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Lu, F C., & Chang, B (2016) Role-Play Game-Enhanced English for a Specific-Purpose Vocabulary-Acquisition Framework Educational Technology & Society, 19 (2), 367–377 Role-Play Game-Enhanced English for a Specific-Purpose VocabularyAcquisition Framework Fang-Chen Lu and Ben Chang* Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction, National Central University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan // lufangchen7414@gmail.com // bchang.tw@gmail.com * Corresponding author (Submitted April 15, 2015; Revised July 9, 2015; Accepted September 3, 2015) ABSTRACT With the advantages of an engaged and authentic role-play game (RPG), this study aims to develop an RPGenhanced English for specific purposes (ESP) vocabulary-acquisition framework, providing teachers and students a systematic way to incorporate RPG into ESP learning The framework is composed of five parts: goal, three-level vocabulary sets, RPG contexts, a vocabulary test, and a participation questionnaire In the perspective of three-level vocabulary sets, they are semantic sets, communicative sets, and situational sets With regard to the vocabulary test, there are vocabulary assessment for semantic sets, vocabulary assessment for communicative sets, and vocabulary assessment for situational sets In addition, the participation questionnaire classifies the students’ participation scale into personal interest, external expectations, social contact, and social stimulation To evaluate the framework effectiveness, eighty northern Taiwan vocational high school secondyear students, divided into an experimental group and a control group, were recruited to participate in this study The results confirmed that the framework can facilitate students’ ESP vocabulary acquisition in vocabulary assessment for situational sets Meanwhile, the framework was effective in promoting students’ social participation, especially on external expectations and social contact perspectives Keywords RPG_ESP framework, Semantic sets, Communicative sets, Situational sets, Students’ participation scale Introduction With the rapid development of business communities around the world, English-language skills have been considered an important ability needed to compete in the global economy One of the goals of foreign-language education for vocational educational programs is to provide students with the foreign-language ability and advanced professional knowledge necessary to succeed in the job market This development trend has caused English for specific purposes (ESP) instruction to be more greatly emphasized in the last few years at vocational high schools in Taiwan (Tsai & Davis, 2008) ESP is well known as a learner-centered and content-based approach to teaching English as a foreign language that meets the needs of learners who need to learn English for use in their specific fields, such as business, science, technology, or academic learning (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) However, there are some problems in the development of ESP courses Porcaro (2001) indicated that authentic materials and specific knowledge were not provided in ESP courses ESP has been looked upon as a neglected subject in vocational high schools because there is still room for improvement for ESP course design and implementation Authentic materials illustrate how English is used naturally by native speakers Nunan and Miller (1995) defined authentic materials as those that were not created or edited expressly for language learners One of the most challenging tasks constantly facing ESP teachers is how to bring authentic materials into the classroom An advantage of role-play-game-based (RPG-based) learning, students are able to develop their own strategies for dealing with real language and stimulate their motivation to learn Moreover, Tsai and Davis (2008) claimed that ESP concentrates more on language in context than on teaching grammar and language structures; therefore, authentic contexts and language use in typical work situations raise interest in learning ESP RPGs, in which students are encouraged to come across different authentic materials related to their study subject, are highly graphical 2D or 3D video games played online, allowing individuals to interact not only with the gaming software but also with the avatars of other players through their self-created digital avatars (Yip & Kwan, 2006) The learning principle behind RPGs might be fact that thousands of participants can be online interacting with one another at the same time, engaging in a 3D online representation of actual locations (Childress & Braswell, 2006) Moreover, virtual learning ISSN 1436-4522 (online) and 1176-3647 (print) This article of the Journal of Educational Technology & Society is available under Creative Commons CC-BY-ND-NC 3.