Sequential Behavior Analysis of Interdisciplinary Activities in Computational Thinking and EFL Learning With Game-Based Learning

Abstract

The study explored the effects of an interdisciplinary learning approach on developing students' English learning (EL) and computational thinking (CT) through two different game-based learning approaches. A quasi-experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in terms of enhancing students' CT knowledge and their EL achievement in an elementary school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning context. A total of 52 Grade 3 students took part in the experiment, of whom 28 assigned to the experimental group learned with a machine educational robot (machine-ER) board game and 24 assigned to the control group learned with a character educational robot (character-ER) board game. Results indicated that both groups made significant improvements in learning achievement: 1) in English-language achievement of learning vocabulary and sentence patterns, and 2) in CT concepts, although the machine-ER board game produced a greater increase than the character-ER board game in both language learning achievement and CT knowledge, and 3) their learning anxieties were also lower than those of the control group. 4) The analysis of behavioural patterns also revealed that students playing the machine-ER board game demonstrated better language-learning interaction, while the character-ER board game presented greater CT development in finding solutions.