Speaking Snakes is an innovative, gamified board game designed to enhance English-speaking fluency among

Malaysian ESL learners in a fun, interactive, and low-anxiety classroom environment. Unlike traditional,

communication while promoting vocabulary development, listening skills, and speaking fluency. It is easy to

learn, adaptable to various age groups and proficiency levels, and offers a flexible learning experience suited to

different classroom settings. This tool supports key educational goals by fostering motivation, reducing fear of

making mistakes, and enabling students to enjoy speaking without pressure. Feedback from users confirms its

perceived usefulness and ease of use, highlighting improvements in fluency, confidence, and language

engagement. With strong commercial potential, Speaking Snakes represents a scalable solution that could be

implemented widely in ESL classrooms across diverse educational contexts. This innovation not only redefines

how speaking is taught but also empowers learners to communicate more effectively and confidently in

English.

speaking skills one of the most complex language learning skills, and expressing themselves in spoken English

feels difficult (Leong & Ahmadi, 2017). The students did not dare to speak English in class for many reasons,

such as being afraid of mistakes, lacking vocabulary, and lacking confidence. To make things worse, schools

often prioritise writing over speaking, providing students with limited opportunities to apply the language in

authentic settings (Azhar & Gopal, 2021). A learner’s language proficiency can be estimated by his/her

speaking fluency. There are three integral aspects of speaking fluency: pauses, speed, and repairs (Bosker et

al., 2012).

Speaking fluency can be improved by applying the cognitive-communicative approach in educational settings.

This approach can be interpreted as real-life communication, enhancing pragmatic and linguistic competence

(Gorkaltseva & Nagel, 2015). Other than real-life communication, the renowned educational psychologist

learning. By integrating physical board game such as Speaking Snakes, there are three main advantages of

using language games in ESL speaking classroom according to Savigon and Bern (1987; as cited in Kaur &

Abdul Aziz, 2020) which are: (1) students can use the language directly rather than just practising in classroom

context; (2) students can interact with each other using the target language; and (3) language educators can

create a stress-free environment.

fluency showed huge progression as their speed of speech production was maximized (Kumalasari et al.,

2020), grammatical accuracy was increased (Pham et al., 2020), and they could further elaborate on their

points of view (Pratiwi & Mukminan, 2018). Students could understand the conversation, respond to their

peers using comprehensible speech (Arfani & Sulistia, 2019), and express their opinions without hindrances

replace traditional speaking methodologies like repeating after the teacher, memorising a dialogue, or

responding to speaking drills (Richards, 2008, p. 2). At the Augmentation level, students were expected to be

in immersive learning as they responded to prompt cards from either the Surprise Box or the Punishment Box.

At the Modification level, students worked collaboratively to win the game. At the final stage of Redefinition,

their classmates.

students right after they tried Speaking Snakes. The questionnaire statements were adopted and adapted from

Ab. Rahman et al.'s (2018) previous study. The questionnaire was divided into three parts: (1) demographic

items, including gender and age; (2) Gamification perceived usefulness (GPU); and (3) Gamification perceived

ease of use (GPEU). All statements were assessed using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1, which indicates

strongly disagree, to 5, which implies strongly agree. The original number of statements is 18, but only 10

were used. Variables such as attitude and student engagement were omitted from the feedback form because

this study was only concerned with the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of this newly designed

board game.

In the Speaking Snakes study, Gamification Perceived Usefulness (GPU) and Gamification Perceived Ease of

Use (GPEU) were operationalised based on the Gamification Acceptance Model (GAM) by Ab. Rahman et al.

and usability in promoting speaking fluency.

A pre-test and post-test design would not be suitable for this study because its primary aim was to explore

gains in speaking proficiency. The data collected were perception-based, relying on self-reported responses

through a Likert-scale questionnaire adapted from Ab. Rahman et al. (2018), rather than performance-based

assessments. Moreover, the activity was a single, short-term intervention, making it unrealistic to detect

significant linguistic improvement within such a limited time frame (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The study’s

rather than pre/post cognitive gains. Hence, a cross-sectional survey design is more appropriate for capturing

4. The other players from the opposing team will have to listen attentively to the player whose turn it is to

5. If one of the players gets eaten by a snake, the player will have to roll from the Punishment Box and

6. The individual winner is decided by who is the first to finish the finish line on the board.

The findings from the implementation of this language game product are discussed in this section. There are 29

Additionally, some board games connect to real-life circumstances, allowing pupils to freely share their

real world and develop their social skills. Although listening is a skill that can be paired up with speaking,

integrating language games in spoken lessons does not guarantee the improvement of listening performance, as

Hwang et al. (2015) proved. The main reason for such a finding is that students could not easily identify words

in sentences spoken aloud by peers without contextual support. Without being told in what context cards were

designed, students had no clues of the context to help them finish a game.

because of the complexity of putting together the units within a time constraint (Jong, 2016; as cited in Gajdos

& Korpas, 2020). Regarding teaching it, Simensen (2010; as cited in Gajdos & Korpas, 2020) discusses the

importance of using small words and short phrases and working up to more extended sequences in order to

reach fluency. Besides that, language educators can refer to some helpful frameworks such as the SAMR

Model (Puentedura, 2006, 2013), the Gamification Acceptance Model (Ab. Rahman et al., 2018), and the 3Ps

Model (Pham et al., 2020) to implement games effectively in speaking lessons.

implies that the participants think that using a language game such as Speaking Snakes is not the sole method

to improve their speaking fluency, and there could be other effective strategies to achieve fluency.

Generally, there are a few important skills that students need to master in order to achieve speaking fluency.

The speech rate, phonation time ratio, mean utterance length, and the frequency of using stressed words in one

minute are important variables in determining whether someone’s language is native or non-native (Kormos &

Denes, 2004; as cited in Gajdos & Korpas, 2020). Other than these four variables, students must also have a

good command of English in terms of vocabulary (Kaisa, n.d.), grammar (Binus University, n.d.),

pronunciation (Kabelka, 2024), and listening (Reshmi, 2021). The students unconsciously applied all these

variables and skills while playing Speaking Snakes, immersing them in the speaking lesson.

Through language games, learners are allowed to interact with others using English to get meaning or

exchange information (Larsen, 2000; Littlewood, 1981; Widdowson, 1979; as cited in Kaur & Abdul Aziz,

2020).

achieving Speaking Snakes because this game depends on their fate while rolling the dice. Apart from that, the

game with too many unclear rules will hinder the motivation among students to continue playing the game. A

well-developed board game that matches specific learning objectives contains high educational value and is

highly practical in a classroom. As most students are interested in games, they will be driven to follow the

game rules and speak the target language of the games. They will acquire the language subconsciously as they

generate a larger vocabulary through the games. In foreign countries, board games have been widely used as a