Digital game-based learning's effectiveness on EFL learners' receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge

“The effect size of the difference, expressed in partial eta square (η ), shows that this two-way interaction accounts for 49.1% of the variance in RV scores, which represents a large effect size (Cohen, 1988).”

“It is also statistically powerful as it factors out some within-group subject variation and can be used with smaller sample sizes (20 or less) (see Larson-Hall, 2015).”

“…of DGBVL on both PV and RV. Sundqvist and her co-researchers have conducted a series of studies in recent years (e.g., Sundqvist, 2019; Sundqvist & Wikström, 2015; Sylvén & Sundqvist, 2012) to evaluate digital games’ impacts on students’ English RV and PV acquisition in extramural environments.”

“Such low ratios of male to female students are common for many English major classes in China universities (see the large-scale stratified survey in You and Dörnyei, 2016).”

“As Zou et al. (2019) note, although a consensus of positive short-term (i.e., tens of minutes to several days) effectiveness of DGBVL has more or less been achieved, disagreement remains as to the long-term effects of DGBVL.”

“…from three major angles: its affordances (e.g., Rama et al., 2012); the cognitive and psychological consequences, such as motivation, engagement, and anxiety (e.g., Yang et al., 2020); and most commonly, its influence on vocabulary learning (e.g., Alfadil, 2020; Rasti-Behbahani & Shahbazi, 2020).”

“First, many studies do not clearly define their vocabulary or word knowledge type, instead opting to generalize using the umbrella terms of “vocabulary learning” or “vocabulary acquisition” (e.g., Ranalli, 2008; Wu, 2018).”

“…al., 2020); only a handful of studies make an explicit distinction among vocabulary knowledge types and draw specifically on productive vocabulary (deHaan et al., 2010; Franciosi, 2017) or both receptive vocabulary (RV) and productive vocabulary (PV) (Rasti-Behbahani & Shahbazi, 2020; Sundqvist &…”

“Previous research has demonstrated a significant positive correlation between gameplay time and RV and PV incidental learning in the long-run extracurricular context (e.g., Sundqvist, 2019; Sundqvist & Wikström, 2015).”

“…language pedagogy has drawn attention because it is able to afford opportunities for edutainment (i.e., a blend of education and entertainment), and may assist in engaging and motivating learners, as well as in facilitating increased interaction and exposure to the target language (Reinders, 2012).”

“Several univariate outliers were detected, but they were deemed to be a small part of the population under study (i.e., three top and bottom students) and not extreme or unusual enough to require deletion (Gamst et al., 2008).”

“In some earlier studies, males were found more engaged in games and tended to dedicate more time to gameplay (Chou & Tsai, 2007).”

“Studies exploring DGBVL do so from three major angles: its affordances (e.g., Rama et al., 2012); the cognitive and psychological consequences, such as motivation, engagement, and anxiety (e.g., Yang et al., 2020); and most commonly, its influence on vocabulary learning (e.g., Alfadil, 2020;…”

“Compared with studies investigating language reading (e.g., Dourda et al., 2014), speaking and listening (e.g., Hwang et al., 2016), writing (e.g., Allen et al., 2014), grammar (e.g., Reitz et al., 2016), pronunciation (e.g., Cerezo et al., 2019) and other language skills, digital game-based…”

“…argues that the ANOVA test is robust against the violation of the normal assumption (Schmider et al., 2010), and that even if the homoscedasticity assumption is violated, results may not be necessarily invalid (Larson-Hall, 2015; Brezina, 2018), we decided to proceed with the RM-ANOVA operation.”

“…from three major angles: its affordances (e.g., Rama et al., 2012); the cognitive and psychological consequences, such as motivation, engagement, and anxiety (e.g., Yang et al., 2020); and most commonly, its influence on vocabulary learning (e.g., Alfadil, 2020; Rasti-Behbahani & Shahbazi, 2020).”

“Laufer and Rozovski-Roitblat (2011) claim that repeated exposure to words helps learners enhance their memory.”

“Previous research has demonstrated a significant positive correlation between gameplay time and RV and PV incidental learning in the long-run extracurricular context (e.g., Sundqvist, 2019; Sundqvist & Wikström, 2015).”

“Some of these conclusions have been questioned, given they are drawn from students’ subjective self-reporting data (Chen & Yang, 2013).”

“In such cases, intentional vocabulary learning in EFL learners’ schooling serves as a valuable and complementary approach (Webb, 2020) by providing more input and output practices through direct instruction.”

“First, many studies do not clearly define their vocabulary or word knowledge type, instead opting to generalize using the umbrella terms of “vocabulary learning” or “vocabulary acquisition” (e.g., Ranalli, 2008; Wu, 2018).”

“Such games might generate interest or motivation for a broad range of individuals, rendering them more engaged in their studies over a 16-week long period, which is a commonly reported characteristic of DGBVL in previous studies (e.g., Calvo-Ferrer, 2017; Yang et al., 2020).”

“First, in relation to those studies that solely investigated RV, this study further supports the claim that gamified vocabulary applications can lead to successful vocabulary gains (Dindar et al., 2021), even more so than traditional learning approaches (e.g., teaching via PowerPoint) (Wu, 2018).”

