Running head: USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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The influence of a goal-based approach
on second language learning using games
Tamara van Groesen
ANR 507052
Master Thesis
Communication and Information Sciences
Specialization Business Communication and Digital Media
Faculty Humanities
Tilburg University, Tilburg
Supervisor: Dr. A. Alishahi
Second Reader: Dr. P. Stronck
August 2014
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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Abstract
In this study the influence of a goal-based approach on second language learning using gamebased learning is investigated. Learning a second language can be challenging and gamebased learning is supposed to be more entertaining and to make it easier to learn a second
language. Literature suggests that people experience more fun when they have to achieve a
goal. In addition, people who have to achieve a high goal will obtain a higher score than
people who have to achieve a low goal. An online experiment, in which several memory
games had to be played in order to learn words from an artificial language, was held to test the
importance of a goal-based approach. Despite literature supported the hypotheses, no
differences have been found between a goal-based and non-goal-based approach of a second
language learning using games.
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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The influence of a goal-based approach
on second language learning using games
People learn their first language at a young age, by observing, imitating and
remembering (Saxton, 2010). They seem to acquire a language quickly and without effort.
However, learning a second language at a later age is a more challenging activity. Despite the
foreknowledge the learner already has about a language, the second language learner will
seldom receive the same high level as the level of his mother tongue (Ng & Wigglesworth,
2007). According to DeKeyser (2005) there are several issues that influence the success of
second language learning, for example the characteristics of the second language, a person’s
age, the influence of the first language, individual differences in cognitive abilities and the
learning context. People can have different reasons for learning a second language, such as
education or moving to another country.
Play is a valuable part of a learning process and playing games is enjoyable (Prensky,
2001). Because “when we enjoy learning, we learn better” (Rose and Nicholl, 1999, p. 63)
and “a brain enjoying itself is functioning more effectively” (Rose and Nicholl, 1999, p. 30)
games might improve the performance of the learner. Many different kinds of games exist,
such as action, adventure, puzzle, sports… (Prensky, 2001). Games are reflecting the overall
culture we grew up in, our ethnicity and our religion. Games are specific per culture and age.
Several researchers have found positive influences of using games for learning:

“When words are combined with music, or words are combined with pictures, or
words are delivered with emotion, they are easier and faster to learn” (Rose and
Nicholl, 1999, p. 35)
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
“Enjoyment and fun as part of the learning process are important when learning
new tools since the learner is relaxed and motivated and therefore more willing to
learn” (Bisso and Luckner, 1996, p. 109-110)

“One way to enhance learning is by doing” (Schank, 1999, p. 250)
Also Neville (2009) mentions that game-based learning has positive effects and that
computer games could be meaningful to learn a foreign language, but indicates that much
research still needs to be done. Neville proposes to use computer games for education instead
of complaining about the games distracting from education.
A different approach to improve learning is a goal-based approach, in which goals are
specified and feedback is consistent (Garner and Wallace, 1997). General learning can be seen
as passive learning, while goal-based learning is more active (Montgomery, 1996). When
using a goal-based approach to learning, the learners will engage in activities and will
demonstrate their learning abilities through the actions they perform (Montgomery, 1996).
The goals in goal-based learning are referring to the successful accomplishment of an
assignment (Ip, Morrison and Currie, 2001).
Learning a second language through games with a goal-based approach would be a
defiant combination to examine. However, there has been no research yet to investigate the
effects of a goal-based approach through games in second language learning. Based on the
characteristics of the three factors, the following research question has been formulated:
“What is the influence of having a goal-based approach when learning a second language
using games?”
This thesis will focus on learning raw words in a foreign language, using games with a
goal-based approach. Several memory games have to be played by participants in order to
obtain the information required for this research. At first, theoretical findings about second
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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language learning, game-based learning and goal-based learning will be discussed. Next, the
methodology of this research will be illustrated, followed by the achieved results of the
research. Finally the discussion and conclusion of the research will be presented.
Literature Review
In this chapter, all three aspects of the research question – second language learning,
game-based learning and goal-based learning – will be discussed. The chapter will end with
the formulated hypotheses, based on the literature, to answer the research question.
Second Language Learning
By definition, all second language learners have already acquired a language. This
might be an advantage for learning a second language, because the learner then already has an
idea how a language works (Lightbown & Spada, 1993). Adults learn by revising what they
already know, using new information as it comes along (Ram & Hunter, 1992). Learning a
new language depends on input information, prior knowledge and learning goals (Thagard,
1989). Learning is not a passive intake of information, but it is an active process (Ng &
Bereiter, 1991). Characteristics that determine the way in which an individual approaches a
second language are, among other things, age, motivation and individual differences.
Spolsky (1989) proposed several conditions for second language learning, and how to
measure it, based on his study on several theories of language learning. In one of the
conditions he proposed, he described “In learning a new language, the better the learner’s
memory, the faster he or she will learn new items and the larger his or her vocabulary will
be”. Adults have to repeat words before they will know the word, while children have it easier
since they have a fast mapping ability (Kamps, 2010). Fast mapping is defined as the ability
to form hypotheses about the meaning of new words to narrow down a word’s meaning
(Carey, 1978), which for children is a natural consequence of learning more words (Alishahi,
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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Fazly and Stevenson, 2008). For adults, learning a new language is focused and needs
intellectual effort, which is contrasting with the natural way children develop language skills
through social interaction by engaging in play (Mielonen and Paterson, 2009).
