Differences in serious game-aided and traditional English vocabulary acquisition

Abstract

A number of studies have been devoted to the effectiveness of serious gaming in English vocabulary learning, which has reported different results. Some studies support serious gaming in vocabulary learning, while others oppose. This study used a mixed-design research method through two experiments and two interviews to explore serious gaming in English (English as a foreign language) vocabulary learning. Data were collected from randomly selected participants, who were randomly assigned to three cohorts in both experiments: (1) Cohort A, where they learned English vocabulary through the more interactivity-prone serious games-Hujiang Fun Vocabulary in the first experiment and New Oriental Fun Vocabulary in the second experiment; (2) Cohort B, where they learned English vocabulary aided with the less interactivity-prone serious games-Baicizhan in the first experiment and Kingsoft Vocabulary in the second experiment; (3) Cohort C, where they learned English vocabulary through traditional approaches in both experiments. It is concluded that (1) the interactivity-prone serious gaming is significantly more effective than the less interactivity-prone serious gaming in English vocabulary learning at the significance level p=.05; (2) the less interactivity-prone serious gaming is significantly more effective than the traditional approach in English vocabulary learning at the significance level p=.05; (3) males significantly outperformed females in serious game-aided English vocabulary learning at the significance level p=.05. We also discussed the features that should be considered when a serious game is designed to assist English vocabulary learning. Future research directions were suggested that serious gaming in English vocabulary learning be integrated into interdisciplinary research such as cooperation between computer science, education, psychology, applied linguistics and statistics.