocabulary; secondly, this way of learning new words facilitated vocabulary retention.

Given studies look at gamification as an approach, which mainly involves online learning and where game elements are used in the computer environment, what makes the usage of the gadgets in the classroom a necessity.

For today there are several major online educational platforms and Apps created specifically for the purpose of ESL learning or which can be used for this purpose and which could be applied to gamify an English learning process.

We are going to take a closer look at each of them and analyse each game element that was used in order to gamify these platforms.

1.Kahoot!

One of the most well-known online platforms, that is widely used, mostly due to the fact that it is very user-friendly for both students and educators, is Kahoot!. It is a game-based platform that is designed for students to repeat and review knowledge there. Kahoot! provides three main types of activities: survey, discussion, Jumble and quiz. Its quiz is an activity which can be effectively used for ESL teaching.

An educator can create any activity there from scratch or can use a bank of already created by other users public quizzes. Most of the quizzes are focused on grammar and vocabulary practice. In general, they demonstrate such gamified types of tasks as choose the correct alternative, fill in the gap, match the picture with the term, answer the question and many others.

After creating or choosing the right quiz, a teacher is given a pin (special unique digital code) which students should enter using their gadgets in order to start an interactive KahootQuiz.

On the main screenevery student can see the question or exercise and all the possible answers are shown. Students are supposed to answer using their gadgets (mobile devices, laptops, computers). They have four options for each answer, which are represented by four different colourful geometrical shapes, each shape represents a possible answer which is shown on the main screen. Students have limited time to give their answers. Passage of the given time for an answer is represented by a digital timer and a progress bar. For each task it is possible to get 1000 points, the amount of points depends on the time spent for choosing an answer. Right after the time is finished students are getting feedback. On the main screen, they can see the right answer, an overall amount of right and wrong answers and a leaderboard, which demonstrate scores of all players.

One more activity of Kahoot! that can be used for ESL practice is Jumble. It is pretty similar to a quiz, but the main difference is that rather than choosing just one right answer students are supposed to create a sequence from the given options. For example, they may be given a question and four parts of an answer to this question and in order to earn points, students should put the given parts in the right order.

Kahoot! can be used in order to gamify learning process of each age group of learners with any level of English knowledge. In its bank of activities each quiz, Jumble, discussion or survey is categorized by several criteria using which it is possible to find an activity which will perfectly suit the needs of educator and students.

- How accessible is it?

Kahoot! Is accessible in a form of:

Web-site

IOS app

Android app

- What year was it published? Is it updated?

Constantly updating

- What age group is it aimed at?

From the first school grade to business people

- What is the source language?

English

- What skill is practised?

Language skills which can be practised with Kahoot!:

• Grammar

With Kahoot! It is possible to practice English grammar using such type of exercises as error correction; filling the gaps; rewriting the sentence; sentence combining; but only in the form of closed questions.

• Vocabulary

In order to practice vocabulary Kahoot! can be used for such exercises as complete the gaps; categories; match the words and the pictures; odd one out; choose the correct word; words that go together; word building; match the words with the definitions, but also only in the form of closed questions, so that students will always have several possible variants for an answer.

2.Socrative

Socrative is one more useful tool to gamify ESL learning process. It is pretty similar to Kahoot!, but there are some significant differences between them. A teacher can use Socrative in free main modes: quiz, space race and quick question (multiple choice, true/false, short answers). There is no open public bank of activities which could be used and each time the educator should create his or her own activity. However, there is a possibility to use other's quizzes if an educator gets access for the creator. Every activity provided by Socrative can be effectively used in ESL classroom.

While creating a quiz teacher should mark the right answer and he or she can add an explanation so that student can understand why this or that answer is right. Socrative can be used for an individual work in a quiz mode or for a team for in a space race mode.

In order for students to start any activity, they are supposed to enter the name of their virtual classroom. After that, the teacher starts the chosen activity and students can see the first question. There is no time limit. All of the answer options are given to students on their own gadgets and the main screen, that is ruled by the teacher, is only showing students' progress. After each answer students get instant feedback.

