Report Title and Link 

The U.S.

-

China E

-

Language Project: A Study of a Gaming Approach to English Language 

Learning for Middle School Students

Program/Policy

§

In 2002, the US Department of Education and the Chinese Ministry of Education signed a 

Memorandum of Agreement that launched the 

US

-

China E

-

Language Project

.

The 

project 

concept

focused on

building web

-

based language learning program

s

using gaming 

technol

ogy. At that time

, the U.S.

-

China E

-

Language Project represented the largest 

education effort between the two governments since the normalization of relations in 1979

. 

Key outcomes of this project include

The Forgotten World

program which aims to teach 

Eng

lish to Chinese middle school students and

the

Chengo

program which aims to teach 

Chinese to American middle school students.

Main Study Questions  

§

Do findings suggest that students who use 

The Forgotten World 

frequently improve their 

English proficiency

more than students who use 

The Forgotten World 

less frequently or not 

at all?

§

Does 

The Forgotten World 

increase student motivation to learn English? 

§

What are students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward the use of The Forgotten World?

§

What challenges do 

schools face in implementing The Forgotten World?

Findings and Implications

§

Students in treatment schools with relatively low levels of initial proficiency, who scored in 

the bottom half of all students on the fall tests, evidenced larger gains in reading and 

listening than similar students in comparison schools. 

§

Students in the 

treatment group also reported higher levels of motivation to learn English 

than students in the comparison schools. At the end of the year, 51 percent of students in the 

treatment schools reported that their motivation to learn English had 

improved

compar

ed 

with 40 percent of students in the comparison schools. Teachers in treatment schools also 

reported that students’ motivation improved. This is an important finding because 

motivation to learn a foreign language has been identified by Chinese language ex

perts as a 

problem in Chinese schools and as a barrier to learning. 

§

A

lmost all of the teachers in the treatment schools (95 percent) who participated in the 

project reported that their use of 

The Forgotten World 

changed the way they think about 

teaching.

Study Rationale 

The design parameters used to guide development of the programs included a number of 

integrated 

innovative features that made it a significant R&D pilot for evaluation

including

1) 

incorporating 

the research

-

based benefits of teaching a f

oreign language within a real

-

world 

context to enhance the learning and transferability of

communicative language skills; 2) 

be

ing

learner

-

centered in that it builds systematically on prior vocabulary, word difficulty, and 

communicative complexity;

3) enco

uraging

language learning through creating a gaming 

environment within a real

-

world context that rewards student

s for making language progress 4) 

present

ing

cultural cues as part of language instruction along with expanded opportunities to 

learn about part

icular features 

of the culture and way of life 5) 

adopt

ing

a learning management 

system that integrates problem

-

based learning tasks throughout lessons to provide the learner 

with continuous feedback on progress and for instruction to reinforce weaknesses;

and