The Use of Edutainment in Promoting Higher Order Thinking Skills in ESL Writing among Malaysian University Students

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate the perceptions of university students on the use of edutainment in promoting Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in English as a second language (ESL) writing. 20 diploma students from Malaysia University of Science & Technology (MUST) participated in this study. This study adopts quantitative research design where a set of questionnaires was distributed to the students. Before answering the questionnaire, the students went through a treatment using edutainment. They had to play an online game downloaded from Play Store. They spent 13 weeks playing the game. At the end of the treatment, they had to sit for the post test. Then they were asked to complete the questionnaire. This study is in bringing positive impact to the society starting from the ministry to the students regarding the importance of the edutainment implementation in classroom teaching. The findings reveal that the students perceived that Edutainment has affected the stimulation of higher order thinking skills in their writing. This suggests that edutainment should be incorporated in the teaching and learning English.