calico journal (online) issn 2056–9017
https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.36996
. –
©,
Rock or Lock? Gamifying an online course
management system for pronunciation
instruction: Focus on English /r/ and /l/
Michael Barcomb
1
and Walcir Cardoso
2
Abstract
is one-group quasi-experimental study aimed to determine the eectiveness
of using a gamied course management system with points, badges (and con-
sequently competition) to facilitate the development of English phonology in a
foreign language context in Japan. To implement this idea, we focused on the
acquisition of English segments /r/ and /l/ in production (as in /r/ock and /l/
ock respectively). During the study, participants were asked to engage in gami-
ed pronunciation activities over a period of two weeks, using a popular learn-
ing site (Moodle). e data collection instruments included pre- and posttests
to examine the development in production of /r/ and /l/ (using controlled aural
elicitation tasks), a written follow-up questionnaire, and user logs to investigate
users’ perceptions of the pedagogy utilized. e results indicate that participants
beneted from the proposed gamied system for L2 pronunciation instruction,
as they improved their production of the target English /r/ and /l/ segments. In
addition, responses from the interviews and user logs revealed that participants
perceived using the site as enjoyable, anxiety-reducing, and pedagogically useful.
K: L ; ; -
.
Over the past two decades, research in second or foreign language (L2) pho-
nology, particularly within communicative frameworks (e.g., Celce-Murcia,
Article
Aliations
1
Concordia University, Canada.
email: [email protected]ordia.ca
2
Concordia University, Canada.
email: Walcir.Cardoso@concordia.ca
128 R L
Brinton, & Goodwin, 2010), has pushed pronunciation instruction and research
forward. e move from achieving native-like pronunciation to a focus on
more attainable goals such as the development of intelligibility and compre-
hensibility (e.g., Derwing & Munro, 2005) has enabled instructors to help
learners work toward realistic goals, as opposed to laboring toward unrealistic
objectives such as the achievement of native-like pronunciation (Levis, 2005).
While many experiments attempt to understand the process of acquiring an L2
phonological system (e.g., Saito, 2013), there is a lack of research that investi-
gates the development of young beginning learners’ L2 pronunciation—without
direct instruction from a teacher—in the foreign language setting (for examples
with adult learners in a computer-assisted environment see Fouz-González,
2019; Mompean & Fouz-González, 2016; and omson, 2011). To this end, this
paper investigates the eectiveness of using gamied pronunciation instruction
on the development of L2 phonology.
In particular, this pilot study investigates how a gamied learning environ-
ment (occasionally referred to as “site”) might contribute to the acquisition of
foreign /r/ and /l/ by a group of Japanese junior high school English learners.
e open source course management system, Moodle, was chosen because it is
amenable to gamication via user-designed plugins (e.g., leader boards; Pastor-
Pina, Satorre-Cuerda, Molina-Carmona, Gallego-Durán, & Llorens-Largo,
2015). As it will be detailed, a gamied Moodle site with pronunciation videos
has the capacity to persuade learners to study about and practice pronouncing
articulatorily dicult L2 segments. In this study, a gamied pronunciation
site, titled “English Detective”, rewarded students with points and badges as
they worked through a series of detective themed pronunciation activities. A
one-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was employed to inves-
tigate the eectiveness of a gamied version of Moodle (specically designed
for this study, containing explicit pronunciation videos) on the acquisition of
two English segments, /r/ and /l/, and associated metalinguistic knowledge.
Background
Second Language Pronunciation Instruction
As has been conrmed by researchers and practitioners, pronunciation instruc-
tion is still neglected in the L2 classroom (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010; Derwing
& Munro, 2005). Currently, pronunciation research and pedagogy focus on
intelligibility as the ultimate goal of pronunciation instruction (e.g., Jenkins,
2000), within an approach that recognizes the importance of both segmen-
tal and suprasegmental aspects of L2 phonology (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010;
Jenkins, 2000). However, in foreign language contexts, access to the target
language via exposure or interaction with other L2 speakers is oen limited to
M B W C 129
the classroom, where time and resources are limited (Collins & Muñoz, 2016).
Accordingly, attention needs to be placed on how to teach pronunciation in
a way that expands opportunities for learners to develop intelligible speech
without exhausting the allotted time and resources.
