Impact of a gamified application on reading comprehension and attitude of Swahili among young learners in Kenya

Abstract

ABSTRACT The on-going implementation of the new curriculum of the new education system in Kenya includes the administration of technology in the classroom. In this study, this was achieved through the use of a gamified app in a local private school in Kenya, a gamified Swahili app. As Swahili is the language that is Kenya's national and one of two official languages, it is an important language to master in school. The inclusion of a gamified app in addition to the traditional material used in the classroom is to increase their motivation, and engagement of the language learning process of the students. The participants expressed the enjoyment that they felt as they used the gamified app to supplement the material that they had been given to practice. This pilot study used both qualitative (using a questionnaire) and quantitative methods to gather the results of the control group (CG) and experimental group (EG) to ascertain the impact of their understanding through the pre- and posttest that the students did. The EG showed substantial improvement in the posttest after using the gamified app t(21) = −2.783, p = 0.011. Additionally, the students reported that they enjoyed using the gamified app to practice their Swahili reading comprehension materials.