SERIOUS GAME MOTIVATION IN AN EFL CLASSROOM IN CHINESE PRIMARY SCHOOL

ABSTRACT

This paper is a report on the findings of a qualitative PhD pilot research study on the integration of Serious Games specifically Mingoville to motivate the Chinese primary students in an EFL classrooms. It was carried out in two primary schools: the students are both from low and high income families respectively in Jiangsu Province, PR, China. Content analyses techniques were used to analyze the transcript of which the researcher systematically works through each transcript assigning codes using numbers to specific characteristics within the text, the categories emerged from data by reading through each transcript as well as from literature reviews. The findings identified the differences on how Mingoville motivated the students in the two schools. It revealed some mitigating factors that affected the student’s full motivation when Mingoville was integrated in their English learning classroom. The findings indicate that teachers and parent’s attitude are key factors to consider for a successful game based learning. Lastly, this paper explores the question, how can Serious Games be integrated successfully in ESL classrooms in order to motivate the Chinese primary school students?