One approach to pronunciation instruction is form-focused instruction,
which is described as any eort a teacher makes to help learners build implicit
or explicit knowledge about language form (Spada, 1997). Form-focused
instruction consists of a sequence of teaching strategies that include noticing,
building awareness, and then practicing the target feature (Lyster, 2007). e
rst step, noticing, is established when learners pay attention to and notice the
accurate use of certain L2 features (DeKeyser, 2007). is is of importance to
this study because the instructional pronunciation videos used in the treat-
ment (see forthcoming discussion) are specically designed to help learners
cue in on the mouth to develop explicit knowledge about how to move their
articulators to produce the target sounds: /r/ and /l/. e next step, awareness,
occurs when students receive corrective feedback as a method of raising aware-
ness during communicative activities. e third step, practice, occurs when
they communicate or produce speech, which is the time when it is important
for teachers to provide explicit corrective feedback for target features that are
particularly dicult to notice (Spada & Lightbown, 2008).
A study about the eect that form-focused instruction and corrective feed-
back have on Japanese learners’ pronunciation of English /r/ was conducted
by Saito and Lyster (2012). 65 Japanese university students learning debate
skills in English were split into two groups: while one received form-focused
instruction before communicative activities, the other received the same
form-focused instruction in addition to corrective feedback (via recasts). e
results revealed that learners who received corrective feedback in the form
of pronunciation-focused recasts outperformed the group who only received
form-focused instruction, though it showed only a slight improvement in this
instructional setting, and only in familiar lexical contexts.
To explore this nding further, Saito (2013) conducted a study where learn-
ers in one experimental group received form-focused instruction (as discussed
above), and the other experiment group received a combination of explicit pho-
netic information and form-focused instruction; the control group participated
in meaning-oriented activities that did not focus on form. Explicit phonetic
information diers from form-focused instruction because learners are speci-
cally drawing their attention to segmental L2 speech instead of lexical units
(Saito, 2013), which was hypothesized to magnify the eects of form-focused
instruction and to help learners establish new phonetic categories. Saito’s
results indicate that learners who receive both explicit phonetic information
and form-focused instruction can make improvements at pronouncing /r/ in
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both familiar and unfamiliar lexical contexts, while learners who only receive
form-focused instruction will likely fail to do so.
To deliver explicit phonetic information, Saito (2013) emphasizes provid-
ing over-exaggerated exemplars of the pronunciation of key features (e.g., lip
rounding, slow speech) to help learners notice the dierences between per-
ceptually similar sounds such as /r/ and /l/. e author grounds this deci-
sion in research that examines how speech perception contributes to learners
developing new phonetic categories to improve L2 pronunciation (e.g., per-
ceptual assimilation model: Best & Tyler, 2007; speech learning model: Flege,
1995). Accordingly, instruction needs to focus on raising perceptual noticing
of target sounds both lexically and phonetically in order to help learners create
new phonetic categories so that they can dierentiate similar sounds (Saito,
2013). In this study, digital technology was used to enhance the delivery of the
explicit phonetic information, as students cued in on the instructor’s mouth in
videos specically designed to provide explicit information before practicing
pronunciation and trying minimal pair listening quizzes.
Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Instruction
Research in computer-assisted L2 learning indicates that it can be eective
for providing opportunities to improve both knowledge of target sounds and
the pronunciation of those features. In this scenario, learners have access to
two channels of feedback—audio and visual (Hardison, 2004), which could
enhance the delivery of explicit phonetic information. Tsubota, Dantsuji, and
Kawahara (2004) explored the combination of audio and visual feedback in
an experiment that focused on autonomous pronunciation practice in a multi-
modal system that provided university students with a detailed pronunciation
report. Specically, the system identied segmental errors such as /r/ and /l/
and provided written metalinguistic information about how to produce the
target sound, which contributed to pronunciation gains.
In further evidence for digitally-based autonomous pronunciation practice,
Mompean and Fouz-González (2016) conducted a study about the pedagogical
use of Twitter, wherein participants received daily tweets that featured a target
word and information on how to pronounce it. e results indicate that the
learners autonomously improved their L2 pronunciation by the end of the treat-
ment. Another recent example of how digital environments can be eective
for pronunciation instruction is Fouz-González (2019), who provided learners
with explicit information about L2 pronunciation in class before having them
listen to a podcast with examples of the target feature. Students then practiced
the features at home on their own before doing a group pronunciation activity
in class. ese aspects of CALL based pronunciation practice are important
M B W C 131
because the use of technology in pronunciation instruction should enable
learners to practice on their own without time constraints or the pressure
associated with speaking in front of other students (Fouz-González, 2015).
