Design and evaluation of non-digital gamification to support collaborative morphological analysis

Limited vocabulary leads to decreased performance and motivation in reading comprehension among students who learn English as a foreign language (EFL). Morphological analysis provides an effective means to problem-solve the meanings of unknown words and support reading comprehension. This study designed the non-digital gamification approach based on the five game features proposed by Richard E. Mayer to support collaborative morphological analysis. It compared the effects of a non-digital gamified and conventional morphological analysis intervention on reading outcomes and intrinsic motivation. An explanatory sequential mixed-method research design was adopted. Two classes from a secondary school in China were recruited and assigned to either the experimental group receiving the non-digital gamified programme (N = 52) or the control group receiving a conventional non-gamified programme (N = 52). Each group received its assigned programme for a total of ten 55-minute sessions. Evaluations of morphological analysis, reading comprehension and intrinsic motivation were conducted before and after the intervention. Results showed that the gamified group had significantly better performance in reading comprehension but not in morphological analysis. Furthermore, the gamified group had significantly higher perceived intrinsic motivation in terms of relatedness and autonomy than the non-gamified group, but not in perceived competence. The qualitative analyses based on student interviews suggested that in designing gamification, it's important to facilitate peer interaction, create task value and take students' negative emotions into account. The findings support the implementation of gamified morphological analysis instruction in general reading instruction for EFL students and underscore future directions in designing non-digital gamification.