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/) For further queries, please contact Journal Editors at ets-editors@ifets.info 367 in an RPG environment provides a space for constructive learning and immerses learners in a meaningful communication simulated to authentic practices (Chuang, Chang & Chen, 2014) It is recommended that RPG be implemented in the contexts where students need to learn the knowledge and skills of English and practice them in authentic ways, as they provide active interactions and collaborations among learners and address cognitive issues and foster active learning Situational Sets SS1 SSk: [Situational Session] { a combination of Cj} SS1: {C1: confirm, purchase C2: option, vegetarian C3: ingredient, appetite} Ex: [A long and exhausting hike gave Mark a good appetite, so he ordered a big meal.] M: W: M: W: M: W: M: W: Excuse me, madam Yes? What can I for you, sir? I’d like to confirm my purchase order placed online yesterday Do you have the reservation number? Yes, here it is But I could not find any option for a vegetarian (A while later.) My apologies, sir Here is a new bowl of vegetable soup for you and a green salad, on the house Pardon me, but one of the ingredients is not for vegetarians and I’ve lost my appetite I’m awfully sorry, sir I’ll have the chef cook you another one Vocabulary assessment for situational sets SS2 Factor 1: Personal interest Factor 2: External expectations Factor 3: Social contact Factor 4: Social stimulation C2 Participation questionnaire for RPG_ESP vocabulary acquisition C1 Cj: [Communicative Session Description] {Sentence | Si} C1: {Sentence1 | S1, S2} C2: {Sentence2 | S3, S4} C3: {Sentence3 | S5, S6} Ex: [Dealing with Complaints] C1: {I’d like to confirm my purchase order placed online yesterday | confirm, purchase} C2: {But I could not find any option for a vegetarian | option, vegetarian} C3: {Pardon me, but one of the ingredients is not for vegetarians and I’ve lost my appetite | ingredient, appetite} Participation Scale Assess Vocabulary assessment for communicative sets Communicative Sets Voc Assess Vocabulary assessment for semantic sets RPG_ESP Framework Goal: {Mission Statements & Need Description} Using ChefVille* game to Facilitate ESP Vocabulary Acquisition Set / Feature Icon Semantic Si: {word/synonym+, Sets antonym-} Ex: [Word/synonym+, antonym-] S1: {confirm/check+, deny-} S2: {purchase/acquire+, buy+} S3: {option/choice+, substitute+} S4: {vegetarian/meat-} S5: {ingredient/component+} S6: {appetite/desire+, hunger+} M: Mark; W: Waitress RPG Contexts: {RPG Environment Description} Online Game: Restaurant settings of ChefVille * ChefVille is an online RPG game available on Facebook for free Figure RPG_ESP framework 368 The teaching of ESP vocabulary follows similar principles of English for general purposes (EGP); however, there is still room for ESP course teaching The majority of educators consider the traditional lecture approach to ESP course implementation ineffective compared to active learning methods (Marbach-Ad, Seal & Sokolove, 2001) In addition, inappropriate instruction has the potential problem of leading to poor ESP course development (Kavaliauskiene, 2003) With the advantage of RPG-based learning environment, this study aims to develop an RPG-enhanced ESP vocabulary-acquisition framework, providing teachers and students a systematic way to incorporate RPG into ESP learning Based on the framework, we further studied students’ ESP vocabulary effectiveness, and second, sought their participation scale for the framework in a Facebook online RPG game, ChefVille, to facilitate ESP vocabulary learning Role-play-game-supported English for specific purposes framework To help students acquire more ESP vocabulary in an RPG learning environment, this study developed the RPG_ESP framework, which supplements students with ESP vocabulary acquisition Figure illustrates how RPG_ESP framework is applied to enhance students’ recognition and comprehension of ESP vocabulary The framework aims to help students acquire more ESP vocabulary using organizing words to be learned in an RPG learning environment with the RPG_ESP framework availability based on semantic sets, communicative sets, and situational sets The RPG_ESP framework may be advantageous to integrate the above three levels of ESP vocabulary acquisition in an RPG-enhanced learning environment More specifically, this study proposed an RPG_ESP framework that contains five parts: the framework goal, three levels (semantic sets, communicative sets and situational sets to ESP vocabulary acquisition), RPG contexts, ESP vocabulary effectiveness, and students’ participation scale assessment ESP vocabulary acquisition through three levels mentioned above increases their associative meaningfulness and is not easily forgotten Nattinger (1980) argues that vocabularies need to be taught through techniques that organize vocabulary items to be learned He stresses the importance of organizing items in terms of their meanings Gairns and Redman (1986) point out that organizing lexical items semantically is very valuable in vocabulary learning Similarly, Eyraud et al (2000) also observe that knowledge of semantic relationship enables learners to exploit the meaning potential of words That is, students can access the various shades of meanings of words, which would only be apparent when