A PRELIMINARY RESEARCH OF LEARNING LANGUAGES

THROUGH THE GAMIFIED APPLICATION

Petr Škuta, Kateřina Kostolányová

Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Pedagogical Faculty,
University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract
The paper dealt with the theory of gamification and showed a preliminary research results
based on a gamified application. In the first part the gamification was distinguished from the
game-based learning. Then the game design methods and game elements were introduced and
described. An example of gamified learning environment was illustrated in the form of
application used for learning languages and analyzed according to the theoretical background.
The second part focused on the research, where the main tool was the gamified application.
High school students were asked to complete the three given tasks. Their work and progress
was tracked in the application’s interface and researchers used structured and unstructured
observation to capture students’ emotions and behavior in the gamified environment. The
students showed both positive and negative emotions. They managed to adopt the user
interface quickly. The whole research was complemented by a questionnaire, where the
students were asked about their attitude to computer games and game related terms. The
students were familiar with the most of used game terms. Then they evaluated the chosen
game elements including the whole education process. It was discovered that not all game
elements were getting the same amount of students’ attention. The overall students’
evaluation of education was positive.

Keywords
Gamification, learning environment, gamified application, observation, motivation.

INTRODUCTION
The games always played an important part of kids’ and pupils’ life. The Gamification has
emerged from the background of games (Kapp, 2012). It was widely used in the marketing,
business or health care and it is gaining attention in the field of education recently (Dicheva et
al., 2015). Teachers strive to find the ways how to motivate the students and bring their
attention back to classes and some researchers argue that the gamification of education can be
the answer (Goehle, 2013).
The gamification is rather different approach than using the full-fledged games (Kapp, 2012)
usually named the Game-based learning. The development of the education computer game
might be quite expensive and time consuming. On the other hand, the implementation of
game elements into the existing educational environment can save the budget and it is not as
“disruptive” as integrating educational game into the educational process (Deterding, 2011).

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The already gamified learning environments can be found on the internet. The quite popular
representatives can be the Khan Academy and the Duolingo besides many others. Meanwhile
the Khan Academy is focused mainly on the mathematics and related sciences, the Duolingo
focuses on the language education.
Therefore, the paper discusses and shows the use of the Duolingo application in the real
education process as a part of preliminary research in the field of gamification and gamified
learning environments.
THEORY OF GAMIFICATION
The concept of gamification is described thoroughly in many recent papers yet there is still
not common agreement about the terminology. This paper uses mainly the terms and
methodology described in the works of Karl M. Kapp (2012) and Deterding (2011) but takes
into the consideration the other works presented in the analysis by Dicheva (2015).
Firstly, we would like to distinguish the games and the gamification. The most used definition
of gamification states that “the Gamification is the idea of adding game elements to a
nongame situation” (Kapp, 2012), whereas “Game-based learning relates to the use of games
to enhance the learning experience” (Burrus, 2012). As we can see the gamification is not the
full-fledged game commonly referred as an educational game, but rather some of the game
elements implemented in general learning environment.
The gamification is often divided into two main brackets: the game design principles and
game mechanics (Dicheva et al., 2015). The game design principles are the ways how to
gamify learning environments. We decided to call them the game design methods as the
usually show the way of the gamification and can stand side by side other methods used by
the other learning theories like Cognitivist and Constructivist learning theories (Bíró, 2014).
The papers have successfully identified (Dicheva et al., 2015) the game design methods with
the highest occurrence of their use such as Visible Status, Social Engagement, Freedom of
Choice, Rapid Feedback, Freedom to Fail, Goals and Challenges, Storyline, Unlocking
Content, Personalization, Onboarding and Time Restriction.
The game mechanics are the tools which the game design principles (or methods) are realized
through (Dicheva et al., 2015). In the other words these are the concrete elements which are
implemented and usually visible. It is very common that one game element can help to
implement more than one design method as they are the combination of various approaches.
The most common game elements according to Jayasinghe & Dharmaratne (2013) are
Badges, Leaderboards, Points, Levels, Virtual Goods and Avatars. Many of these game
elements are quite self-explanatory as we can find them in many applications or environments
such as the Credit Card bank reward program (Points), football leaderboards etc.
The goal of gamification is to stimulate the students’ motivation, both intrinsic (comes from
the needs of students) and extrinsic (comes from the external stimulators), and keep him or
her interested in the environment and to learn more. It is based on the psychological
background of theories and the observation (Malone, 1981). The successful studies were
included e.g. in the work of Karl M. Kapp (2012), where are also the interviews with the
players (students) and analyzed how they were stimulated using gamification environment.

