Even though Saudi EFL students devote multiple years to improving their English-speaking proficiency, they struggle to achieve fluency. The present study, however, focuses on investigating the effectiveness of using Duolingo in EFL classrooms to enhance the participants’ speaking proficiency. The participants who underwent this study were 28 male Saudi students studying in secondary school, namely at Sharia Institute. They were divided into control and experimental groups. Data was collected via post-test to conduct a valid comparison between the two groups. The 14 students in the experimental group had been using Duolingo for a period of four consecutive months while the participants in the control group have never used Duolingo. To make a valid comparison of the mean score between the two groups, an independent samples t-test was used in this experiment. After analysing the results, it has been concluded that the integration of Duolingo in the learning process has a fundamental positive impact on enhancing participants’ speaking proficiency as well as improving their overall language skills. Additionally, the participants’ positive attitude towards Duolingo was an intrinsic factor that helped alleviate their anxiety when speaking.
Vocabulary learning is crucial to language acquisition. Although numerous techniques have been proposed for the teaching and learning of vocabulary, the need remains for the research and development of new, effective methods. In this technological era, digital games have proven their efficacy in promoting learners’ vocabulary acquisition. The current study investigates whether the integration of technology-driven digital games is effective in enhancing the vocabulary level by comparing experimental and control groups. The researcher conducted a pretest for the experimental group and a posttest for both groups within a period of five consecutive weeks. The experimental group used 7 Little Words, which is a game for learning vocabulary, whereas the participants in the control group learned vocabulary through traditional methods. The sample comprised 30 Arabic native speakers studying English as a required course in two all-male classes (15 students from each) in the third year of secondary school. Data were analyzed quantitatively. Paired-samples t-tests and independent-samples t-tests were used to compare the mean scores of the two groups. The results indicated that using digital games to learn vocabulary enhanced learners’ overall vocabulary acquisition.
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