Word learning is a result of repeating the words over weeks and months. Bilingual word lists
– lists of words with translations in the native language (Prator & Celce-Murcia, 1979) – are
given preference by learners, compared to other ways of learning vocabulary (Daloglu,
Baturay & Yildirim, 2009). Learning vocabulary means that lists of words with their
meanings, via pictures (visual teaching) or translation into first language, have to be learned
(Cook, 2008). Visual techniques, such as pictures, are useful for teaching concrete items of
vocabulary (Gairns & Redman, 1986).
According to Spolsky (1989), the motivation for learning a second language depends
on the reasons to do it. The importance of the motivation of the learner determines how much
effort the learner will make to achieve the goal of learning a language. Effort is not the only
aspect which signifies motivation. Gardner (1979) mentions three aspects of motivation. First,
the attitude towards learning the language, second the desire to learn the language and last the
effort to learn it. If the learner is ‘truly motivated’, all three aspects are involved. Spolsky
mentions that greater motivation and better attitudes lead to better learning. So the learners
who are motivated the most will be the best learners. However Cook (2008) mentions that
motivation goes in both directions: high motivation leads to successful learning, and
successful learning causes high motivation.
Game-based learning
One way to improve someone his motivation for learning a second language is by
using games. Game-based learning has an advantage compared to ‘normal’ learning, because
it creates a motivating, fun and interactive learning environment (Tang, Hanneghan & El
Rhalibi, 2009). A definition of games is difficult to formulate, because there are many
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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different types of games. Corresponding characteristics in different definitions are activity,
rules, objectives, and voluntary (Parlett, 1999; Huizinga, 1955; Suits, 1990). Briefly worded,
“a game is a context with rules among adversaries trying to win objectives” (Abt, 1970, p.6).
According to Prensky (2001) a game has three classis characteristics. At first there are rules to
impose the limits of the game and to make it fair. The second characteristic are goals, which
Prensky sees as the main thing that motivates someone to play the game. A goal is something
which you measure yourself against. Feedback is the last classic characteristic. It measures
someone’s process against the goals of the game. Learning takes place from the feedback in a
game.
If the challenge is maximized, the players of the game should be inspired and do their
best (Wright, Betteridge & Buckby, 2006). Game-players learn by participating and this
approach helps in memorizing information effectively, in contrast with just receiving this
information in a passive manner (Tang, Hanneghan & El Rhalibi, 2009). This corresponds
with learning, which is not the passive intake of information, but an active process (Ng &
Bereiter, 1991).
Learning games, also called serious games (Abt, 1970), are different from ‘normal’
games because they are as motivating and fun, but are not always entertaining (Tang,
Hanneghan & El Rhalibi, 2009). Whitton (2009) states that many adult learners are not
interested in learning by using a game, however they are happy to use the game as it is
perceived as an effective way to learn. An important issue, according to Whitton, is that it is
often difficult to align the outcome of the game and the intended learning outcome of the
game.
One key factor in serious games is feedback (Burgos & Van Nimwegen, 2011), which
also is a critical component to regulate the learner’s motivation. When feedback is present, it
might guide the player and indicate what to do next. Providing feedback in a game is
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extremely important because too little or too much feedback can lead to frustration for the
player (Prensky, 2001). Feedback can be used to agitate learners because it provides a
resource of interaction and learning. People expect a reaction on their actions and efforts and
will be unsatisfied when they do not receive it, which will result in a decrease of motivation
(Kernan & Lord, 1990; Beck & Wade, 2004). There are many ways to provide a learner with
feedback (Burgos & Van Nimwegen, 2011). Examples of different types of feedback are
descriptive (how to move forward to improve performance), motivational (to encourage and
make the learner feel good) and evaluative feedback (to measure the performance with a
score) (Brookhart, 2008).
In the context of second language learning, games help to learn because learners are
encouraged to sustain their interest and work (Wright, Betteridge & Buckby, 2006). They can
be used to improve the learner’s understanding in the presented topics (Tang, Hanneghan &
El Rhalibi, 2009). Peterson (2010) investigated in his research on using computerized games
in language education that games present a valuable opportunity to learn a language
effectively.
Goal-based learning
Goal-based learning occurs when goals are specified and when feedback is convergent
and consistent (Garner and Wallace, 1997). The main idea of goal-based learning is that the
process needs to be guided by arguing about the information needed to achieve the goals
(Ram & Leake, 1995). The founder of goal-based learning was Roger Schank, who suggested
that people learn by doing, from failure and from experience (Schank, 1992). He distinguishes
two different types of goal-based learning, namely natural and artificial. Naturally goal-based
learning is based on someone’s curiosity and his desire to learn, while in artificial goal-based
learning the goals are appointed by someone else.
