Sprinkling Students with Willingness to Communicate: A Playful Poker Chip Game

The UK Government reported that in 2023/24 there were 732,285 international students (Bolton et al., 2025). Many of these students may feel underprepared for classroom dialogue due to unfamiliarity with local academic norms and expectations. Differences in communication styles, interpretations of participation, and confidence in expressing personal viewpoints can preclude meaningful engagement. This project proposes a game-based learning approach to enhance students’ willingness to communicate. Crucial to this approach is the Sprinkle-Sparkle game, built around Sprinkle, a fictional character created to support inclusive participation (Lin, 2026).

This project is supported by the Seed Teaching Development Fund which aims to support smaller-scale innovation projects and the initial development of larger-scale ideas, with no cross-departmental collaboration necessary (maximum £1000 funding per application).