Alleviating Second Language Writing Anxiety through Gamified Platforms: An Empirical Study on High School Learners

Maverick Vinales; Nguyen Thuy Minh

doi:10.37899/mjdl.v3i3.387

Authors

Maverick Vinales Independent Scholar, USA https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9123-0083
Nguyen Thuy Minh Binh Duong University, Vietnam

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37899/mjdl.v3i3.387

Keywords:

Anxiety-Aware Pedagogy, Academic Motivation, Cognitive Distress, Academic Achievement Suburban , Somatic Tension

Abstract

Developing academic writing proficiency often poses severe psychological and cognitive challenges for learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), though empirical evidence regarding active technological solutions in high school settings stays limited. This quantitative quasi-experimental inquiry examined how an 8-week intervention utilizing a theory-grounded gamified writing application influenced Second Language (L2) writing anxiety among Vietnamese secondary school students. Adopting a non-equivalent control group pre-test/post-test design, 80 learners from two pre-existing classrooms were divided into an experimental condition, which received gamified digital instruction, and a control condition, which underwent conventional product-focused, paper-based training. The Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) served as the primary data collection instrument. Results from paired-samples t-tests indicated a remarkable and profound decrease in global writing anxiety, alongside its distinct sub-dimensions of somatic, cognitive, and avoidance anxieties, specifically within the experimental cohort. Additionally, an ANCOVA confirmed that the experimental group exhibited significantly lower post-intervention anxiety scores than their conventionally taught peers, with the instructional approach explaining 61.2% of the variance. Ultimately, this evidence supports the integration of an anxiety-aware, autonomy-supportive pedagogy that utilizes game elements to alleviate debilitating affective hurdles.

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