One possible way of incorporating technology to deliver explicit phonetic
information is through Fogg’s (2002) captology approach, which is the use of
computing technology to persuade individuals in ways humans cannot. One
specic use, technology as a medium, is based on providing digital experiences
that make anxiety-inducing activities more approachable. For example, the use
of pronunciation videos that zoom in on the teacher’s mouth could provide key
metalinguistic information about how to produce the target sound. In a digital
space, this can be done without the pressure associated with excessive requests
by the instructor to repeat sounds, looking closely at the instructor’s mouth,
or making pronunciation mistakes in front of others. Such an approach could
extend the work of Saito (2013), as the delivery of explicit phonetic information
in instructional settings is typically only available in person. e use of digital
tools to help students visualize how to pronounce L2 features in this manner
contributes to the awareness of the target features (Lord, 2019). In sum, there is
evidence that blending explicit pronunciation instruction with digital technol-
ogy is a promising direction in research about L2 pronunciation instruction, but
an equally important aspect of digital environments is that they aord learners
opportunities to practice pronunciation in a comfortable setting of their choice.
Of interest to this study is the potential that explicit pronunciation instruc-
tion has to reduce language anxiety. L2 metaphonological awareness is a
specic type of metalinguistic skill that focuses on L2 pronunciation (e.g.,
Celce-Murcia et al., 2010; Saito, 2013) and includes activities such as teaching
students how to position their articulators to produce a specic segment. In the
process, learners can take a more reective and playful approach to pronounc-
ing problematic L2 features (Szyszka, 2017). Szyszka stresses that this type of
explicit pronunciation strategy enables the learner to take an approach that
reduces anxiety by increasing ownership in developing skills that protect them
from future embarrassment caused by pronunciation errors. is indicates
that providing explicit phonetic information in a digital setting equipped with
gamied elements could potentially help learners to practice pronunciation
in a more comfortable way.
Gamied Learning Environments in L2 Acquisition
e notion of digital games serving as a space for learning is well documented
(e.g., Bogost, 2011; Gee, 2007). Gamication, however, is dierent from video
games because it utilizes video game elements (not games) to motivate users to
engage in learning activities (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011). Gami-
cation includes elements from games such as avatars, feedback, levels (and
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consequently competition) under explicit and enforced rules, and teamwork
(Reeves & Read, 2009). Hamari, Koivisto, and Sarsa (2014) explain that when
motivational aordances such as points are earned, a psychological response
is triggered, which, in turn, triggers a specic behavioral outcome such as
pronunciation practice.
In L2 learning, Reinhardt (2019) proposes a framework to examine research
and practice in digital games, which includes three distinct types: game-
enhanced, game-based, and game-informed. e authors explain that game-
enhanced materials include o the shelf games not designed for language
learning, while game-based materials take advantage of game play for educa-
tional purposes. e third type, game-informed materials, includes elements
of games that can be used to enhance L2 teaching and learning, which includes
gamied approaches. Of importance to this study is that Reinhardt (2019)
stresses that it is possible to utilize game-informed materials to investigate a
research problem from the perspective of L2 pedagogy and/or the perspective
of the learner. In line with this, the present study aims to inform L2 pronuncia-
tion research by emphasizing a comfortable and fun environment to develop
explicit phonetic knowledge and practice pronunciation.
A popular example of gamication in language learning can be found in the
app, Duolingo, which enables learners to earn points and badges as they work
through levels on their own, completely free of a pedagogical context. To test
the eectiveness of the app in a pedagogical setting, Rachels and Rockinson-
Szapkiw (2018) investigated how Duolingo could be used to contribute to the
acquisition of vocabulary and grammar in L2 Spanish. While one group of
students completed lessons on the app, the other covered comparable materi-
als in a classroom setting. e results indicated that there was no dierence
between the two groups in regard to gains, demonstrating that this type of
technology is useful for L2 instruction. It is possible that the participants in
both groups performed comparably because they both received grammar-
translation style instruction. While this can be eective in some instances
(e.g., for learning vocabulary and morphosyntax), we do not believe it would
be as benecial for pronunciation instruction.
For a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to L2 pedagogy, Rein-
hardt (2019) recommends the use of “smaller, limited games and educa-
tional apps that utilize some game mechanics” (p. 7) in order to create a more
learning-oriented system. We believe that open source course management
systems like Moodle can be adapted to full this recommendation, as they are
easily accessible to and commonly used by L2 teachers. Importantly, Moodle
can be gamied to trigger responses via the following elements: progressive
learning (e.g., via maps, levels); socialization (e.g., when students collaborate
on missions, send messages); feedback (e.g., instant feedback, progress bars);
M B W C 133
and rewards (e.g., coins, badges, leaderboards; Pastor-Pina etal., 2015). In this
way, many typical elements of a Moodle page (e.g., conditions to access, chats),
if combined with user-designed gamied-plugins to create leaderboards and
reward systems, may contribute to pronunciation practice. Of further interest
is that programming knowledge is not necessary to create such a system, which
can instead be created through the customization of open source materials
(Barcomb, Grimshaw, & Cardoso, 2017, 2019). is could enable more teach-
ers to explore the use of gamied materials to enable students to practice
pronunciation outside of class.