the words are studied in relation to each other The vocabulary test used in assessing students’ ESP vocabulary acquisition was comprised of three sections Section I was a vocabulary assessment containing ten items covering words of semantic sets Section II contained ten questions from communicative sets In these two sections, there are twenty words randomly chosen from ChefVille’s daily questions Section III included ten questions elicited from situational sets ChefVille, as an instance of the framework, affords a platform to facilitate ESP vocabulary acquisition (as shown in gray in Figure 1) Thus, such a framework is expected to supplement students with recognition and comprehension of ESP vocabulary and motivate them to participate in an RPG-enhanced learning environment Semantic sets Semantic sets contain words linked together by inferential relationships relating words together on the basis of meaning Two common vocabulary techniques that link words in such a way are synonym and antonym A synonym refers to words that are similar in meaning Synonym as a technique has several advantages in vocabulary learning It helps learners to learn the unfamiliar words in terms of the familiar The meaning of an unknown word can be explained in terms of the word whose meaning is known It also teaches learners the various lexical restrictions of the use of a given set of words For instance, the words child and kid are synonyms, but they cannot be used interchangeably The former seems to be more appropriate in formal situation, whereas the latter seems to be “right” in an informal situation Similarly, we have positive and negative synonyms like thrifty and stingy; core and intensifier words such as mad and furious, which we may use depending on the kind of meaning we want to convey (Nattinger, 1980) Antonym refers to words that are opposite in meaning Antonym takes a variety of forms The two basic forms are gradable and upgradeable opposites Gradable opposites are opposites with degrees in between An example of this kind of oppositeness could be the words hot and cold The two words are gradable opposites because other words that can show different degrees of hotness or coldness can come between them, such as warm and tepid Upgradeable 369 opposites, on the other hand, have a one-or-the-other kind of relationship An example of upgradeable opposites is the oppositeness between the words male and female The two words are not gradable because they are mutually exclusive (Atkins, Banteyirga & Mohammed, 1996) Antonym as technique plays a similar role in vocabulary learning to synonym Communicative sets Communicative sets are words enclosed by semantic sets intended to deal with an authentic conversation situation (Canale & Swain, 1980) Another important function in communicative sets is for interpersonal relationship Interpersonal skills are strategies employed by language users for facilitating language learning and enhancing communicative performance (Bialystok, 1990) As an individual interacts with his/her knowledgeable peers, learning becomes more supported, the user’s interest can be sustained, and s/he would get more involved in their learning and, thus, communicative competence can be evolved through the social interactions Learning occurs when individuals are engaged in meaningful and authentic social activities (Vygotsky, 1978) The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is defined by Wertsch (1985) as “the distance between the child’s actual developmental levels as determined by independent problem solving and the higher level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance and in collaboration with more capable peers” (pp 67–68) Situational sets Situational sets in vocabulary learning require the use of “general concepts” to bring together the specifics They refer to the “cohesive chains” of relationships between words of communicative sets in a discourse (as shown in Figure 2) The technique stresses the need for using the context or situation in which words appear as an organizing principle For example, cluster words such as “reservation,” “grilled salmon,” “salad dressing,” “appetite,” and “slow service” revolve around the central concept of “customer” in restaurant setting The organizing words to facilitate learning and recall is advocated by many researchers (Atkins, Banteyirga & Mohammed, 1996) Tinkham (1997) compared the learning of situational sets with that of sets of unrelated words in vocabulary learning The results revealed that situation-related words─“library,” “whisper” and “quiet,” and “beach,” “sunny” and “swim”─were easier to learn than unrelated words─“fork,” “count” and “brave.” Thus, it is worthwhile for teachers to teach students vocabulary in specific situations Gairns and Redman (1986) also see another advantage of grouping conceptually related words together: it increases the chance for learners to draw on their knowledge of the world, making the process of learning and retrieval easier Situational sets in vocabulary learning seem to be similar to what the model calls advance organizers, for it requires the