Goal-based learning is triggered when a person needs to learn to improve his or her
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performance at something. It determines what to learn to achieve the goal. Learner goals have
shown to have a strong effect on performances of students (Schunk & Rice, 1989; Ng &
Bereiter, 1991). According to Leake & Ram (1993) goal-based learning offers significant
advantages compared to non-goal-based learning, because learners are faced with a large set
of information that could be learned. In goal-based learning the learning can be more
effectively. Ng and Bereiter (1991) distinguish goal-based learning from non-goal-based
learning, where goal-based learning means that the learning results from setting and pursuing
goals of an assignment, and at non-goal-based learning the student completes an assignment
but does not learn the concepts of it.
A goal-based scenario provides a denotative instructional environment in which the
learner tries to achieve a goal, within a simulated context (Schank, 1997). In order to obtain
this goal, the learner needs to develop particular knowledge or skills. Goal-based learning is
declared as an important motivator of learning (Naidu, Ip and Linser, 2000). Also Prensky
(2001) mentions the goals as the main motivation to play a game. Learning is a natural
process which starts with a goal and which is subject to the desire to achieve the goal
(Schank, 1991).
Having a goal in a game is an important factor for the participation in a game. Laporte
and Nath (1976) found evidence that different goals influence the performances of the
learners. In their study, a high, a low, and a general goal (“do you best”) were set. Results
showed that with a general goal, people performed below their maximum skills. Only when
people were assigned a high goal, their performance increased. Neville (2009) mentioned that
for more advanced language learners an interactive fiction game would be more appropriate,
whereas for beginning language learners a simple point-and-click game would be more
interesting.
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The experiment
Based on the discussed theory the experiment in this thesis will explore the influences
of a goal-based approach in second language learning using games. Because for beginning
learners a simple game is more interesting, a memory game is chosen for this experiment. All
language learners in this research will be beginning learners, because to make sure none of the
participants has any knowledge of the language, raw words of an artificial language will be
used. Several memory games, consisting of pictures and artificial words, will be played by the
participants, combined with five intermediate tests and one final test to investigate whether
the participants learned the words.
Because the influence of goal-based learning differs from the influence of non-goalbased learning and because the influence of a high goal differs from the influence of a low
goal, participants will be divided into three conditions, namely no goal, low goal, and high
goal. Feedback will be given after each memory game, because this is critical for a
participant’s motivation. In this research, the type of feedback is evaluative feedback, to show
the learner his scores.
Hypotheses
In order to answer the research question “What is the influence of having a goal-based
approach when learning a second language using games?” hypotheses are formulated. Based
on this research question, two factors which can possibly be influenced by a goal-based
approach will be investigated. At first the performance of the participants will be examined.
Secondly, the experiences of the participants will be enquired.
Performance. If a goal is set, learners are faced with a set of information that could be
learned, which is an advantage compared to non-goal-based learning (Leake & Ram, 1993).
However, many different goals are possible in games, such as completing a level, beating
someone else or receiving a particular amount of points. In this study the performance will be
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measured by the number of vocabulary words the participants remember correctly.
To investigate the differences between non-goal-based and goal-based learning, there
will be two different goals, namely a high goal and a low goal. Goal-based learning triggers
participants to achieve their goal (Ram & Leake, 1995). If the goal is high, people will put
more effort in learning than when a low goal needs to be achieved. Also, when no goal is set,
participants will be less motivated and therefore perform worse than people with a high goal.

Hypothesis 1: People with a high goal achieve a higher score on the intermediate tests
than people with a low or no goal
Because at the end of the experiment the final score of the participants will be tested
too, it is expected that people with a high goal will have a better performance at the final test,
because they will have remembered more words than people with a low goal or without a
goal.

Hypothesis 2: People with a high goal will score higher on the final test than people
with a low or no goal
Laporte and Nath (1976) showed a 30% increase of learning time in their study when
people were assigned a high goal, instead of a low or general goal. An increase in time spent
on learning might lead to an increase in performance. Therefore, the expectation is that people
who have a high goal to achieve will spend more time than people with a low goal or no goal.

Hypothesis 3: People with a high goal spent more time on learning the words
Experiences. One of the main factors that motivates people to participate in a game is
the goal (Prensky, 2001). The expectation here is that the people who have a goal to aim for
are more motivated and will therefore experience more fun during the game.
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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
Hypothesis 4: People with a goal experience more fun in the experiment than people
without a goal.
Methodology
In an attempt to answer the research question “What is the influence of having a goal-
based approach when learning a second language using games?” and its developed
hypotheses, data was collected by using an online experiment. This study uses a quantitative
method to collect primary data. An online experiment has been carried out to research the
effects of learning a language by playing games in three different conditions. A between
subjects design was set up for this experiment, with three different conditions; a control
group, and two experimental groups, with a low goal in one experimental group, opposed to a
high goal in the other experimental group. For this research an enhanced memory game was
used to let participants learn the artificial words. After the memory games, the participants
received several questions to check whether they remembered the artificial words.