Research on the use of digital games in L2 pedagogy indicates that the role
of the teacher and the location in which learners study can take on many dif-
ferent forms. For example, Sauro and Zourou (2019) explain that the “digital
wilds” include online language learning environments that are completely
independent of a pedagogical institution and can include activities such as
using a second language to play a video game online with other users. In
line with this, Sundqvist (2019) reports that Swedish secondary students who
played English commercial games on their own online outperformed those
who self-identied as infrequent users or non-gamers in recognizing and using
L2 English vocabulary. Given that games and gamied learning environments,
as discussed above, expand opportunities for language learning on-the-go,
teachers may decide to incorporate such environments in pedagogical settings.
In specic, at-home teacher-initiated materials (Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2016) are
teacher-selected online language learning materials that students can use out-
side of class. An example of this can be seen in Newgarden and Zheng’s (2016)
study, in which the researchers replaced a semester-long ESL course with the
commercial game World of Warcra. Participants completed missions in the
game with other classmates and the teacher once per week beyond the walls
of an institution by using text-chats and video conferencing soware to com-
municate with each other. Instead of adapting a commercial game to expand
language learning opportunities beyond the walls of the language classroom,
the current study examines a game-informed/gamied system that could be
implemented as an online resource in an at-home teacher-initiated setting.
The Present Study
is study examined the pedagogical use of an online gamied pronunciation
site to aid Japanese junior high school students in the production of /r/ and /l/
by enhancing their explicit understanding of these segments. is population
was chosen because research indicates that the foreign language classroom in
Japan provides limited opportunities for pronunciation practice (e.g., Machida,
2016). is scenario is further complicated by Japan’s Ministry of Education’s
attempt to implement high-level linguistic activities, such as debates, into all
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classrooms (MEXT, 2014). is pilot study aims to propose a way to alleviate
these constraints by enabling students to study L2 pronunciation online.
e target segments /r/ and /l/ were chosen because Japanese learners have
diculty acquiring them in both perception (e.g., Lively, Logan, & Pisoni,
1993) and production (e.g., Larson-Hall, 2006). Japanese L1 learners also have
diculties dierentiating /r/ and /l/ and instead perceive it as the Japanese
tap, which is situated in a space between /l/, /r/, and /d/ (Hattori & Iverson,
2009). Finally, these two segments are of interest because they carry a high
functional load, as dened by Brown (1988) and Celce-Murcia et al. (2010);
that is, they are highly productive in English and serve to dierentiate many
highly frequent words in the language.
e following research questions were designed to address the goals of this
mixed-methods study, which explored the use of a gamied online pronun-
ciation environment to facilitate the development of /l/ and /r/ in a foreign
language context in Japan. To determine the eectiveness of the proposed
approach to teaching pronunciation, we have developed the following research
question: What are the eects of the proposed gamied environment on the
pronunciation of the /r/-/l/ distinction among Japanese learners of English?
e question can be subdivided into three sub-components:
•
Does the proposed gamied environment contribute to improved pro-
nunciation of /r/ and /l/?
•
Does the proposed gamied environment facilitate increased awareness
of the /r/-/l/ distinction?
•
What are users’ perceptions of learning pronunciation in the proposed
gamied environment?
Method
is one-group pretest posttest study took place in a gamied Moodle site and
lasted for two weeks. It aimed to answer the rst component of the overarching
research question quantitatively with tests to determine if our proposal can
improve learners’ production of /r/ and /l/. Aer participants nished their
nal pronunciation test, they completed a posttest follow-up questionnaire that
gathered qualitative data in the form of written responses to better understand
the second and third components of the research question. e data include
responses related to how participants perceived their explicit phonetic aware-
ness was facilitated by pronunciation videos, how they perceived gamication
(in general), and how they perceived the gamied site, including its ability to
reduce anxiety and promote learning. e research design is illustrated in
Figure 1.
M B W C 135
Figure 1. Research design.
Participants
e study included 11 Japanese junior high school students living
in Japan (female: 7; male: 4) with a mean age of 13.7 (SD=1.7),
all participating from home and interacting with the main
researcher via a popular videoconferencing application; they
were told that they would participate in a video game-like class
to practice English using the video and audio functions of their
iPads or laptop computers. Participants were recruited through
learning centers, blogs, and online groups dedicated to learning
English (i.e., they were not in an intact class). All 11 students who
started the study completed it through the posttests, although
participation was voluntary, and they were not compensated for
their participation. e entire study was conducted online.
