How the story gives learners a reason to use language
To help Abby cross a bridge, the learner arranges runes to express a message such as “Abby leaps across the bridge.” The action that follows makes the relationship visible. An ongoing story lets me vary the characters, locations, and challenges while preserving the underlying sentence pattern.
Low-stakes exploration, graduated hints, and accessible ways to interact give learners room to observe, try, and revise. Universal Design for Learning and Cognitive Load Theory guide these design choices.
What the feasibility pilot would establish
The planned pilot would recruit 12–18 English learners in Grades 2–4 and prioritize learners who find explicit grammar instruction difficult or discouraging. The game offers an implicit option alongside explicit grammar instruction. An educator can approve either order across overlapping lessons and document each learner’s exposure and supports.
Proposed exploratory observation I would record when a learner first explains or shows a connection between a game task and the classroom lesson. I would summarize these observations by lesson order, note any prompting, and report them separately from the transfer scores. Any planned questions about the connection would come after the final transfer assessment.
The pilot would examine whether learners can use the game and whether educators can administer and score the two transfer tasks consistently enough for a later effectiveness study.
Two proposed effectiveness comparisons
My hypothesis is that learners who play with the story goal alone will perform better on the delayed communication task in both comparisons.
Story goal alone compared with explicit instruction
This comparison tests the full game approach against explicit grammar instruction with guided practice.
Story goal alone compared with the same game and a stated grammar objective
This comparison tests what happens when learners hear the grammar objective before play while the game, hints, and feedback stay the same.
What would count as transfer
Stage 1 · Apply the pattern to a new example
The learner independently describes movement in an unfamiliar scene using familiar vocabulary.
Stage 2 · Use the pattern for a new communication goal
The learner describes a route so a partner who cannot see it can trace it on a map. The score from the delayed Stage 2 assessment is the primary outcome for both proposed comparisons.
Both tasks use unfamiliar material and are scored separately. The prospectus gives the assessment schedule, scoring criteria, and study conditions.