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DUOLINGO APPLICATION
The Duolingo online application is the representative of the heavily gamified learning
environment. Like the Khan Academy it utilizes almost all game design methods and game
elements. The Duolingo is free to use and it is working on the community model. Everyone
can join and help to improve the environment, e.g. to help with translation of their mother
tongue to other languages used. The Duolingo is available in the both desktop and smartphone
application version and covers all the most used platforms. It requires the Internet connection.
The user (student) creates his or her profile and selects their mother tongue. Then he chooses
the language that he wants to learn and is immediately tested to determine the entrance level
of knowledge.

Figure 12: Lesson Progress with Rapid Feedback

The application provides interactive design. There are two columns: the left with the content
and right with the other elements. The player undergoes through individual lessons and
immediately gets the feedback (Rapid Feedback, see Fig. 1). The successful attempt is
rewarded by experience points – XP (Points), which then help to raise his level (Levels). The
individual lessons are unlocked in the rows. In order to achieve the next row, the previous one
must be fully completed (Unlocking the Content). Students are asked to set their daily goal
(Goals and Challenges) in the amount of XP per day. After successful row of daily goals or
completed lessons the players are rewarded by so called Lingot, which are the in game form
of money and they can buy the cosmetic and similar stuff in the store (Virtual Goods,
Avatars).
The developers of the game have used the most of the game design methods and implemented
them by all available game elements. Due to this fact the application was chosen as a
representative candidate for the research part. Even though previous research discovered some

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flaws (Škuta & Kostolányová, 2016), the application itself is sufficient and offers the
Duolingo Teacher’s Tools (see Fig. 2). These tools allow to create virtual classes and set
assignments to whole class or individual students, track the progress, make notes, change the
order of lessons, set goals and provide additional feedback.