use of “general concepts” to bring together the specifics The example of a situational set was presented as the following (as shown in Figure 2) Figure Situational sets 370 RPG contexts: Restaurant settings of ChefVille ChefVille is the game-based learning material that learners were assigned to use ChefVille is one of Facebook’s online games; it lets users run their own restaurant, the shopping, enquiry and purchase, make dishes, and serve the dishes to build up their unique restaurants (as shown in Figure 3) In addition, it may be a feasibly situated learning environment for problems solving and tasks completion in order to achieve a goal (as shown in Figure 4) Figure Authenticity of the game ChefVille Figure Situatedness of the game ChefVille At first step, learners have to create their own character and then hire their friends as employees The next step, they have to try best to collect required ingredients to level up different dishes in order to get more experience points There are many ways to collect ingredients For instance, they will get daily ingredients for logging in, passing the daily question, or completing the challenges and tasks With these actions, the learners’ participation scale would be increased By accessing this vocabulary frequently for the necessary purpose of playing the game, learners could learn more vocabulary items related to a real-life situation Additionally, learners can interact with others by visiting friends’ and others’ restaurants, leaving messages, and even trading ingredients with them to create a menu Therefore, learners could learn more hospitality-related vocabulary by immersing themselves in the situation Vocabulary-acquisition assessment The study estimated the size of participants’ current English vocabulary in order to compare it to their vocabulary acquisition when RPG_ESP framework was made available The vocabulary test was administered as the post-test, with a total score of 100 developed for this study The participants needed to take the vocabulary test comprising thirty items and was divided into three sections Section I was a vocabulary assessment containing ten items covering words of semantic sets Section II contained ten questions from communicative sets In these two sections, there are twenty words randomly chosen from ChefVille’s daily questions Section III included ten questions eliciting from 371 situational sets The score obtained from the post-test was employed to identify their learning achievement Figure is an example for the testing items purposed to implement the effectiveness of ESP vocabulary acquisition using RPG_ESP framework Part I: Vocabulary assessment for semantic sets Examples: Synonym: ( ) (1)purchase ( ) (2)option ( ) (3)ingredient ( ) (4)appetite (a)choice (b)chef (c)cashier (d)desire (e)component (f)buy Antonym: ( ) (5)confirm ( ) (6)vegetarian (a)check (b)deny (d)reserve (e)order …… (c)hunger (f)meat Part II: Vocabulary assessment for communicative sets Examples: ( ) How many are available for dessert on the menu? (a)souvenirs (b)services (c)options ( ) Exercise gave her a good , so she ordered a big meal (a)appetite (b)apology (c)applause …… Part III: Vocabulary assessment for situational sets Examples: [A long and exhausting hike gave Mark a good appetite, so he ordered a big meal.] M: Excuse me, Madam W: Yes? What can I for you, sir? M: I’d like to (1) confirm my purchase order placed online yesterday W: Do you have the reservation number? M: Yes, here it is But I could not find any option for a vegetarian W: (A while later.) My apologies, sir Here is a new bowl of vegetable soup for you and a green salad, on the house M: Pardon me, but one of the (2) ingredients is not for vegetarians and I’ve lost my appetite W: I’m awfully sorry, sir I’ll have the chef cook you another one M: Mark; W: Waitress ( ) (a)check (b)book (c)contact ( ) (a)components (b)inventories (c)requests … … Figure Hospitality example for vocabulary test items Participation scale The questionnaire distributed to students revealed their participation scale for the framework in an RPG game ChefVille to facilitate ESP vocabulary learning The questionnaire employed in the present study was adapted from the educational participation scale (EPS) proposed by Boshier (1991) A total of twenty items were retained in the final version of the survey and it has a proper reliability (α = 96), suggesting that they had high reliability in assessing the high school students’ participation for Facebook online game ChefVille In addition, the questionnaire classifies the features of students’ participation into the following four scales: personal interest, external expectations, social contact and social stimulation All items in the perceived participation degree were presented using a five-point Likert scale, from (strongly disagree) to (strongly agree) The details of the four scales are as follows: Personal interest: people who score highly on this scale participate in a Facebook online game, ChefVille, for their own interest That is, they care about the inherent joy of the Facebook online game ChefVille, which