TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAY: USING ACADEMIC GAMES TO PROMOTE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND VOCABULARY RETENTION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

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TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAYUSING ACADEMIC GAMES TO
PROMOTE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND VOCABULARY
RETENTION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

• Amanda Guske
• Thursday, April 22nd 2010

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STUDY DESIGN

• Large, public high school in Buncombe County
• 6 week study
• 2 Spanish level II classes
• 53 students overall

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QUESTION

• How does the use of instructional vocabulary
  games affect student achievement and vocabulary
  retention?

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DEFINE GAMES?

• In this study
• Competition
• Teams
• Keeping Score
• Rewards

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THEORY BASE

• Piaget (1967)
• Vygotsky (1978)

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PROMINENT RESEARCH

• Nation and Waring (1997).
• Macedonia (2005).
• Yip and Kwan (2006).

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GAMES

• Olé
• Piccionario
• Word Scramble
• BASTA
• Jeopardia
• Definitions bellringer

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METHODOLOGY INSTRUMENTS USED

• Survey
• on student opinions about classroom games
• Pre-test
• Week 1 equal amount of games and non-game
  instruction used to teach vocabulary test
• Weekly quizzes
• Alternating weeks of game use and non-game
  instruction

• Tally sheets
• To record test scores, class averages and letter
  grades
• Post-test
• Cumulative pop quiz to assess retention over time

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STUDENT SURVEY

• 1. I enjoy playing academic games in Spanish
  class
• 1 2 3 4 5
• 2. I think that playing games in Spanish is
  beneficial to my learning
• 1 2 3 4 5
• 3. I would rather study alone or do other
  activities rather than play games
• 1 2 3 4 5
• 4. I think that playing these games improves my
  test scores
• 1 2 3 4 5
• 5. I enjoy the competitiveness of playing games
  in Spanish class.
• 1 2 3 4 5

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Likert Scale Survey Results
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Class Averages During Game Weeks
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Class Averages During Non-Game Weeks
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RESULTS GAMES AND WITHOUT
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COMPARING LETTER GRADES
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VOCAB RETENTION RESULTS
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Anecdotal Notes, Comments, Behaviors

• Playing games in class helps me not only learn
  the material but also retain it. -student

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Conclusions

• Student enjoyment
• Increases in motivation
• Games higher achievement
• Games better retention
• Still best to use a combination
• Results will vary
• Individual students, individual classroom
  atmospheres and levels

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From here

• Take results and game ideas for my future
  classroom
• Further my research in the future
• Longer study
• Group activities vs. individual
• NO MORE SNOW!
• Better to begin a study in the Fall Semester

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Referneces

• Bahri, M. A. (n.d.)
• Byk, J. (n.d.)
• Curtain, H., Dahlberg, C. A. (2003)
• Hayes, RT (2005)
• Holge, J. (n.d.)
• Macedonia, M. (2005)
• McGraw, Yoshimoto, Seneff, S (2009)
• Mehring, J. G. (n.d.)
• Min, HT (2008)
• Nation, P., Waring, R. (n.d.)
• On Purpose Associates (2008)
• Rauschenberg, J (2008)
• Rosevear, JE. (2009)
• Webb, C (2008)
• Yip, FWM, Kwan ACM (2006).
• Purushotma, R. (2005)

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MIL GRACIAS!
Many thanks to all of my enthusiastic students,
to my fantastic cooperating teacher, Sra. Baud,
to my University Supervisor, Michelle
Bettencourt and to my Education professors,
Nancy Ruppert and Mary Beth Decatur.
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Preguntas?