Participants
The participants of this study were recruited through the social network of the
researcher. A URL was sent to participants by e-mail and shared via the social network sites
Facebook and Twitter. In addition, the participants of the study were asked to share the
questionnaire among their friends and family to apply the snowball effect (Bryan, 2008). In
order for the research to be reliable, only people with a Dutch mother tongue participated in
the pretest, the pilot and the experiment, because participants with different mother tongues
could have different associations with the words which could lead to deviant results.
In total 131 people participated in the experiment, of which 102 people completed it.
The variables gender, education, age and test group have been recoded from strings to
numeric variables. Most of the 102 participants were aged between 18 and 25 years (69.6%).
One percent was younger than 18. 18.6% of the participants were between 26 and 39 years
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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old and the remaining participants (10.8%) were aged between 40 and 64 years. There were
no participants 65 years or older. 61.8% of the participants were females. About three quarters
of the participants had a university education (48%) or an education on HBO level (29.4%).
The other participants either attended high school (11.8%) or MBO (10.8%).
Of the 102 valid participants 35 were assigned to the first condition, which was the
control group. Thirty-four of the participants were assigned to the second condition and 33 to
the third condition.
Materials
A total of sixty words have been artificially developed with the online random word
generator Gammadyne (Gammadyne, 2014). The requirements for the artificial words were
that they could not be existing Dutch words, they should be pronounceable for Dutch people
and the words should not be too long. All developed words consisted of three to seven letters
and one to three syllables. These words have been tested in the pretest to make sure there
were no associations with the artificial words. .
For the experiment, thirty artificial words have been randomly combined with a true to
life image and after that the combinations have been divided over the five different stages in
the experiment. An online experiment consisting of ten memory games including several
multiple choice questions has been designed in order to carry out the research.
Design
The experiment had an independent groups design, in which people who were
randomly divided in three different conditions would be compared. A central feature of any
experiment is the fact that it entails a comparison. Because there are two manipulations and a
control group, three conditions have been established. The first condition is the control group,
the second group is the experimental group in which people were assigned a low goal, and the
third group was also an experimental group, and the participants in this group were assigned a
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high goal. The designed experiment consisted out of ten memory games, five intermediate
tests, one final test and a small survey, which only had closed questions with pre-coded
responses, with the purpose of obtaining quantitative data.
All participants in the experiment have randomly been assigned to one of the three test
groups. All important data of the participants were saved, which includes test group, age
category, gender, education level, and native language, but also the time they started and
finished the experiment, the time they spent on each memory game, the number of correct
answers to the multiple choice questions and the answers they gave to the questions they
received after the experiment.
To test the materials and design of the experiment, a pretest and a pilot were held.
When the pilot had been carried out successfully and only positive feedback was gained, some
small changes were performed to optimize the online experiment, such as ‘deactivating’ the
“backwards” button in the internet browser to prevent participants from cheating. Besides
this, the possibility to share the experiment online was added at the end of the experiment.
Pretest. A pretest has been held to test the sixty words of the artificial language. The
aim of the pretest was to find the associations Dutch people had with the artificially developed
words in order to use only words without common associations. Ten people, varying in age
(M = 33, SD = 14.3) and gender (60% female), participated in this pretest, in which they had
to explain their association with the artificial words. Some of the words appeared to bring up
corresponding associations between the people and therefore these words were excluded from
the list of words used in the experiment. Examples of the excluded words were penut, which
was associated with peanut or peanut butter by seven out of ten people. Broltis was associated
with “sickness” by six of the people and racars was associated by six people with “racecar”
or “garage”. All thirty words used in the final experiment were associated with the same word
at maximum twice in the pretest.
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Pilot. In order to test the online experiment, a pilot was done among nine people. The
pilot was held to check if the experiment worked the way it should work, to test the conditions
and to observe whether or not the goals were reliable and whether the test person found
anything unclear. Each condition was tested by three persons by at least one male and one
female and from at least two different age groups in order to check for the reliability in the
research. The results of the pilot are attached in Appendix A.
Procedure
The participants have been randomly divided into one of the two experimental
conditions or the control condition. All participants received the same words to learn and tests
to perform, but in the experimental conditions the participants were assigned to a goal which
they had to try to achieve. In the first experimental condition the goal was low (“The goal is to
answer two out of the six questions after the game correctly”) and in the second experimental
condition the goal was high (“The goal is to answer five out of the six questions after the
game correctly”). The online game consisted of several parts:
1.
Introduction
The experiment started with a welcome page and an explanation of what was expected from
the participants. At the following page, some background characteristics (gender, age, level of
education, native language) were asked.
2.
Example phase
The experiment then continued with a small memory game consisting of four memory cards.
The goal of the example phase was to get people used to how the memory game worked.
After the example memory game the meaning of one of the pictures was asked to prepare the
participants for the questions that would occur after the games.
3.
Training phase
In the control condition, the participants started the game right after the example was finished.