- How accessible is it?

Socrative is accessible in a form of:

Web-site

IOS app

Android app

- What year was it published? Is it updated?

Constantly updating

- What age group is it aimed at?

Students of all age

- What is the source language?

English

- What skill is practised?

Language skills which can be practised with Socrative:

• Grammar

Socrative can be used in order to practice grammar in a form of error correction; filling the gaps; rewriting the sentence; sentence combining exercises.

• Vocabulary

To practice vocabulary, an educator can create for such exercises as complete the gaps; categories; match the words and the pictures; odd one out; choose the correct word; words that go together; word building; match the words with the definitions.

• Reading

• Listening

Socrative can be adopted in order to check student's reading and listening skills through different types of questions while and after reading or listening. It is possible to create such types of questions as matching headings questions; true false not given / yes no not given questions; matching paragraph information questions; summary completion question; sentence completion question; multiple choice questions; choosing a title; matching sentence endings.

Socrative can also be used outside of the classroom. For example, it can be given in a form of home task in order to save the time of the lesson to check it as teacher will be able to see all the results online before the lesson.

3.Quizizz

Quizizz is a web-based tool for creating interactive tests and quizzes pretty similar to the tools discussed previously. Educator creates a quiz or test using his or her own account, and students can respond to questions on any device with Internet access by clicking on the link and entering the code assigned to the game. Quizzes created with Quizizz can be done both in the classroom and in as homework. All students receive the same assignments, but each of them will see a random sequence of questions on their device and will work individually at their own pace. On the student's display appears a question. After answering a question student can see the leaderboard and the number of points they got. They can also get badges for different kind of achievements, such as 5 right answers in a row. The teacher can track the work of each student and get a full picture of the class work, as well as receive data into an excel spreadsheet. If desired, the teachers can use not only their tests but use Quizizz ready-made tests (quiz search for use is available in section "Public").

Quizizz provides only two types of possible questions: closed question with one right answer and closed question with several correct answers. For each question, there is a possible time limitation from 30 seconds to 15 minutes.

- How accessible is it?

Quizizz is accessible in a form of:

Web-site

IOS app

Android app

- What year was it published? Is it updated?

Constantly updating

- What age group is it aimed at?

Students of all age

- What is the source language?

Users can choose from: English, Spanish, Polish, French, Dutch, Russian

- What skill is practised?

Language skills which can be practised with Quizizz:

• Grammar

Quizziz provides a possibility to practice English grammar using such type of exercises as error correction; filling the gaps; rewriting the sentence; sentence combining; but only in the form of closed questions.

• Vocabulary

Quizziz can be used for such exercises as complete the gaps; categories; match the words and the pictures; odd one out; choose the correct word; words that go together; word building; match the words with the definitions, but also only in the form of closed questions, so that students will always have several possible variants for an answer.

4.Quizlet

Quizlet is a widely used tool that is particularly used for vocabulary practice. Quizlet provides eight main modes which can be used for vocabulary learning:

1.Learn

This mode helps to understand students how well they know the meanings or translations of the words and helps keep track of what they miss. This mode has three question types (if needed, a teacher can exclude any of question type from the mode): flashcards, multiple choice questions and written questions. After each term student gets instant feedback. When a student answering a written type of question and gives a wrong answer, then Quizlet will not let this student continue until he or she gives the right answer. In this case, the right answer will be shown for several seconds. This mode contains the most number of game elements: progress bar, feedback and badges.

2.Write

In this mode student are supposed to write the word based on the given definition or translation of this word.

3.Spell

In this mode student are supposed to write the word after listening to its pronunciation.

4.Test

This mode randomly generates a test based on a chosen Study Set. A test can include matching, written, multiple choice and true/false questions.

5.Match

This mode is an interactive game where students can compete with each other and try to match all the words faster than everyone else.

6.Gravity

In this game students are supposed to type an answer before an asteroid fall. As students pass levels, the force of gravity progress and the asteroids begin to fall faster for the next challenge.

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