RAID pedagogy: cultivating twenty-first-century skills and EFL competence via low-tech gamification in Chinese universities

Following China’s rapid economic development and global integration, the demand for English proficiency among Chinese university students has soared. This article introduces RAID pedagogy, a novel EFL teaching approach designed for Chinese university learners to cultivate their twenty-first-century skills and EFL competence. By integrating game elements like ranking-based tasks and hand-drawn badges with Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, RAID creates a non-digital, task-chain-driven model that departs from traditional teaching paradigms and offers a fresh perspective on language instruction. This model is structured around four key elements: Ranking-based Tasks (R), Amusement (A), Interactive Peer Evaluation (I), and Self-driven Motivation (D). It unfolds in a four-phase learning process that combines textbook and collaborative learning, actively fostering a socially interactive classroom environment conducive to real-world language application and skill development. Through a semester-long implementation in an ‘Intermediate English’ course, the RAID pedagogy significantly improved twenty-first-century skills and promoted progress in English proficiency. These results highlight the potential of RAID pedagogy for revolutionizing EFL education, offering tangible solutions for enhancing language teaching effectiveness and student learning outcomes and providing new perspectives for language teaching innovation.