“A possible explanation for this is that longer treatment time is more likely to guarantee multiple and repetitive exposures to target words in the gaming context, which consequently results in a positive influence on incremental learning of vocabulary knowledge (Chen & Hsu, 2020).”

“Compared with studies investigating language reading (e.g., Dourda et al., 2014), speaking and listening (e.g., Hwang et al., 2016), writing (e.g., Allen et al., 2014), grammar (e.g., Reitz et al., 2016), pronunciation (e.g., Cerezo et al., 2019) and other language skills, digital game-based…”

“…either on vocabulary in very general terms (e.g., Ranalli, 2008; Wu, 2018) or on receptive vocabulary in particular (e.g., Park et al., 2019; Tseng et al., 2020); only a handful of studies make an explicit distinction among vocabulary knowledge types and draw specifically on productive…”

“Other studies conducted in the context of language learning classes had different findings, such as Hitosugi et al. (2014), who found no significant effect for gender in three (pre-, post-, and delayed) vocabulary tests after five 50-minute L2 class sessions by using an off-the-shelf videogame.”

“It was not until advances in technology and digital games became more accessible in the mid-2000s that interests in digital game-based language learning (DGBLL) were kindled in the field of second and foreign language teaching (Reinhardt, 2019).”

“For example, Park et al. (2019) explored the effects of a performance-contingent reward mechanism on participants’ learning, motivation, engagement, and system perception.”

“…speaking and listening (e.g., Hwang et al., 2016), writing (e.g., Allen et al., 2014), grammar (e.g., Reitz et al., 2016), pronunciation (e.g., Cerezo et al., 2019) and other language skills, digital game-based vocabulary learning (DGBVL) has drawn the most attention to date in the DGBLL…”

“Nation developed the word knowledge process model describing what is involved in knowing a word in 2001, and now the model is most widely known in vocabulary studies (Nation, 2020; Webb, 2013).”

“However, as claimed by some researchers (Cobb & Horst, 2011), it appears that a longer period of gameplay under direct instruction (i.e., explicit teaching of specific skills) may be necessary to consolidate vocabulary learning.”

“The teacher-centered lecturing and focus on rote memorization of vocabulary have long dominated China’s EFL context (Yang & Dai, 2011), resulting in tedious and inefficient lexical learning.”

“Afterward, the Kuder-Richardson formula 20 (KR-20) was leveraged to establish the reliability of the tests since the items in both tests were dichotomous (Woodrow, 2014).”

“Nation developed the word knowledge process model describing what is involved in knowing a word in 2001, and now the model is most widely known in vocabulary studies (Nation, 2020; Webb, 2013).”

“…language reading (e.g., Dourda et al., 2014), speaking and listening (e.g., Hwang et al., 2016), writing (e.g., Allen et al., 2014), grammar (e.g., Reitz et al., 2016), pronunciation (e.g., Cerezo et al., 2019) and other language skills, digital game-based vocabulary learning (DGBVL) has drawn…”

“…a handful of studies make an explicit distinction among vocabulary knowledge types and draw specifically on productive vocabulary (deHaan et al., 2010; Franciosi, 2017) or both receptive vocabulary (RV) and productive vocabulary (PV) (Rasti-Behbahani & Shahbazi, 2020; Sundqvist & Wikström, 2015).”

“However, unlike more positive results demonstrated in the game and non-game approach comparisons, some studies found no significant difference in students’ vocabulary learning between cooperative and competitive conditions (Dindar et al., 2021; Peng et al., 2016).”

“…in Part II, since “constructed-response items are inherently less controlled, and may be more difficult to score, than selected-response items” (Read, 2020, p. 550), standardized guidelines for marking were created to ensure inter-rater reliability and to take into account the differences in…”

“…in a contextual sentence and the L1 equivalent was presented to help participants spell out the exact word for testing rather than an alternative (Lindstromberg, 2020 The content validity of the vocabulary tests was established by two experienced experts who are specialized in language testing.”

“…EFL learning indicates that frequent gamers often outperform moderate or non-gamers in areas such as vocabulary acquisition (Vnucko et al., 2024; Jia et al., 2024), communication skills (Seli & Santosa, 2022 ; Toufik & Hanane, 2021), and learning motivation (Ebrahimzadeh & Sepideh, 2017;…”

“Studies in Computer Assisted Language Learning demonstrate that digital game-based learning (DGBL) can boost L2 students’ motivation (e.g. Yang and Kuo 2022), increase L2 proficiency (e.g. Jia et al. 2024), and reduce FLA (e.g. Yang et al. 2024).”

“However, our longitudinal observation is not consistent with previous intervention studies (Jia et al., 2024; Zhong & Hirsh, 2009).”

“…have highlighted that, compared with rote memorization or drill-based methods, the incorporation of varied vocabulary tasks within gami fi ed environments helps maintain learners ’ interest and motivation, ultimately improving learning persistence and outcomes (Calvo-Ferrer, 2021; Jia, 2024).”