Readers, Players, and Watchers: EFL Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition through Digital Video Games

Abstract

The present study investigated vocabulary acquisition through a commercial digital video game compared to a traditional pencil-and-paper treatment. Chosen through cluster sampling, 241 male high school students (age 12-18) participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to one of the following groups. The first group, called Readers, involved those who learned vocabulary through intensive reading; the second group, Players, learned vocabulary through playing a digital video game; the third group, Watchers, were trained through watching two classmates play the digital video game. The vocabulary items were first pretested. Next, each group underwent training for five weeks (one session a week). Then, the vocabulary items were posttested. Also, field notes were made. To compare the three groups, a mixed between within subjects ANOVA was run. Results indicated that the Players and Watchers outperformed the Readers. It is concluded that digital video games can be beneficial complementary activities for vocabulary acquisition in high school classrooms.

The Effect of a Suggested In-service Teacher Training Program Based on MALL Applications on Developing EFL Students' Vocabulary Acquisition

“…These results are in congruence with those of other similar studies (Reinhardt & Sykes, 2012;Ebrahimzadeh, 2017). Improvement in students' vocabulary acquisition may be attributed to the fact that using such applications outside the classroom enabled the students to be exposed greatly to the target words and increased their interaction with these words.…”

Effect of interactive media on the development of children and adolescents: systematic review with meta-analysis

“…Age ranged from 2 to 18 years; two studies did not report age 11,12 . Two studies 12,33 did not report the sex of the participants; all the participants were females in one study 10 and all the participants were males in another 7 . In mixed-sex studies 8,9,11,24,25,30,32,45,[52][53][54] , 51% of children and adolescents were male.…”

“…In mixed-sex studies 8,9,11,24,25,30,32,45,[52][53][54] , 51% of children and adolescents were male. The most evaluated outcome was language development (n=8, 57%) 7,8,[10][11][12]33,45,53 , followed by motor development (n=3, 21, 4%) 24,25,30 , and cognitive development (n=3, 21,4%) 9,32,52 . The trials selected for this review used various measuring instruments to analyze the outcomes.…”

“…However, the rate of growth and the use of interactive media cannot be matched by scientific research, which leads to a lack of critical evaluation of the technology being used 4,6 . Some authors advocate the use of interactive media in educational settings to complement learning [7][8][9] , and students classify their experience with interactive media as positive, satisfactory, easy to use, and pleasant [10][11][12] .…”

“…The literature suggests and demonstrates that the adequate use of media is associated with a positive development cognitive 4,9,32 , language 7,33,34 , and motor development in children 24,25,26,30 .…”