Instruments
To determine whether the proposed gamied environment contributed to
improved pronunciation of /r/ and /l, students took a 38-item pronunciation
pretest and posttest that included 28 target simple /r/ and /l/ words distributed
in onset (word-initial; e.g., /r/ice, /l/ate) and coda positions (word-nal; e.g.,
poo/r/, mai/l/). e remaining 10 items were distractors that contained neither
/r/ nor /l/ (e.g., big). A breakdown of the items used in the study is shown in
Figure 2.
e participants were asked to produce the target words in both isolation
(e.g., /r/ain) and inserted at the beginning of short pause-initial sentences (e.g.,
/r/ain, I like that!). ey completed a listen-and-repeat test that involved watch-
ing video recordings of either words or brief sentences before recording them-
selves saying the word or phrase that they heard. e pretests and posttests
were both done at home via Moodle, which was designed to provide learners
a comfortable place to do the assignments and reduce the observer’s paradox
(i.e., the participants’ discomfort in being observed, which may aect their
linguistic output; Labov, 1972). e accuracy of /r/ and /l/ pronunciation was
assessed as accurate or inaccurate by one of the researchers (a native English
speaker) and one assistant (a uent English speaker of Japanese origin). When
136 R L
the raters disagreed on an item (which rarely happened), a third researcher
was asked to make a determination. If students produced /l/ instead of /r/, or
instead produced the Japanese tap (i.e., /ɾ/), then the item was deemed to be
inaccurate. ere were 28 /r/ and /l/ items (14 of each) on the pre- and posttest.
Qualitative data were collected to understand how learners perceived the
pronunciation videos aected their awareness of the target features, and how
the proposed gamied environment (including its anxiety-reducing benets)
contributed to learning. ese data were collected in the form of an eight-item
written follow-up questionnaire that asked open-ended questions in Japanese:
(1) What was the strength of the site to learn English? (2) What do you like
about this site? (3) What was the weakness of this site to learn English? (4)
What would you change about this site? (5) Aer learning with the site, do
you feel that you are more comfortable speaking English in front of your class?
(6) Do you feel that you learned English from the site? (7) Would you like this
site if it was part of your school curriculum? And (8) How do you feel about
learning English from videos? ese eight questions required open-ended
responses about how the participants perceived learning pronunciation on
the site and what they liked or did not like about the pedagogical experience.
e questionnaire was completed online and was located in a link found in
English Detective. e written responses (completed in Japanese but translated
into English for analysis) were coded according to the themes that informed
the qualitative analysis: the development of an explicit phonetic understand-
ing of target features in a digital context, and participants’ perceptions of the
gamied site, including its ability to reduce anxiety and promote learning.
Figure 2. Pronunciation materials.
M B W C 137
English Detective: A gamied Moodle site
English Detective is a gamied Moodle site that was built specically for this
study. To encourage learners to practice L2 pronunciation in an environment
less likely to trigger anxiety, activities were completed in the form of gami-
ed missions. Participants received experience points for each mission they
attempted, which automatically went to a leaderboard and subsequently opened
the next mission. is was done through a leaderboard plugin in Moodle, Level
Up!, which housed many of the gamied elements in this treatment. e lead-
erboard, which can be seen with other elements in Figure 3, was orchestrated
to provide experience points in the form of coins for each activity, show each
participant’s avatar, display the total number of coins, update badges, and
inform the students of the number of coins necessary for the next badge.
As a strategy to compete, participants were instructed to review materials in
order to receive additional coins and, thus, higher ranking badges. For every
20 coins, participants earned a new badge, ranging from Rookie Agent to Super
Agent. To deemphasize failure, the coins and leaderboard represented “experi-
ence points”, which means the coins reected attempts, not mastery. Because
the target feature was a hard-to-acquire segment and therefore beyond the
learner’s immediate control, the goal was to deemphasize failure and instead
reward learners for their eort and continued practice (e.g., Bell, 2018). Each
student used the site for approximately one hour by the end of the study. To pre-
vent participants from receiving coins for constantly doing the same mission,
a lter required 20 minutes to pass before earning points for the same activity.
Figure 3. Overview of the gamied pronunciation site.