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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The two experimental groups got to see on their screens which goal they had to obtain. The
experiment then started for real by letting the participant play a memory game with six pairs
of words. Each pair of cards consisted of one card where the picture was large and the word
was small, and one card where the word was printed large and the picture was smaller. A
snapshot of a training session is shown in figure 1. All cards used in the memory game are
attached in Appendix B. The memory cards have been randomly spread. When the participant
finds two memory cards that form a pair together, the memory cards will stay open and the
participant can continue the game. When the participant finished the memory game, he was
automatically redirected to a second memory game, where the same memory cards were used,
but randomly spread again. Examples of different stages of the experiment are attached in
Appendix C. After the participant finished the second memory game, he was redirected to the
testing phase.
Figure 1
Snapshot of a training session
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4.
Testing phase
After the second memory game the participants answered questions to check how many of the
words they had remembered. The participants saw one of the pictures from the memory game,
and four possible answers of which the participants had to pick the right meaning of the
picture in the artificial language. An example has been attached in Appendix B. In total six
questions were asked about all six learned words. After the questions were answered, the
achieved score of the test was shown.
In total the participants learned 30 artificial words in the experiment. In the first
memory game they learned six words. After the testing phase the participants went further to
a new training phase in which they had to play a memory game twice again, but now with six
new words. After the training phase, the participants again moved to the testing phase in
which they had to answer six questions. This continued until they had learned all 30 words, so
in total the participants had a training phase five times and a testing phase five times.
5.
Final test
After learning all 30 words, the participants arrived at the final test phase, in which they
answered ten questions about the learned words. Also in these questions four possible answers
were given and the participant had to pick the right answer.
6.
Evaluation
After the final test, the participants were shown some statements about their experiences with
the test. Based on the hypothesis, the statements “I liked it” and “I thought it was boring”
were given, which the participants had to answer on a five-point Likert scale. Other
statements were: “I am motivated to learn a foreign language” and “I like to play games”,
because the opinions about these questions could perhaps be of influence on the test results.
On the last page of the experiment the participants were expressed gratitude for their
participation and they were asked to share the experiment. Also if they would like to receive
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more information about the research, an email address was given were they could ask their
questions.
Variables
For this research, one independent variable was used, and several dependent variables
have been used.
Independent variable. In order to determine whether the independent variable has an
influence on the dependent variable, the independent variable has to be manipulated (Bryan,
2008). The independent variable in this study is the goal setting mechanism, which is
manipulated in three conditions, namely one control group and two experimental groups.
Using two different experimental groups provided the opportunity to compare the two groups,
so not only the differences between a goal and no goal can be tested, but also the differences
between different goals set.
1.
Control group
This group did not get a goal for the test; they only got the explanation of what was
expected from them.
2.
Experimental group: low goal
This group got a goal for the test, after the explanation. It was a low goal, based on
Miller’s law (Miller, 1956), which says that people remember in their short-term memory
seven items, plus or minus two. There was assumed that people could remember nine
(seven plus two) items out of the total of 30 words. Therefore the goal for this
experimental group was 30%, which meant a goal of two out of six words for the each
separate intermediate test.
3.
Experimental group: high goal
This experimental group got a high goal for the test, namely 80%, which meant to have a
score of five out of six correct learned words after two memory games. This number is
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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based on the research of Chi et al (1989) who investigated that people remember 80% of
the things they see and do.
Dependent variable. For the different hypotheses, several dependent variables have
been used. The first two hypotheses used the outcomes of the small tests and the final test.
These variables are measured as the total number of correctly remembered words. The third
hypothesis has been tested using the measurements of time spent on both the whole
experiment and time spent on the games. The time spent on the whole experiment includes the
time spent on filling in background characteristics and final questions. The time spent on the
games will be measured by adding the times of the ten games together and divide this number
by ten, to get the average time per person in seconds. The last hypothesis will be tested with
two of the statements asked after the experiment is completed, namely “I liked it” and “I
thought it was boring”, both measured on a five-point Likert scale.
Measurements
This study aims to research whether or not the performance of language learning is
influenced by the assignment of goals. Not only a high and a low goal will be compared
against each other, also having a goal or not will be researched. All participants have played
ten memory games and after every two games they were asked the word meanings of the
pictures used in the memory game.
To answer the first two hypotheses, respectively the number of correct answers of the
small tests and the number of correct answers of the total test are measured and used to
compare the groups. For the participants in the two experimental groups the goal was to
remember either two or five words, the control group did not get a goal, but just got the
message to play the game and try to remember the words. Nothing was mentioned about the
time they had to finish the memory game, however this was measured in order to answer the
third hypothesis, since the assumption was that people with a high goal spend more time on
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
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learning the words and thus on the memory games. The last hypothesis will be tested using
the statements “I liked it” and “I thought it was boring”, measured on a five-point Likert
scale, consisting of the possible answers totally agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and totally
disagree.
Results
In this chapter the outcomes of the experiment are presented. All data of participants
who completed the experiment have been exported from an internet server. All analyses in
this chapter have been carried out with SPSS.
