2020–2025 YILLARI ARASINDA YABANCI DİL ARAŞTIRMALARINDA OYUNLAŞTIRMA: EĞİLİMLER, YÖNTEMLER VE BULGULAR
GAMIFICATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE RESEARCH BETWEEN 2020 AND 2025: TRENDS, METHODS AND FINDINGS

Summary/Abstract: This study aims to examine a total of 40 academic studies addressing the gamification approach in foreign language research between 2020 and 2025, in order to identify current trends, methods, prominent themes, and research gaps in the field. The research was conducted as a scoping review; graduate theses and international peer-reviewed articles were analyzed according to criteria determined through the YÖK National Thesis Center, ERIC, Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Taylor & Francis, and Springer databases. The studies reviewed were systematically coded in terms of publication year, study type, language area, research method, participant level, gamification elements used, and thematic findings. The findings indicate that gamification provides clear and consistent positive effects on foreign language learning processes, particularly in terms of motivation (31 studies), academic achievement (28 studies), vocabulary learning (25 studies), and classroom engagement (24 studies). In contrast, areas such as long-term retention (7 studies), productive language skills—particularly speaking and writing (9 studies), and AI-supported gamification applications (5 studies) were found to be addressed by only a limited number of studies. In terms of language context, the vast majority of the studies were conducted within English-focused foreign language research, while research focusing on German remained quite limited. As a result, this scoping review demonstrates that gamification has become an increasingly important area of inquiry in foreign language research, while clearly indicating the need for skill-based, long-term, AI-supported research that also covers different foreign language contexts such as German. The study presents the existing literature within a holistic framework, providing a valuable foundation for future studies in applied linguistics and foreign language research.

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