This paper investigates the impact of two innovative gamification models—Role-play Roulette and Vocabulary Dungeon—on English language learning in higher education contexts. Designed to address the motivational and engagement gaps in traditional pedagogy, these models integrate contextual storytelling, role-based improvisation, and task progression to enhance learners’ communicative and lexical competence. A three-week implementation among undergraduate students demonstrated statistically significant improvements in vocabulary acquisition and speaking fluency. Learner feedback further confirmed heightened motivation, reduced anxiety, and increased participation. These results suggest that immersive gamified approaches can serve as effective pedagogical tools in fostering active language use and long-term learner engagement.  

Gamification in ELT, language acquisition, vocabulary development

Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness: Defining gamification. In Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference (pp. 9–15). ACM.

Wright, A., Betteridge, D., & Buckby, M. (2006). Games for language learning (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Lee, J. J., & Hammer, J. (2011). Gamification in education: What, how, why bother? Academic Exchange Quarterly, 15(2), 146–151.

Reinhardt, J., & Sykes, J. M. (2014). Digital games and language teaching and learning. Palgrave Macmillan.

Huyen, N. T. T., & Nga, K. T. T. (2003). Learning vocabulary through games: The effectiveness of learning vocabulary through games. Asian EFL Journal, 5(4), 1–15.

Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge University Press.