Exploring the Role of Mobile Games in a Blended Module of L2 Vocabulary Learning

Abstract

Mobile-game (m-game)-enhanced learning offers beneficiaries a modern and attractive window of opportunity to practice and learn language skills and subskills. Through grafting m-games onto the blended module of second language (L2) vocabulary teaching, this study endeavored to help educators to see if an m-game-enhanced didactic platform is applicable for L2 teaching and assessment. One-hundred fifty two females and males from four classes at Ahvaz Jundishpur University of Medicine were selected through purposive sampling to participate in this study. To embrace triangulation, data were aggregated via of formative and summative assessments of the participants' performance, attitude questionnaire, as well as a semi-structured interview. After participating in Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), the participants answered the preresearch questionnaire. Afterwards, for a period of an 18-blended-session course, they were taught the materials by their instructors inside the classroom and then practiced them through the m-games individually or collectively in dyads in the extramural setting. At the end of the course, participants took part in summative tests of English Vocabulary Recognition and Recall (EVRR) followed by the interview with the instructors. For data analysis, descriptive statistics as well as Olkin and Finn, Spearman correlation, and paired samples t-test were run. Descriptive and inferential analyses showed the tendency of the participants and instructors towards collective m-game-enhanced practicing and the prediction power of formative assessment ensued from it on the one hand and accordingly the statistically significant effect of the manner of m-gaming on the anticipatory power of the formative assessment on the other. As a consequence, the findings underscored the urgent need for collaboration in the process of m-game-enhanced L2 vocabulary learning and assessment.