Codenames: How board game play affects word association skills and student motivation in an English language classroom

Codenames: How board game play affects word association skills and student motivation in an English language classroom

Codenames: How board game play affects word association skills and student motivation in an English language classroom

Alison Cowan

Abstract

"This exploratory research uses a game-based language (GBL) pedagogic approach to focus on the word association skills of adult English language learners. It employs a pre- and post-test for quantitative analysis to examine how word association skills improve between treatment and control groups. Qualitative analysis of questionnaire responses is used to explore learners’ perceptions of playing the online game Codenames as a tool for language learning. The results of the test scores are not statistically significant due to a small sample size. However, analysis of the data hints at the potential for GBL as an engaging and motivating pedagogical approach that brings fun and challenge into the learning environment."

Reference

Cowan, A. (2023). Codenames: How board game play affects word association skills and student motivation in an English language classroom. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. https://hdl.handle.net/10125/108505

Keywords

game-based language learning, word association, vocabulary development, second language acquisition, english language learners, student motivation, educational games, language pedagogy, classroom-based research, adult language learning