impels their participation A sample item of this scale is “I learn for the joy of it while participating in the Facebook online game ChefVille.” External expectations: people score highly on this scale participate in the Facebook online game ChefVille because of the expectations from someone at school A sample item of this scale is “I participate in Facebook online game ChefVille because my peers encourage me to.” 372 Social contact: people who score highly on this scale participate in the Facebook online game ChefVille because of the joy of interacting with others A sample item of this scale is “I participate in the Facebook online game ChefVille to make more friends with the same interest.” Social stimulation: people who score highly on this scale are usually lonely or bored in regular life or teaching, and they participate in the Facebook online game ChefVille to meet others and to grapple with the problems in their social life A sample item of this scale is “I participate in the Facebook online game ChefVille to take a break from my routine.” Framework study Research design The study was designed to answer the two following research questions: (1) Do students actually acquire more ESP vocabulary using the RPG_ESP framework? and (2) What is the students’ participation scale for the framework in an RPG game, ChefVille, to facilitate ESP vocabulary learning? We investigated the first question by constructing and administering a vocabulary test reviewed by two high school English teachers to ensure the appropriate level for the participants We investigated the second question via framing and implementing a participation questionnaire Procedure and instruments The study purposed to provide a solution to the problem of limited ESP vocabulary acquisition if the RPG_ESP framework were made available ChefVille is one of the English-language games on Facebook selected for display, and learners will learn vocabulary related to a real-life situation from this game (https://www.facebook.com/ChefVille) The experimental process, shown in Figure 6, consisted of three steps The instructions and grading criteria in the vocabulary test were stated to ensure that the participants truly understand what they were to be assessed on The participants had thirty minutes to finish the vocabulary test, which consisted of thirty items, and was divided into three sections as a pre-test A total of eighty participants were assigned to engage in the RPG environment approximately twenty hours spread over one month The experimental group had access to the RPG_ESP framework, while the other forty participants did not The game was regarded as participants’ additional English learning tool; therefore, they were expected to learn autonomously, with no stress, and acquire vocabulary spontaneously After that, both groups answered the vocabulary test within thirty minutes as a post-test Finally, the questionnaire was distributed to both groups Experimental group Control group Introduction & pre-test administration Logging in to the Facebook online game ChefVille with RPG_ESP framework availability Logging in to the Facebook online game ChefVille without RPG_ESP framework availability Time 30 minutes 20 hours Post-test administration 30 minutes Questionnaire distribution 20 minutes Figure Experimental flow Data collection and analysis To answer the first research question, an independent-samples t-test was conducted to answer the question, “Do students acquire more ESP vocabulary using the RPG_ESP framework?” The purpose for this analysis was to 373 compare the performance between the experimental group, who were assigned to engage in the RPG environment with RPG_ESP framework availability and the control group, without RPG_ESP framework availability The vocabulary test was used to demonstrate the potential quantitative differences between ESP vocabulary acquisition facilitated with and without the RPG_ESP framework availability The participants had thirty minutes to finish the vocabulary test of thirty items divided into three sections Section I was a vocabulary assessment containing ten items covering words of semantic sets Section II contained ten questions from communicative sets In these two sections, there are twenty words randomly chosen from ChefVille’s daily questions Section III included ten questions eliciting from situational sets Next, information collected from the questionnaire was used to answer the second research question, “What is students’ participation scale for the framework in an RPG game, ChefVille, to facilitate ESP vocabulary learning?” The questionnaire comprising twenty items classified the features of students’ participation into the following four scales: personal interest, external expectations, social contact and social stimulation In addition, the proportions of the selected options of each question were calculated and used as the basis for analyzing and reporting the students’ participation scale for the Facebook online game ChefVille in assisting ESP vocabulary acquisition Results and discussion Situational sets effect The participants of this study were