Digital Games Boost Language Learning and Speaking Confidence

16 October 2026

A systematic review published in 2023 looked at 110 studies conducted between January 2010 and July 2022 on how using full digital games as central learning activities impacts language acquisition. The findings, outlined in an article in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Digital Game-Based Learning, showed that digital games lead to positive learning outcomes in 84% of interpretable contrasts. The study also highlighted that digital games have a positive psychological impact 92% of the time, with the strongest benefits being increased motivation, self-efficacy, and reduced speaking anxiety.

Digital Games and Speaking Fluency

Digital games that are immersive, interactive, and structured seem to be most effective in improving both affective readiness and speaking fluency. The same systematic review published in 2023, this time outlining 35 empirical studies published between 2015 and 2022, found that digital game-based language learning was most consistently associated with improvements in affective readiness and speaking fluency.

However, the accuracy gained from studying through digital game platforms can be harder to measure and was largely underexplored in these studies.

One narrative study of ten Indonesian adolescents aged 12–18, conducted in 2021, identified four themes: games as immersive language spaces, interactive speaking through platforms like Roblox and Minecraft, gamification enhancing motivation and reducing anxiety, and structured learning through Memrise and Kahoot.

Informal Speaking Practice in Digital Games

Chat games like Roblox and Minecraft were reported by the study's findings as providing a space for spontaneous spoken English with international peers. While digital learning platforms like Duolingo, Memrise, and Kahoot were described as providing repetition, pronunciation practice, and faster recall.

The study emphasizes the importance of the social interaction and motivation that comes with these everyday platforms in providing an informal language-learning environment. Structured platforms like Memrise and Kahoot were seen as complementing the conversational nature of the games.

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Mechanisms of Change in Game-Based Learning

A computational linguistics perspective on language learning games outlines how speech recognition, text-to-speech, dialogue management, and automatic feedback can make games respond to learner language input in real time. The use of voice-based AI chatbots can provide pronunciation and fluency feedback, and dialogue-based systems can reduce anxiety in speaking.

The Melaka, Malaysia-based project on the Chetti language introduced PhonoPlay, a prototype using gamification mechanics such as scoring, levels, and speech recognition to encourage pronunciation practice. PhonoPlay specifically targets pronunciation challenges, style-shifting tasks, and cultural activities, including a Chetti Sound Museum to preserve the language.

Digital Games and the Future of Language Learning

However, the effectiveness of these interactive tools has shown mixed results, with some studies reporting positive changes, others negative changes, and some no differences at all. There are many methodological limitations, experiment-setting biases, and sub-optimal measurement in place as reasons why there are such differences in effectiveness seen in these studies.

Despite the mixed effectiveness, digital games show a trend of support for vocabulary and speaking skills, while accuracy is harder to measure and less consistent. Adolescents seem to respond positively to these platforms as they build confidence in their speaking skills, especially for those for whom English is a second language.