A Comparison of Competitive and Collaborative Play for Co-located Computer Supported English Vocabulary Learning
Paul Craig, Zeyang Jiang, Hai-ning Liang
International Journal of Computational Linguistics Research, Vol. 10, No. 4, 2019.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6025/jcl/2019/10/4/134-144
Link: http://www.dline.info/jcl/fulltext/v10n4/jclv10n4_4.pdf
Abstract:
This paper compares different modes of competitive and collaborative play for co-located computer supported English vocabulary learning. To do this we have developed a video-game for learning vocabulary than can be played by two players sitting together by either working together and collaborating to improve their score or competing against each other to see who can achieve the best score. We evaluated these different collaborative and competitive game modes by asking
ninety-six participants to complete a test before and after playing the games. Our participants were also asked to fill out a questionnaire and take part in a structured interview after playing the game. Results from this evaluation reveal that collaborative play is more effective than competitive play for helping students to achieve learning objectives, but neither type of play is effective as traditional learning using vocabulary leaning cards. Collaborative play was found to give around 56%
the improvement of traditional learning with competitive play giving around 7%. Collaborative play is also preferred by most students involved in the study, and the participants in our study considered that either type of game could play an important role to supplement traditional learning in a more relaxed and sociable environment.