138 R L
Mission 1 consisted of videos that provided learners with explicit instruc-
tion and multiple opportunities to practice the pronunciation of /r/ and /l/
in onset position. In line with Saito (2013), the videos provided metalinguis-
tic cues to visually draw the learner’s attention to the relevant articulators
(e.g., the positioning of the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge to produce
/l/). To relax, students were instructed to massage their faces to prepare
themselves to make foreign sounds. To deliver information about how to
produce these sounds, an L1 speaker of Japanese with experience teaching
EFL served as the teacher in the videos and delivered relevant metalinguistic
information about the features before pronouncing a few words; a native
English speaker also provided examples of how to pronounce each sound.
In the /l/-related videos, students were instructed to touch their tongue to
the alveolar ridge (i.e., “the hard bump on the roof of the mouth”), while
for /r/ production, the videos focused on lip rounding and preventing the
tongue from touching the alveolar ridge, according to Celce-Murcia et al.’s
(2010) recommendations.
As a pedagogical strategy, participants were instructed that, if they saw
the teacher’s tongue in the video, that meant /l/ was produced. For the pro-
nunciation of /r/, learners were instructed to focus on lip rounding and to
avoid touching their tongue to the alveolar ridge. Per Fogg’s (2002) recom-
mendations, the video instructed learners to rewind and pause the video to
practice pronouncing the words and to study the instructor’s articulators for
each segment. e activity was designed to provide access to a form of explicit
phonetic information not available in classroom instruction. Students were
also instructed to pause the video to review wordlists with the target feature
before pressing play to listen to the instructor’s pronunciation. An optional
activity in Mission 1 gave participants the opportunity to use tablets to draw
a picture of what a person’s mouth looks like when pronouncing /l/ or /r/
(see Figure 4).
Mission 2 followed the same format as Mission 1, except that it focused on
the production of /l/ and /r/ in coda position (e.g., poo/r/, mai/l/).
Mission 3 gave learners an opportunity to practice the skills learned in
the rst two missions by completing a minimal-pair listening quiz. e
rationale for including a listening quiz comes from ndings that suggest
that these tasks can improve oral production (Bradlow, Pisoni, Akahane-
Yamada, & Tohkura, 1997) and may even reduce anxiety by giving learners
an opportunity to focus on target sounds without the pressures associated
with language production (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010). Perception activities
also serve as an opportunity for learners to exercise their explicit phonetic
understanding of the target features, which can contribute to pronuncia-
tion gains (Saito, 2013). Six questions quizzed learners on their ability to
M B W C 139
dierentiate minimal pairs (e.g., “lip” and “rip”). Half of the questions
showed a video of the researcher pronouncing the word so that participants
could visually notice the target feature, and the other half were audio only.
Aer viewing and/or listening to each item, participants selected /r/ or /l/
based on which sound they heard.
Analysis of Results
e data from the pronunciation tests were analyzed using descriptive sta-
tistics. Initially, a composite score for /l/-/r/ pronunciation was calculated in
order to determine the eectiveness of the treatment on the pronunciation of
perceptually similar segments. To better understand the eect of the treatment
on each individual segment, a separate set of analyses was conducted.
e short-answer follow-up questionnaire data were analyzed with the help
of one research assistant, according to the coding methods proposed by Saldaña
(2009): the participants’ responses were rst categorized based on learners’
reported experiences, that is, their perception of learning pronunciation in
a gamied site with respect to its strengths and weaknesses as a pedagogical
tool. ese were then broken into subcomponents according to the themes
that informed the analysis: the eects of the proposed site on (1) developing
an explicit phonetic understanding of /r/-/l/, (2) reducing anxiety, and (3) pro-
moting learning. In vivo coding was chosen as the coding method to represent
participants’ intended meanings (i.e., sections of data were assigned a label
such as “developing explicit phonetic awareness”). ese data were extracted
verbatim from the data set and inserted into columns in a spreadsheet to create
themes, categories, and sub-categories for the qualitative analysis.
Results
Quantitative
All participants began and completed the study through the posttests and, by
the end, completed all proposed activities at least once and spent a mean total
of 63.23 minutes in the gamied site, SD= 24.82, 95% CI [46.72, 80.22]. To rst
determine the eectiveness of the gamied environment on the production
of /r/ and /l/ as a composite score, a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test was used to
measure the accuracy of their pronunciations. e key assumption for the test,
the distributional assumption, was not violated, as assessed by a histogram
with a superimposed normal curve on the distribution of scores. e results in
Table 1 indicate that there was a statistically signicant increase in /r/ and /l/
accuracy (Mdn = 8) on the posttest (Mdn = 19) when compared to the pretest
(Mdn = 11),z= 2.97,p= .003.
