It’s Not Whether You Win or Lose: Investigating the Use of Serious Games and L2 Reading Development

With the reliance on technology becoming increasingly prevalent in the classroom, educational administrators and educators have begun to consider how to effectively incorporate serious games into their curriculums and lessons. Published research supports that early mathematics and reading development are areas in which serious games have proven to be beneficial in both the short and long-term. This longitudinal study investigates the effectiveness and mechanisms involved in the development of L2 reading skills through the use of the novel serious game iRead. Hoover and Gough’s (1990) simple view of reading demonstrates that the dual components of word reading accuracy and fluency form a measure of word recognition, which, along with listening comprehension is responsible for explaining differences in reading comprehension. iRead is a EU-funded project that seeks to create adaptive technologies that will contribute to improvements in reading skills. By collecting measures of word reading accuracy and fluency from 72 ESL learners prior to and following four months of iRead use, this study sought to tie overall accuracy and fluency gains to game use and performance. We also consider differences in game use and performance based on initial proficiency measures in listening, reading, and vocabulary. We link gains in word reading accuracy to the use and performance of a specific iRead feature and also show evidence of iRead’s adaptivity, drawing conclusions about its role in overall gains and gameplay. Finally, we tie gains in fluency to number of books read and number of tricky words saved during iRead use. This study contributes to the body of existing research investigating the effectiveness of personalized and adaptive serous games and provides evidence for their efficacy when used in conjunction with traditional methods of L2 reading development.