Students’ Reflections on Vocabulary Learning through Synchronous and Asynchronous Games and Activities

Abstract

Many learners are now quite digitally skilled. However, this does not entail that they know how to learn through digital technologies. Therefore, establishing an interactive virtual learning platform that connects everyone together in a classroom environment and helping learners become familiar with such media might serve a set of purposes in any educational setting. Today, with the advances in web-based learning technologies, a hybrid teaching methodology has become widespread: blended learning. It is a term used to describe the way e-learning is being combined with traditional classroom methods and independent study. Educators design online materials and utilize them in synchronous or asynchronous ways to suit the convenience of learners and instructors and program demands. In this study with a group of intermediate-level English language learners at the School of Foreign Languages of an English-medium state university, the goal was to enhance students' vocabulary learning performance by using synchronous and asynchronous games and activities that will activate and maintain intrinsic motivation in an effort to teach parts of speech and collocations over a period of eight weeks. The data consisted of a survey of students' reflections on their vocabulary learning experiences through digital games and activities. The findings were discussed with respect to the efficiency of incorporating synchronous and asynchronous learning materials.

The Effect of Music on Moroccan Students’ Acceptance of Kahoot Gamified Quizzing in the EFL Classroom

“…On the whole, the positive perceptions of students toward gamified quizzing in the present study confirm the findings of a number of studies that reported positive perceptions of students toward gamification and gamified applications (Cheong, Filippou, & Cheong, 2014;Stanley, 2014;Dizon, 2016;Zarzycka-Piskorz, 2016;Rajšp, et al, 2017;Yildirim, 2017;Ab. Rahman, et al, 2018;Bicen & Kocakoyun, 2018;Karaaslan et al, 2018;Ortega-Arranz et al, 2019). Regarding the effect of music on students' perceptions toward Kahoot gamified quizzing, the results of the present study, especially those on perceived usefulness, partly agree with the findings of Wang and Lieberoth (2016) who concluded in their study that music and points had no significant effect on students' perceived learning.…”

“…Research has indicated that using applications that inject game elements (such as music, colors, bonuses, feedback, countdown timer, leaderboards, and points) into learning content help students learn and improve their language skills. To begin with, a number of recent studies suggested that these technologies enhance intrinsic motivation and help students learn grammar more effectively than other traditional language teaching approaches (Zarzycka-Piskorz, 2016;Karaaslan, Kilic, Guven-Yalcin, and Gullu, 2018). Similarly, it has been demonstrated that using these tools contribute significantly to students' learning of English vocabulary (Dizon, 2016).…”

“…Additionally, using gamified technologies can increase students' writing skills (Stanley, 2014). Furthermore, Karaaslan et al (2018) reported that these tools help students practice higher-order skills in a relaxed and interactive atmosphere with peers' interaction, instructor's supervision and the immediate feedback of the digital game platforms.…”

An Analysis of Game Design Elements Used in Digital Game-Based Language Learning

“…For this summary, the number of games was analyzed instead of the number of papers. Considering that some authors such as Zhonggen [82] and Karaaslan [67] used multiple games, the total number of games was higher than the number of papers (n = 119). Additionally, three papers were omitted because they did not explicitly test or observe language skills or performed tests that were not fully explained.…”

Interactive Teaching Foreign Language Communication In Multi-Level Classroom In Non-Linguistic University

“…Interactive Teaching is an attempt to project and construct the image of modern teacher, trying to answer the challenges of time. In a methodological sense it is a quest for better teaching techniques and learning outcomes (Hanghøj, Lieberoth, & Misfeldt, 2018;Karaaslan, Kilic, & Guven-Yalcin, 2018;Tikhomirova, Bogatyrev, & Bogatyreva, 2018). From a linguistic standpoint Interactive Teaching modern foreign languages is perceived as another attempt to construe "Language in Action".…”