140 R L
Table 1
Composite /r/ and /l/ Results (z-scores)
Pretest Post
Outcome Mdn Mdn n z
/r/ & /l/ items 11.00 19.00 11 2.97*
* p < .05. Mdn = Median
To better understand the effect of the treatment on the pronuncia-
tion of /r/ and /l/, each segment was analyzed separately by conducting
a pair of related-samples Wilcoxon signed-rank tests (Table 2). The key
assumption for the test, the distributional assumption, was not violated,
as assessed by a histogram with a superimposed normal curve on both
/r/ and /l/ distributions.
Table 2
Individual /r/ and /l/ Results (z-scores)
Pretest Post
Outcome Mdn Mdn n z
/l/ items 5.00 10.00 11 2.94*
/r/ items 6.00 10.00 11 2.81*
* p < .05. Mdn = Median
Regarding the pronunciation of /l/, a Wilcoxon signed-rank test determined
that there was a statistically signicant median increase in the number of
correct /l/ items from the pretest (Mdn = 5 correct /l/ items) to the posttest
(Mdn = 10 correct /l/ items), z = 2.94, p < .05. Similar to the composite score,
a Wilcoxon signed-rank test for /r/ pronunciation determined that there was
a statistically signicant median increase in the number of correct /r/ items
from the pretest (Mdn = 6 correct /r/ items) to the posttest (Mdn = 10 correct
/r/ items), z = 2.81, p < .05. Altogether, these ndings indicate that the par-
ticipants beneted from the gamied Moodle site, as learners appear to have
equally improved in their production of English /r/ and /l/.
Qualitative
To answer the second and third subcomponents of the research question, which
examined (1) whether the proposed learning environment led to an increase
in phonetic awareness of the /r/-/l/- distinction and (2) the participants’
M B W C 141
perceptions of the gamied learning environment, participants completed a
posttest written questionnaire consisting of eight open-ended questions, as
described earlier.
e analysis of the participants’ responses suggests they developed explicit
knowledge of /r/ and /l/ by: (1) noticing segments that do not exist in their L1
(e.g., “I could learn about sounds that do not exist in Japanese”); (2) learning
how to manipulate their articulators (e.g., “I can pronounce sounds correctly
by focusing on my tongue, mouth, and lips”); (3) dierentiating contrasting
sounds (e.g., “I feel that I learned the /r/ and /l/ dierence”); and (4) developing
explicit phonetic knowledge in both perception and production (e.g., “I can
hear and practice correct pronunciation”).
To further understand the development of explicit phonetic awareness from
a qualitative perspective, the drawing activity provides key insights. Of the
seven students who completed the activity, all focused on ensuring their draw-
ing showed the tongue tip touching the alveolar ridge for /l/ and a low and
drawn back tongue for /r/. Figure 4 illustrates an example of a typical draw-
ing produced by the participants, indicating their awareness of the tongue
positioning for /l/.
Figure 4. An example of a student’s depiction of one’s articulators when producing /l/.
An interview question about how participants perceived learning from
videos yielded responses that were directly related to the aordances of per-
suasive technology (Fogg, 2002), which indicates that this strategy may have
142 R L
been eective for delivering explicit phonetic information. For instance, six
learners stated that they were comfortable with closely analyzing the teacher’s
mouth in the video to build explicit knowledge about the target L2 pronuncia-
tion (e.g., “I can see the shape of the mouth”; “videos allowed me to watch the
movement of the tongue and mouth”). Furthermore, six responses indicated
that, in line with the aordances of persuasive technology, learners paused and
replayed the videos to study each feature (e.g., “I can hear native speaker sounds
as many times as I want and still be able to repeat to practice”). An analysis
of the log data supports that students viewed the videos several times: those
related to /l/-/r/ in onset position were watched 70 times, and those involving
the coda were viewed 59 times.
Based on the assertion that metalinguistic approaches to pronunciation
instruction can reduce anxiety (Szyszka, 2017), and that pronunciation anxi-
ety in the L2 classroom is negatively correlated with WTC (Baran-Łucarz,
2014), one of the interview questions asked the students: “Aer learning
with the site, do you feel that you are more comfortable speaking English
in front of your class?” Seven participants responded that they felt more
relaxed about speaking English in front of their classmates (e.g., “I am more
relaxed because I understand the pronunciation a little more”; “I am more
relaxed because I can pronounce a little better”). Interestingly, these quotes
provide some preliminary evidence that participants experienced at least
some sense of relaxation as a result of having a better understanding of L2
pronunciation.
Overall, participants reported that they enjoyed the site, particularly
because it involved the assignment of coins and intrinsic competition (n=3),
or watching videos to gain points to compete (n=7). In response to the ques-
tion about the perceived weaknesses, ve of the responses were related to the
interface being in English. e other most common issue reported was that
the videos did not always load properly (n=3).