eighty students from two classes of an urban vocational high school in Taiwan Table provides correlations between the two paired scores of the pre-test and post-test The correlation (r = 77) between the pre-test and post-test indicates that learners who scored high on the pre-test were very likely to score high on the post-test, and learners who scored low were very likely to score poorly on the post-test More specifically, it means that the vocabulary test has reliability, which systematically measures primarily the same thing both times it is taken Pre-test & Post-test Outcome Vocabulary Test Table Paired-sample correlations N Correlation 30 0.77 Table Score results of vocabulary test RPG_ESP framework N M With 40 78.33 Without 40 70.23 Sig 0.000 SD 12.47 14.17 p 01* Note *p < 05 Table Score results of vocabulary test using analytic scale Outcome RPG_ESP framework N M Vocabulary assessment for semantic With 40 21.03 sets (up to 30%) Without 40 20.40 Vocabulary assessment for With 40 23.40 communicative sets (up to 30%) Without 40 22.13 Vocabulary assessment for situational With 40 33.90 sets (up to 40%) Without 40 27.70 Note *p < 05 SD 7.33 7.60 6.70 7.05 6.34 10.22 p 71 41 00* Before this study, these two groups did not show statistical difference in their English academic achievement (p > 05) As shown in Table 2, the results indicated that the participants in the group of ESP vocabulary acquisition with the RPG_ESP framework outperformed those ESP vocabulary without the RPG_ESP framework in ESP vocabulary test (p < 05) Noteworthy, as shown in Table 3, statistically significant difference was found in Part III: Vocabulary assessment for situational sets but not for the other two parts, namely Part I: Vocabulary assessment for semantic sets and Part II: Vocabulary assessment for communicative sets across the two learning conditions between 374 the experimental group: ESP vocabulary acquisition with the RPG_ESP framework, and the control group: ESP vocabulary without the RPG_ESP framework (p < 05) Participation scale effect To validate the questionnaire and clarify its structure, an exploratory factor analysis with a varimax rotation was performed Items with a factor loading of less than 0.50 and with many cross-loadings were excluded from the instrument (Costello & Osborne, 2005) Through the factor analysis, the final version of the survey consisted of twenty items, which were retained in four scales Furthermore, the reliability coefficients for the scales respectively were 0.80 (personal interest, five items), 0.80 (external expectations, five items), 0.90 (social contact, five items) and 0.90 (social stimulation, five items), respectively, and the overall alpha was 0.96, suggesting that they had high reliability in assessing the high school students’ participation in the Facebook online game ChefVille Table shows students’ means and standard deviations of responses to each scale assessed by the survey developed in this study As shown in Table 4, the students scored highest for both two groups on the social contact scale (M = 4.58 and 3.95 on a five-point scale, respectively), followed by the social stimulation scale (M = 3.70 and M = 3.90, respectively), the personal interest scale (M = 2.73 and M = 2.93, respectively), and the external expectations scale (M = 2.98 and M = 2.03, respectively) The students scored highest on the scales of social contact and social stimulation, suggesting that the students’ social interaction experience may facilitate their participation scale for the RPG game ChefVille In addition, listed in Table 4, significant differences were found on external expectations and social contact scales between the two groups The reasons could be that in the ChefVille game, the participants with RPG_ESP framework availability might have the same interest and more interactions More specifically, they played the game in a well-designed framework, and had the common goal guided by the framework which made the participants interact and follow up with their peers in a more convenient way Table Participation scale for RPG_ESP vocabulary-acquisition survey Factor RPG_ESP Framework N M Factor 1: Personal interest With 40 2.73 Without 40 2.93 Factor 2: External expectations With 40 2.98 Without 40 2.03 Factor 3: Social contact With 40 4.58 Without 40 3.95 Factor 4: Social stimulation With 40 3.70 Without 40 3.90 Note *p < 05 SD 1.38 1.23 1.31 0.86 0.64 1.15 1.31 1.24 p 50 00* 00* 48 According to Bandura (1986), students with successful learning experiences are the most influential source in the development of learners’ beliefs Students are likely to imitate the behavior of those they believe are competent Also, the findings derived from recent research have suggested that exposure to competent students with successful experiences ensures success in building positive students’ beliefs about learning (Siwatu, 2007) The framework seems to suggest a possible way for promoting students’ willingness to share their experiences regarding ESP vocabulary acquisition as well as motivate them to participate in an RPG-enhanced learning environment