Impact of gamification and teacher support: a survival analysis of student engagement in mobile-assisted vocabulary learning

The integration of mobile learning with gamification offers new possibilities for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education, yet evidence regarding sustained engagement in middle school remains scarce. Adopting a longitudinal methodology, the authors investigated the effects of gamification, teacher intervention and individual factors on engagement. Students’ learning behaviours were tracked over eight weeks using time-dependent Cox proportional hazards analysis. The findings reveal that gamification and teacher intervention significantly enhanced sustained engagement, showing a synergistic effect. Additionally, mobile learning acceptance and intrinsic regulation positively impacted engagement. Notably, male students demonstrated higher engagement than female students, while self-regulated learning ability showed no influence. The authors discuss the implications of these results for instructional design to enhance long-term performance.