Investigation of the effects of digital gamification activities in english teaching on students' academic achievement and attitudes towards english lesson

Games in which people feel comfortable, in a flow and challenging are also seen in language learning as they have been in every field of life. Whether it is digitalized or non-digitalized, using gamification in English language teaching affects learners' success, motivation and attitudes as well as language skills positively. Although most of the studies conducted in this field confirm that gamification in English teaching has a positive effect on learners, there are also studies that say that it does not have a significant effect. This research aimed to examine the effects of the digital gamification activities on students' academic success and attitude towards the English course. The research was conducted with the embedded design within the mixed methods research. In this direction, the research was designed as a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest control group. In this regard, the participants of the study consisted of 26 fourth grade students studying in a public school in the Dörtyol district of Hatay in the first semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. In the research, with 14 students in the experimental group, four weeks of the English course were conducted with digital gamification activities. "Free Time" Unit Achievement Test, Attitude Scale Towards English Lesson, Student Self-Evaluation Form for "Free Time" Unit, opinion form for implementation process, interview form and researcher diary were used as data collection tools. In data analysis, Mann-Whitney U Test was used for quantitative data and content and descriptive analysis were used for qualitative data. When the success scores of the experimental and control groups were compared, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the groups. Accordingly, it has been confirmed in this study that digital gamification activities have a significant effect on students' academic success levels in English lessons and improve student performance. Also, it was determined that gamification did not have a statistically significant effect on attitude. In line with the findings obtained from student opinions, although the students experienced various individual problems and difficulties during the implementation of digital gamification activities, they liked the games and the activities carried out during the implementation of digital gamification activities, they found this process different from previous courses, they learned in line with the lesson objectives. Also, it was determined that students thought that teaching in which digital gamification activities were carried out had a positive effect on their academic success in English lessons. Keywords: Digital gamification activities, academic achievement, attitude towards English lessons, primary school fourth grade students