Conclusion and future research This study investigated the effectiveness of ESP vocabulary acquisition using the RPG_ESP framework and the students’ participation scale for the framework in an RPG game, ChefVille, to facilitate ESP vocabulary learning In accordance with the results and discussion, several major conclusions are made First of all, the results indicated that the RPG_ESP framework was beneficial to students’ ESP vocabulary acquisition only with respect to the contextualized use of words A possible explanation for the result was that RPG_ESP framework could efficiently situate learning in an authentic context and lead learners to learn via the meaningful cognitive process Lewis (1993) 375 asserted that the authentic context makes language useful at once to learners because they can apply diverse and pragmatic language in daily life Additionally, the reason why they had better ESP vocabulary acquisition was because the RPG_ESP framework presents vocabulary in a systematic way that is beneficial for learning In terms of the participation scale, the students scored highest on the scale of social contact followed by social stimulation, indicating that the sociocultural approaches linking to students’ daily life experiences as well as improving their social interaction with peers might be able to foster the students’ participation scale for the framework in the RPG game ChefVille to facilitate ESP vocabulary learning In addition, the two scales of personal interest and external expectations have to with students’ past successful experiences or positive authentic accomplishments, which could increase their participation scale in an RPG game The findings of this study offered three important implications for future research First, the results indicated that the RPG_ESP framework facilitated students’ ESP vocabulary acquisition This finding may provide implication for teachers or educators when the RPG_ESP framework availability was added for EFL students in terms of selfefficacy and learner autonomy This is done with the hope that it may provide an alternative solution to the problem of limited ESP vocabulary learning and teaching This study would enable educators and learners to realize and consent to the view that the RPG_ESP framework could contribute to ESP vocabulary acquisition Additionally, it was found that RPG_ESP vocabulary acquisition linking to students’ daily life experiences might be the key component of their participation Alemi (2010) proposed the role of using games in expanding the learner’s vocabulary as well as motivation It is important because we can better know about learners’ perspectives to achieve learners’ actual needs Also, based on learners’ points of view, it can assist educators in adopting a suitable education model to fit individual differences and refine pedagogical approaches as well Finally, this study proposed an RPG_ESP framework containing three levels: as semantic sets, communicative sets and situational sets Such a framework was expected to supplement students with recognition and comprehension of ESP vocabulary and motivated them to participate in RPG-enhanced learning environment In order to construct authentic contexts and language used in the workplace, the RPG_ESP framework could help ESP teachers design teaching materials and evaluation tasks to familiarize students with the real-life workplace, which exactly meets learners’ needs In sum, the findings of this study provided valuable empirical evidence for classroom teachers to enhance the effectiveness of ESP vocabulary teaching and learning Some of the limitations of this study could serve as future directions for conducting related studies First of all, the newly developed participation scale for RPG_ESP Vocabulary-Acquisition Survey should be validated with a larger sample across different grade levels and with a more rigorous method such as confirmatory factor analysis Moreover, as previously mentioned, researchers can adopt qualitative or mixed methodologies to explore students’ participation scale for the framework in the RPG game ChefVille to facilitate ESP vocabulary learning from different perspectives and identify additional scales Third, the structure type of the vocabulary test was all in a multiplechoice format Wittgenstein (1969) claimed that the meaning of a word is its use, and words are how you use them Wittgenstein’s view of language as social practice is instructive for anyone who seeks to communicate clearly and effectively However, the test scope was narrowed down to gain more hospitality-related vocabulary only, which might be problematic in revealing students’ pragmatic language production in real life References Alemi, M (2010) Educational games as a vehicle to teaching vocabulary Modern Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2(6), 425–438 Atkins, J., Banteyirga, H., & Mohammed, N (1996) Skills development methodology (part 2) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Addis Ababa University Press Bandura, A (1986) Social foundations of thought and 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