Hypothesis 1
The first hypothesis, People with a high goal achieve a higher score on the
intermediate tests than people with a low or no goal, will be tested using the separate results
of the small tests and the total result of the small tests. One participant was deleted because it
was an extreme outlier (see figure 2). Data cleaning is a contentious area, but no data cleaning
may lead to misleading results when there is an extreme outlier (Burns and Burns, 2009). The
mean results of the test scores of the participants are shown in table 1.
Figure 2
Box plot of correct answers test group 3
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
21
Table 1
Results of the separate intermediate tests and the total of the intermediate tests per testgroup
Mean
SD
Correct answers test 1
4.8
1.431
Correct answers test 2
5.23
1.031
Correct answers test 3
5.57
0.778
Correct answers test 4
5.46
1.120
Correct answers test 5
5.51
0.951
Total
26.57
4.118
Correct answers test 1
4.88
1.066
Correct answers test 2
5.35
1.041
Correct answers test 3
5.38
1.045
Correct answers test 4
5.41
0.892
Correct answers test 5
5.35
0.812
Total
26.38
3.508
Correct answers test 1
5.12
1.219
Correct answers test 2
5.33
1.267
Correct answers test 3
5.42
1.091
Correct answers test 4
5.45
0.938
Correct answers test 5
5.39
0.788
Total
26.73
3.867
Testgroup 1
Testgroup 2
Testgroup 3
Because of the variables – a categorical independent variable and continuous
dependent variables – an analysis of variance was chosen. However, the dataset of this study
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
22
didn’t meet the requirements of an ANOVA to investigate the first hypothesis (Smits &
Edens, 2009), because although Levene’s test showed the variances between the groups were
equal (F=0.075, p = .927), the three groups were not random and independent, and a
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed a p <.05 in two out of the three groups. Instead of an
ANOVA, a Kruskal-Wallis test has been performed.
A Kruskal-Wallis test has been carried out to investigate if there are significant
differences between the total and separate results of the small tests in the three different
conditions. When the Kruskal-Wallis test is used, SPSS changes the original numbers by
ranking numbers when performing the test. This test using the dependent variable total score
of intermediate tests showed no significant difference between the medians χ² (2, N = 102) =
0.738, p = .691, eta squared = .007. Neither the results of the separate results of the test were
significant in the Kruskal-Wallis test as shown in table 2.
Table 2
Results of the Kruskal-Wallis test
χ²
Sig.
eta squared
Correct answers test 1
1.799
.407
0.018
Correct answers test 2
0.949
.622
0.009
Correct answers test 3
0.283
.868
0.003
Correct answers test 4
0.753
.686
0.007
Correct answers test 5
2.079
.354
0.021
A Mann-Whitney test, performed to investigate the pair-wise comparisons, shows no
significant difference between the test group with the high goal compared to the other two
groups when looking at the scores of all tests together (U = 1050.5, p = .524). Also, none of
the separate small tests showed a significant difference (see table 3). Because the assumption
of a normal distribution was not met, these results should be interpreted with caution. Since
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
23
no significant difference has been found, the hypothesis that people with a high goal score
higher on the intermediate tests could not be accepted.
Table 3
Results of the Mann-Whitney test
U
Significance
Correct answers test 1
965.0
0.188
Correct answers test 2
1062.5
0.523
Correct answers test 3
1134.5
0.972
Correct answers test 4
1129.5
0.937
Correct answers test 5
1078.5
0.622
Hypothesis 2
To test the hypothesis People with a high goal score higher on the final test than
people with a low or no goal the variable final test score was used. The results of the final test
are shown in table 4.
Table 4
Results of the final test per test group
Mean
SD
Test group 1
8.77
1.395
Test group 2
8.88
1.472
Test group 3
8.88
1.317
Also for this hypothesis a Kruskal-Wallis test has been performed, because despite
Levene’s test showed a significance (F = 0.202) of p = .818, the groups were not normally
distributed because the Kolomogorov-Smirnov-test showed p <.05. The results of the
Kruskal-Wallis test indicate that there is no significant difference in the mean ranks of the test
χ ² (2, N = 102) = 0.346, p = .841, eta squared = .003. The Mann-Whitney test showed no
significant difference (U = 1134.0, p = .973). However, since the assumption of a normal
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
24
distribution within the groups could not be assumed, these results should be interpreted with
discretion. The second hypothesis should be rejected, because no significant evidence has
been found.
Hypothesis 3
The third hypothesis “People with a high goal spent more time on learning the words”
will be tested with two dependent variables, namely the total time spent on the experiment
and the time spent on each game. On average, people spent 17 minutes and 17 seconds on the
total experiment (SD = 0:21:23), but after deleting six extreme outliers between 30 and 221
minutes (marked with an asterisk in Appendix D, figure 3), the average time decreased (M =
13:43, SD = 3:25) to a minimum of 8:44 and a maximum of 24:07. The main results are
shown in the box plots in figure 4.
Figure 3
Boxplot of the total time of the experiment in hours of all participants
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
25
Figure 4
Box plots of the total time spent on the experiment, per test group
Levene’s test (F = 0.628) showed a significance of 0.536, which indicated that no
ANOVA could be performed again. Instead, a Kruskal-Wallis test was completed, which
showed a χ ² (2, N = 99) = 1.235, p = .539, eta squared = .013. The Mann-Whitney test
showed also no significance difference (U = 991.5, p = .452).
