*Corresponding Author

Scholars have linked improvement in English communication skills to advancements in science and future

professional achievements. While web-based games have been shown to enhance educational outcomes, their

effectiveness in teaching English to high school students has not been comprehensively studied. This study aimed

Keyword: English, Communication Skills, Educational Technology, Interactive Learning Environments,

Teaching/Learning Strategies.

lingua franca in business, science, technology, and diplomacy (Graddol, 2006; Jenkins, 2007; Phillipson, 1992),

and proficiency opens opportunities in multinational corporations, IT firms, tourism, and research, where

drafting emails, presenting, negotiating, and collaborating with international teams are required (Hynes, 2021).

Without these skills, career advancement and global competitiveness are limited.

Many educations systems separate learning from assessment (Black & Wiliam, 1998). Web-based games offer

an engaging way to integrate both (Gardner, 2011; Gee, 2007) and can serve as effective learning and assessment

Koivisto, & Sarsa, 2014).

Significance of the Study

Effective communication is a critical skill for academic success, future careers, and responsible citizenship.

Many high school students struggle with these skills, leading to difficulties in classroom participation, group

projects, presentations, and expressing ideas clearly (Huang & Soman, 2013). Beyond academics,

communication is essential for social interactions, conflict resolution, relationship building, and community

engagement. As digital natives, high school students are often proficient with web-based technologies (Landers,

Auer, Collmus, & Armstrong, 2018).

Web-based platforms offer flexible opportunities for students to practice and improve their communication skills

outside the classroom (Sahin & Yurdakul, 2020). This study adds to research on gamification in education (Aulia

• First, the research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of web-based games in enhancing high school

• Second, it aims to compare the post-test performance of students using Web-Based Gamification (WBG)

Based on the above research questions, the following null hypotheses were formulated for the study:

To address the research question, a pre-test quasi-experimental design was employed. The study involved 100

high school students (48 boys and 52 girls) from St. Ignatius Matriculation Higher Secondary School,

Vellakulam, in Pudukottai District, Southern Tamil Nadu. Participants were selected purposefully to ensure a

homogeneous sample, as their recent academic performance was consistent. Once recruited, students were

randomly assigned to two groups of 50. The control group (24 boys and 26 girls) received traditional lecture-

based instruction, while the experimental group (24 boys and 26 girls) was taught through web-based gamified

instruction.

The study used the Communication Skills in English Questionnaire (CSQ), a 20-item multiple-choice test, to

control and experimental groups. Over a period of four weeks, the groups received different instructional

methods:

1. Web-based gamification (WBG)

2. Traditional learning Instruction (TLI)

Statistical Treatments

The study employed SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) for data analysis, setting a 0.99

confidence interval for all tests. As the data were normally distributed, parametric statistical methods were

applied.

Descriptive statistics were calculated to provide an overview of the data, including:

• Mean

To establish the homogeneity of the control and experimental groups, a t-test was employed to evaluate the

statistical significance of any differences observed in their mean pre-test scores. The findings are summarized in

Table 1.

Table 1: Significance of the difference between pre-test mean value scores of the control and experimental

group.

Table 1 indicates that the control (TLI) and experimental (WBG) groups were homogeneous at the start of the

study. The control group had a pre-test mean score of 34.80 (SD = 3.764), while the experimental group had a

slightly higher pre-test mean of 40.20 (SD = 2.541).

in English through the WBG and those learned with TLI. Table 2 describes the analysis used to test this

hypothesis.

Table 2: Significance of the difference in the post-test performance between control and experimental groups.

(WBG) (M = 30.33, SD = 23.084). However, the t-test value (1.340) was not significant at the 0.01 level, so the

null hypothesis could not be rejected. Thus, WBG did not prove more effective than TLI in improving English

communication skills.

H2: There was no significant difference between genders regarding post-test scores in learning communication

skills in English after experimental treatments. Table 3 describes the analyses used to test this hypothesis.

Table 3: Results of the t-test on learning communication skills in English between boys' and girls' students with

post-test scores in the experimental group.

(At 5% level of significance, the table value of 't'is 1.96.)

significant at the 0.01 level, leading to the failure to reject the null hypothesis. This suggests that both rural and

urban students utilize modern technological methods similarly, possibly due to the widespread availability and