Figure 13: Tracking Progress in Teacher Tools

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research part was realized through a combination of structured and unstructured
observation complemented by a questionnaire. The eleven students took part in the research.
All of them were girls from the four-year high school study program focused on travelling
and tourism. The girls were in the age range from sixteen to eighteen years. The research
lasted fourteen days in the computer classes and at home. The researcher was not their main
English class teacher and students joined the research voluntarily. All students had their
computer, yet they were not restricted to use their own cell phone.
The Duolingo application was chosen as a main tool for the research, because it fulfills all the
requirements for the gamified application. It was thoroughly described in the previous
chapter. During the research three tasks were given to the students to complete. All were
voluntary and were not forced to be finished.
Both research lessons had ninety minutes as it is usual for computer classes on the high
schools. The structure of the lessons is described below. In the end of second and last lesson
the questionnaire about the whole experiment was distributed.
The First Lesson
The first lesson started with an introduction, where the Duolingo application was introduced
and students were asked if they want to try it. The students one after another registered and
signed in. Then the teacher helped them with the initial settings and all joined one virtual
research class that was created directly in the Duolingo Teacher Tools. Then there were no
more interruptions and students were let to discover the application by themselves.
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The teacher set the three tasks and students were notified in the application user interface. The
tasks were:
Basic Phrases – to successfully complete first three lessons, which contained all the
basics of the English language,
200 XP Goal – to accumulate the limit of 200 experience points, which is about the
amount of ten experience points per day (one successful lesson per day),
The Date and Time – to successfully complete the lessons focused on the date and
time, which are in the higher tier (after eight introductory lessons).
The Second Lesson
In the second lesson the students continued in their previous work. They were asked to sign in
and study again in the Duolingo application. No one was forced to do so if they did not want.
The last twenty minutes were given to students to fill in the questionnaire. They were
instructed about the questions (Gavora, 2009) and how to fill in the form made in the Google
Forms.
The Structured and Unstructured Observation
The combination of structured and unstructured observation (Hendl, 2012) focused mainly on
behavior of students was chosen. It tried to capture mainly the following:
Signs of emotions: excitement, rage, boredom, etc.
Physical behavior: how did they manage to control the application, how was the long
duration of lesson affecting them, etc.
Anything unusual compared to normal lesson.
The Questionnaire
The questionnaire was divided into two parts: the attitude of students toward games and the
attitude and evaluation of gamified Duolingo application. In the first part were given these
four questions:
What is your attitude towards games? (scale rating 1 – 5; 1 = Negative, 5 = Positive)
Do you consider yourself a gamer? (Yes / No)
How often do you play computer games? (Daily; Less than 20 minutes, 20 – 60
minutes, more than hour)
Do you know some of these terms? (Multiple choice; Steam, Battle.net, FPS, RPG,
Dungeon, Skin, Level, XP, Stream…)
The game terms were chosen after discussion with active players – students from the other
classes than the research one.
In the second part were given the questions directly connected to Duolingo. There was an
illustration (a screenshot) taken from the application and the scale in the range of 1 – 5, the
more the best. Each question consisted of the same set of sub-questions:
Have you noticed this element? (Yes / No)
Have you been motivated by this element to study? (Scale)
How much does this element afflict the learning environment for you? (Scale)
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The analyzed gamified elements were the Lingot Store, Daily Goal, Score Board and the
Level Lessons. The last question was the evaluative and the students were supposed to
evaluate how much did they like the education in the form of gamified application Duolingo
on the scale 1 – 5, the more the better and they could leave a message.
RESULTS
In the first lesson the most of the students managed to successfully accommodate with
application by themselves and there was no need for teacher’s help. All students started the
given tasks during the first lesson. Some continued at home on their own, others continued the
next lesson in the work just where they stopped.
The Task Results
The eight of eleven students were able to finish the first task of Basic Phrases and they
successfully passed the first three lessons. The rest of students completed the task during the
second lesson and there was no one who skipped it.
The five students finished the second task of 200 XP Goal. The other four finished it in the
second lesson and one student did not finish it at all.
The three students managed to complete the third task of Time and Date. Other five students
passed the task in the second lesson. The remaining three students did not pass the task at all.
The Structured and Unstructured Observation Results
The structured and unstructured observation brought these results:
Signs of emotions. Many of the spotted emotions can be compared to the emotions
observed on the gamers. If the students were successful they showed the signs of joy
and excitements. They were happy when application immediately rewarded them for
the correct answers. They showed excitement towards their progress. On the other
hand, the negative emotions were capture too. When the students answered
incorrectly multiple times and the progress bar was falling down, the most of students
showed disappointment, rarely anger.
Physical behavior and unusual things. The students managed to control the
application easily. Some at first were confused when the application actively
pronounced the words and sentences to them, but they accommodated quickly. They
discovered the possibilities how to modify their profile and how to add friends.
Almost a half of students noticed that Duolingo has the smartphone application. They
installed it and start to use it instead of the desktop version. They discovered that the
smartphone version works with microphone and even actively spoke with their
smartphone without shame. Nothing of this was explained nor showed by the teacher.
The Questionnaire Results
The answers for the first four questions:
What is your attitude towards games?
5) Positive 45.5 %
4) Fairly Positive 9.1 %
3) Neutral 36.4 %
2) Fairly Negative 0 %
1) Negative 9.1 %
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Do you consider yourself a gamer?

Yes 45.5 % / No 54.5 %
How often do you play computer games?
Less than 20 minutes 72.7 %
About 20 – 60 minutes 18.2 %
More than hour 9.1 %
Do you know some of these terms?
Stream 72.7 %
Level / XP 63.6 %
Steam / Headshot 54.5 %
Skill / Skin / Twitch 45.5 %
TeamSpeak / Rank 36.4 %
Inventory / Boss / FPS 27.3 %
MMO(RPG) / PvP / PvE / Critical Hit 18.2 %
Engine / Dungeon (Raid) 9.1 %
Battle.net 0 %
The answers for the second part, the Duolingo application itself:
Lingot Store
o Have you noticed this element? Yes 81.8 % / No 18.2 %
o Have you been motivated by this element to study? (Scale 1 – 5)
(1) 9.1 % / (2) 9.1 % / (3) 54.5 % / (4) 27.3 % / (5) 0 %
o How much does this element afflict the learning environment for you? (Scale)
(1) 0 % / (2) 18.2 % / (3) 36.4 % / (4) 36.4 % / (5) 9.1%
Daily Goal
o Have you noticed this element? Yes 100 % / No 0 %
o Have you been motivated by this element to study? (Scale)
(1) 0 % / (2) 18.2 % / (3) 27.3 % / (4) 45.5 % / (5) 9.1 %
o How much does this element afflict the learning environment for you? (Scale)
(1) 0 % / (2) 18.2 % / (3) 45.5 % / (4) 36.4 % / (5) 0 %
Score Board
o Have you noticed this element? Yes 45.5 % / No 54.5 %
o Have you been motivated by this element to study? (Scale)
(1) 18.2 % / (2) 9.1 % / (3) 27.3 % / (4) 36.4 % / (5) 9.1 %
o How much does this element afflict the learning environment for you? (Scale)
(1) 27.3 % / (2) 9.1 % / (3) 27.3 % / (4) 3.4 % / (5) 0 %
Lessons & Levels
o Have you noticed this element? Yes 81.8 % / No 18.2 %
o Have you been motivated by this element to study? (Scale)
(1) 9.1% / (2) 0 % / (3) 27.3 % / (4) 36.4 % / (5) 27.3 %