The two extreme outliers of spending on average more than 90 seconds on a memory
game, which has been calculated by the total time spent on the games divided by the number
of games, have been deleted (see figure 5). People spent on average 42.9 seconds on a
memory game, with an SD of 10.3 seconds with a minimum of 23.7 seconds and a maximum
of 79.0. The differences per group are shown in table 5.
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
26
Figure 5
Box plot of the average time of the intermediate tests in seconds of all participants
Table 5
Statistics of average time of all tests
Mean
SD
Minimum
Maximum
Test group 1 (control)
41.9
10.5
27.2
79.0
Test group 2 (low goal)
42.2
9.5
28.3
71.0
Test group 3 (high goal)
44.6
10.7
23.7
68.0
Levene’s test (F=0.384) of the variable time spent on each game showed a significance
of 0.628, but since the groups were not normally distributed, no ANOVA could be performed
for this hypothesis either. A Kruskal-Wallis test indicated no significant effect between the
different test groups (χ ² (2, N = 100) = 1.544, p = .462, eta squared = .0.16). Also here the
Mann-Whitney test showed no significant difference between the people with a high goal and
the other two groups (U = 940.5, p = .226). For these results the assumption of a normal
distribution within groups could not be assumed and therefore the test results should be
interpreted with caution. Since no significant evidence has been found in neither the total time
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
27
of the experiment, nor in the times of the separate tests, the third hypothesis should be
rejected.
Hypothesis 4
The last hypothesis “People with a goal experience more fun in the experiment than
people without a goal” will be tested using two dependent variables, namely “I liked it” and
“I thought it was boring”. The results of these variables are visible in tables 6 and 7.
Table 6
Descriptive statistics of dependent variable “the experiment was fun”
Totally agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Totally disagree
Test group 1 (no goal)
28.4%
58.2%
9.0%
4.5%
0.0%
Test group 2 & 3 (with goal)
34.3%
57.1%
5.7%
2.9%
0.0%
Total
30.4%
57.8%
7.8%
3.9%
0.0%
Table 7
Descriptive statistics of dependent variable “the experiment was boring”
Totally agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Totally disagree
Test group 1 (no goal)
0.0%
6.0%
13.4%
50.7%
29.9%
Test group 2 & 3 (with goal)
0.0%
11.4%
8.6%
60.0%
20.0%
Total
0.0%
7.8%
11.8%
53.9%
26.5%
The first of these variables showed in Levene’s test (F=1,243) a significance level of
.293. A Kruskal-Wallis test of this variable showed no significant difference between the
three test groups (χ ² (2, N = 102) = 0.681, p = .712, eta squared = 0.007). A Mann-Whitney
test showed no significant evidence to support the hypothesis (U = 1071.5, p = .420).
The dependent variable “I thought it was boring” was significant in Levene’s test
(F=3.179, p = .046) so for this variable none of requirements of an ANOVA were met.
Therefore also here a Kruskal-Wallis test has been performed (χ ² (2, N = 102) = 0.882, p =
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
28
.643, eta squared = 0.009). The Mann-Whitney test showed no significant difference between
people with and people without a goal (U = 1062.5, p = .939). Because the assumptions of a
normal distribution were not met, the results should be interpreted with discretion. Since no
difference was found, also the last hypothesis should be rejected.
Discussion and conclusion
This research has been conducted in order to answer the following research question:
“What is the influence of having a goal-based approach when learning a second language
using games?” An online experiment with 102 participants was conducted to get insights in
order to answer the research question. In this chapter the main findings, discussion and
limitations and recommendations will be discussed and the chapter will be finished with a
conclusion.
Discussion
This study explored the effects of goal-based learning on learning a second language
using games. Hypothesis 1, people with a high goal achieve a higher score on the
intermediate tests than people with a low or no goal, could not be accepted, because there was
no significant difference between the third group and the other two groups regarding the
results of the small tests during the experiment. This means that participants in the third test
group did not receive higher scores than participants in the other test groups, in spite of the
results of Laporte and Nath’s (1976) study, where evidence was found that different goals
influenced the performance of the learners because when a general or low goal was set,
people performed below their maximum skills.
The second hypothesis, people with a high goal score higher on the final test than
people with a low or no goal was formulated because the expectation was that participants in
the third group would take more effort to learn the artificial words and therefore would
remember more of the words at the end of the test, compared to the other two groups.
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
29
However, because no significant difference was found between groups, this hypothesis cannot
be accepted either. People with a high goal to achieve did not score higher on the final test
than people with a low goal or without a goal, despite the findings of Schunk and Rice (1989)
and Ng and Bereiter (1991) who state that goals have a strong effect on performance.
Hypothesis 3, people with a high goal spent more time on learning the words, was
studied by using the results of the total time spent on the experiment and the time spent on the
games in the experiment. No significance was found for this hypothesis, which means it has to
be rejected. People with a high goal to achieve did not spend more time on the games or on
the total experiment than people in the other two test groups, despite the literature of Laporte
and Nath (1976) supporting an increase of learning time when a high goal is assigned.
