A Systematic Review of Research on Digital Game-Based Language Learning

• Main Authors: Jo-Ling Chang, 張若羚
• Other Authors: Hsiu-Ting Hung
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/53534163914042541686

碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 應用英語系應用語言學與英語教學碩士班 === 103 === Grounded in the field of Digital Game-based Language Learning (henceforth, DGBLL), this review aims to analyze the emerging trends of DGBLL research through a qualitative and narrative approach. The research questions addressed are as follows: 1) What are the frequencies and percentages of published articles related to DGBLL in the selected journals? 2) What research methods are employed in the selected DGBLL studies? 3) What target languages are studied in the selected DGBLL studies? 4) What language learners are investigated in the selected DGBLL studies? 5) What digital games are used for second or foreign language learning in the selected DGBLL studies? Four key journals in the field of computer assisted language learning were selected as the corpus to be searched for relevant articles published during 2010 and 2014, including Language Learning and Technology (LLT), Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), ReCALL, and The Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium Journal (CALICO). A total of 23 articles met the inclusion criteria, and thus were subject to further analysis. The results can be summarized as follows: 1) Only 4% of the articles are identified as related to DGBLL in the reviewed journals; 2) most DGBLL studies employed mixed methods; 3) higher education learners were the most frequently examined group of participants; 4) English was studied by the majority of the DGBLL articles examined in this work; and 5) Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games are the most commonly used games in the literature. It is hoped that the findings reported in this review may provide new insights and directions for future DGBLL researchers and educators.