Investigating the impact of gamification on teaching english vocabulary to undergraduate students in lahore
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Date
2024
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UMT Lahore
Abstract
This thesis examines how gamification affects English vocabulary training for undergraduate
students in Lahore. Gamification, or the integration of gaming elements into non-gaming
environments, has gained popularity as a practical method to boost student engagement and
motivation in a range of educational contexts. By offering opportunities for active engagement and
immersion, gamification produces an exciting and engaging learning environment when applied
to the study of languages. An experimental group that was exposed to gamification was compared
to a control group that received instruction via traditional methods in the study's mixed method,
including quasi-experimental design. The objectives of this study are to evaluate students'
performance in vocabulary acquisition as well as to ascertain the impact of gamification on
vocabulary learning, retention, and overall language proficiency. The Dual Code Learning Theory
is also used in the study, along with taking cultural considerations into account, to further explain
how gamification impacts language learning outcomes. Teachers’ feedback, results from the pre-
and post-tests, and demographic information were all employed in the data collection procedure.
Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to analyze the data. The results
demonstrate that the experimental group demonstrated higher levels of vocabulary development
when compared to the control group. The gamified approach also enhanced vocabulary learning
and retention, enhancing the students' overall language proficiency. The study's theoretical
conclusions confirm that utilizing games (i.e., Scrabble, Word Bingo, Word Jumble, Vocabulary
Charades and Vocabulary Memory) to learn a foreign language is effective and are consistent with
active learning theories. It also emphasizes the importance of developing gamified learning
settings that are accepting of diverse cultures as well as the requirement for motivation and
involvement in language learning. The research suggests practically integrating gamification with
language education methodologies in order to produce distinctive and fascinating learning
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experiences. The thesis concludes with recommendations for the direction that the field of
gamification might take going forward, particularly in terms of researching its long-term impacts,
contrasting and comparing various gamification techniques, and examining its effectiveness across
a spectrum of language skill levels. The study also recommends incorporating multimodal
learning, accounting for cultural aspects, and looking into gamification for specific vocabulary
domains and other language skills. The results of this study will be very instructive for language
learning educators and policymakers who are looking for fresh approaches to enhance their
students' vocabulary acquisition and language skills at the undergraduate level.