Discussion and Concluding Remarks
e goal of this study was to examine the pedagogical eectiveness of a gamied
online site with pronunciation videos to aid the development of the L2 segments
/r/ and /l/ and related explicit phonetic awareness by a group of Japanese EFL
learners. Our ndings provide quantitative evidence that the proposed peda-
gogical approach contributed to the development of English /l/ and /r/ over
the treatment period. is nding conforms with Saito (2013), who reported
pronunciation improvements in /r/-/l/ production when participants received
a combination of form-focused instruction and explicit phonetic information.
e results also conform with Saito (2013) with regard to explicit phonetic
M B W C 143
information aiding the production of /l/ and /r/, as the instructional videos
provided an explicit (oen exaggerated) pronunciation of the target features.
In addition to the quantitative evidence oered, the qualitative data suggest
that some students developed explicit phonetic awareness, likely aided by the
pronunciation videos; consequently, they felt less anxious aer completing the
experiment, thus conrming Fogg’s (2002) assumption that using technology
as a medium can make anxiety-inducing activities more approachable—devel-
oping explicit phonetic information and practicing pronunciation in the case of
this study. Furthermore, unlike the classroom learners in Baran-Łucarz (2014)
who experienced pronunciation anxiety, it appears that the digital environ-
ment in this study enabled some participants to practice pronunciation in a
more comfortable way.
Practicing pronunciation while being rewarded with experience points in
a gamied environment may have also contributed to helping learners detect
progress and persevere at learning about and pronouncing the target segments,
as evidenced by the fact that all participants completed the assigned quizzes
at least once and watched the pronunciation videos for a total of 129 times.
is nding is consistent with Hitosugi, Schmidt, and Hayashi (2014), who
reported instances of deep cognitive development by participants learning L2
vocabulary in a game-based system that also aorded them chances to replay
“learning missions” as frequently as necessary.
Despite the promise that this study shows in regard to facilitating the
acquisition of L2 phonology, there are a number of limitations that should be
acknowledged. e rst relates to the lack of a control group, which prevents
us from drawing specic conclusions regarding the optimistic results obtained.
Two other methodological limitations are the short duration of the experi-
ment (participants spent roughly one hour in the course), and the absence of
delayed posttests, which would allow us to determine if the observed improve-
ments aected learners’ long-term phonological inventory. Furthermore, the
study employed a written questionnaire to examine metalinguistic knowl-
edge. Although this instrument provided invaluable information about the
participants’ awareness to the articulation of /r/-/l/, a more rened qualitative
approach is necessary. In future studies, the development of qualitative instru-
ments should be guided by the literature on explicit phonetic awareness and
pronunciation anxiety to appropriately probe into responses related to the
development of explicit knowledge of the target features. Finally, the analysis
of the qualitative data was directed by the research questions, which means
that the themes were pre-determined and did not emerge as part of the data
analysis. Future versions of the study require more rened qualitative measures
such as interviews and focus group discussions.
144 R L
In terms of phonological gains, measuring the mere accuracy of /r/ or /l/ pro-
duction in all prosodic contexts does not provide a full picture of its acquisition.
Whether participants improved more on onsets or codas is valuable information
because, as based on the syllable structure of L1 Japanese, which only allows CV
(coda-less) sequences, it is likely that word-nal consonants will prove to be more
dicult and, therefore, possibly more anxiety inducing than onsets. Finally, for
reliability in pronunciation rating, future versions of this study will need multiple
raters and the subsequent calculation of interrater reliability.
Although pilot studies do not guarantee the success of a future experi-
ment, they are a critical rst step toward understanding which aspects of a
treatment to include in future iterations; this study does make a compelling
case to include many of its features in a follow-up study, especially with the
inclusion of a control group and more comprehensive methods that can shed
light on the eectiveness of digital gamication in the acquisition of hard-to-
acquire L2 phonological features. is study is a rst step toward determining
that L2 pronunciation techniques within a gamied setting is not only feasible
in terms of design and implementation, but also potentially facilitative of L2
pronunciation.
About the Authors
Michael Barcomb is a Phd candidate (ABD) in Education (specialization in
Applied Linguistics) at Concordia University. His research interests include the
use of games and gamication in L2 pedagogy and the role of teachers as CALL
designers.
Walcir Cardoso is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at Concordia University.
He conducts research on the L2 acquisition of phonology, morphosyntax and
vocabulary, and the eects of computer technology (e.g., clickers, text-to-speech
synthesizers, automatic speech recognition) on L2 learning.
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