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o How much does this element afflict the learning environment for you? (Scale)
(1) 9.1 % / (2) 9.1 % / (3) 36.4 % / (4) 36.4 % / (5) 9.1 %
The final evaluation:
How much did you like the education through Duolingo? (Scale)
(1) 0 % / (2) 0 % / (3) 9.1 % / (4) 36.4 % / (5) 54.5 %
The written responsive were overall very positive. Some students even wrote that the
education through Duolingo should be compulsory in the English language course. Others
said that they like the way the application allow them to individually approach and practice
and that they have fun using it.
DISCUSSION
The results showed that students were mostly able to study by their own and guided only by
the application itself. Even though they were not forced to work, almost all of them
successfully completed given task in the fourteen-day term. A significant part of them
finished the first task in the first lesson. The others successfully managed it in the second
lesson.
The second and the third task were less successful in the completion during the first lesson.
Nevertheless, nine students completed them in the fourteen-day term and only two did not.
Because the research was mainly focused on the working with the gamified application, the
level of knowledge of English language was omitted and maybe this could be the reason why
some students were slower and some faster in their progress.
There was a decent (54.5 %) students who worked on their own even at home, which was not
required by the researcher. Those six students achieved more than demanded 200 XP. Two
students reached even 800 XP which means they successfully completed more than eighty
lessons. Their progress was tracked in the Duolingo Teacher’s Tools and they voluntarily
practiced more than sixty minutes per day.
The structured and unstructured observation brought some common emotions related to
intense activities such as gaming (Jayasinghe & Dharmaratne, 2013). The students’ activity
and natural adoption of application user interface was expected as they are all members of
generation Z (Bíró, 2014). It was interesting to observe how they used even the smartphone
application with ease and how they communicated actively with their smartphone using
integrated microphone and listened to the voice feedback.
The questionnaire shows that even the female students may have positive attitude towards
computer games. However, they do not spend much time actively playing them. We can argue
that gaming is now a part of their culture. The game terms showed in particular the stream is
quite popular. Streaming is a live show when a streamer plays a computer game, comments
on it and all this is live broadcasted using a webcam and microphone to a webpage. Another
common terms are the level and XP, which are used in the most games and are quite popular
elements.
The analysis of four main gamification element used in the Duolingo app shows not all
elements afflict the environment with the same level of importance. Some students even
ignore some of elements completely or were not stimulated by them. This brings again the
researchers’ idea (Škuta & Kostolányová, 2016) that gamification itself can be adapted to
students’ needs or attitudes. If the application had been tested by the students first and then
offered the appropriate game elements, the non-suitable elements could be left out and
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students will be stimulated by the proper game elements. This approach will be extended in
the next researchers work.
CONCLUSION
The paper presented the gamification theory and discussed the difference between the Game-
based learning and the Gamification approach. The game design methods and game elements
were introduced based on the theoretical background from the previous research and other
studies. Then the Duolingo application was described as a representative of gamified learning
environment used for learning languages. The examples of the used game design methods and
elements were demonstrated on the application.
The research focused on the use of the Duolingo in the education. The experimental class
consisted of eleven female students undergone fourteen-day experiment in which they were
supposed to work on the tasks given in the application. They worked voluntarily and on their
own. Some of the students discovered that the smartphone version of the application and they
quickly adopted it. Through the structured and unstructured observation complemented by the
questionnaire researchers gathered the results. The tasks were tracked directly in the
application teachers’ interface.
The results showed that students were mostly motivated to work on the given tasks even at
home. Some of them exceeded the goals significantly. Only small group of students did not
fulfill the given tasks. Students showed emotions similar to the gamers. The students seemed
familiar with the game terms and culture. The education through gamified application was
well accepted.
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