Digital games offer a promising platform to engage second language (L2) learners in contextualized language practice, including pragmatics practice. Although scholars have made strong claims on the benefits of game-based learning, empirical findings have not yet established strong support for the effectiveness of games. Existing studies are mostly descriptive rather than experimental; few studies have compared L2 learning outcomes between a game-based learning group and a comparison control group. To fill this gap, this study investigated the instructional and motivational effects of a digital game on learning Chinese formulaic expressions. We developed two digital learning environments: a scenario-based digital game (Questaurant) and an interactive online lesson. Forty-nine learners of Chinese in two U.S. universities were randomly assigned to the game group (n = 25) or the online lesson group (n = 24). Both groups equally improved their knowledge of formulaic expressions after the respective learning session. However, the game group showed a significantly higher level of motivation compared to the online lesson group.

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基于数字游戏的二语汉语公式表达学习

数字游戏提供了一个有前途的平台，可以让第二语言 (L2) 学习者参与情境化的语言练习，包括语用练习。尽管学者们对基于游戏的学习的好处提出了强烈的主张，但实证研究结果尚未为游戏的有效性建立强有力的支持。现有的研究大多是描述性的而不是实验性的；很少有研究比较基于游戏的学习组和比较对照组之间的 L2 学习成果。为了填补这一空白，本研究调查了数字游戏对学习汉语公式表达的教学和激励作用。我们开发了两个数字学习环境：一个基于场景的数字游戏（Questaurant) 和交互式在线课程。美国两所大学的49名汉语学习者被随机分配到游戏组（n =25）或网络课组（n =24）。两组在各自的学习课程后同样提高了他们对公式表达的知识。然而，与在线课程组相比，游戏组表现出明显更高的动机水平。