Evaluating an online role playing game for promoting the elementary school students´ English speaking abilities

Learning how to speak in foreign language has been identified as a big challenge. Constructing an interesting environment can reduce the learners´ speaking anxiety and enhance their motivation. Digital game can be used for building such an attractive learning environment, and it can make the player to be actively involved in their learning. Nevertheless, little research focuses on enhancing the EFL learners´ speaking ability by means of digital game. This study adopted an online role playing game-Talking Island as a platform in online speaking activities, conducted a learning experiment in an elementary school, and evaluated its suitability by experienced teachers and the students.