Hypothesis 4, people with a goal experience more fun in the experiment than people
without a goal, couldn’t be accepted either, because no significant differences were found
between the test groups and the two dependent variables “I liked it” and “I thought it was
boring”. Although Prensky (2001) defined a goal as being one of the main motivational
factors for participation in a game, in this study having a goal assigned did not lead to a more
fun experience.
None of the hypotheses formulated based on the literature about second language
learning, goal-based learning and game-based learning could be accepted in this study,
because neither one of the test groups showed a significant difference in any of the dependent
variables. Since no significant evidence has been found, this research could not confirm that a
goal-based approach of second language learning using games leads to better learning results.
The lack of discovering significant differences between different test groups could be
due to the fact that people are goal-oriented as species (Prensky, 2001). People want to do
their best, and perhaps in this research the people in all test groups unconsciously had a goal
set themselves to perform as good as possible.
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
30
Each test consisted of several multiple choice questions. This means that when a
participant didn’t know the correct answer, a guess could result in a correct answer, which
would have influenced the number of remembered words. Another option is when the
participant didn’t know the correct answer, he could scratch the words he remembered to be
not the correct answer. An improvement of this research would have been to let the
participants fill in the words themselves, to investigate exactly if the artificial words have
been remembered correctly by the participant.
Besides a different way of testing, also some questions should probably have been
asked in a different order: the statements “I like to play games” and “I am motivated to learn a
foreign language” should have been asked before the experiment started, because since they
were asked after the experiment, the answers of this questions might have been influenced by
the experiment and no assumptions could be tested with the results. The descriptive statistics
of these dependent variables are given in tables 8 and 9. In test group 1, the control group,
none of the participants disagreed about liking to play games, in test group 2, where people
had to obtain a low goal, 14.7% disagreed. The question hereby is whether the differences are
due to the experiment they participated in or due to their opinion about games and learning a
second language in general. These questions should have been asked before the experiment to
check the distribution of these variables between the three different test groups.
Table 8
Descriptive statistics of dependent variable “I am motivated to learn a foreign language”
Totally agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Totally disagree
Test group 1 (control)
31.4%
25.7%
25.7%
11.4%
5.7%
Test group 2 (low goal)
26.5%
29.4%
26.5%
14.7%
2.9%
Test group 3 (high goal)
18.2%
51.5%
15.2%
9.1%
6.1%
Total
25.5%
35.3%
22.5%
11.8%
4.9%
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
31
Table 9
Descriptive statistics of dependent variable “I like to play games”
Totally agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Totally disagree
Test group 1 (control)
40.0%
54.2%
5.7%
0.0%
0.0%
Test group 2 (low goal)
32.4%
47.1%
5.9%
14.7%
0.0%
Test group 3 (high goal)
27.3%
57.6%
12.1%
3.0%
0.0%
Total
33.3%
52.9%
7.8%
5.9%
0.0%
Even though it was recommended to fill in the experiment on a desktop, laptop or
tablet, and not on a mobile phone, 14.9% of the participants arrived at the website of the
experiment on a mobile phone. Also 14.9% used a tablet to go to the website of the
experiment and 70.2% used a desktop or laptop when entering the website. However, the
specific participants using their mobile phones for the experiment could not be tracked via the
dataset so all of their data have been used in the research too. Because there is no knowledge
about which groups these participants belonged to, it might have influenced the results of one
or more groups. At the beginning there should have been a question such as “on which device
are you participating in this experiment?” with PC, tablet and smart phone as answer
possibilities.
Limitations
One of the limitations of this study concerns the sample size, because each test group
only consisted of 34 participants on average. Having more participants in a study can lead to a
better generalization of the results. Also, this research is based on only one type of an online
game taking about fifteen minutes of the participants’ time. It is questionable how many
words the respondents would have remembered when a follow-up test would be held after a
longer period of time, in order to test the long time memory instead of the short time memory.
However, this could not be measured within the time scale of this thesis. A longitudinal study
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
32
over a longer period of time should be performed in order to research the influence of goalbased learning using games on long term memory.
Since the research was carried out with an online experiment, the setting could not be
controlled, which is a disadvantage of online experiments (Hooley, Marriot and Wellens,
2012). For the researcher there was no control over the environment in which the participants
took part in the experiments. Other disadvantages of an online experiment are the possible
multiple submissions, dropouts and to reduced interaction with participants, which might lead
to misunderstanding of the instructions. Dropouts have not been taken into account for the
results of this research, the understanding of the instructions has been tested with a pilot and
multiple submissions have been limited by giving an error message when a participant clicked
the “backwards” button in his browser to go back to change his answer or play the memory
game again.
Despite the dependent factor age was not a measurement of our study, most of the
participants were aged between 18 and 25 years (69.6%) and had a high educational level
(HBO and WO, 77.4%), which indicated that most of the participants were students.
Therefore, no conclusions can be drawn in general. Also, most of the participants were
women (61.8%) and differences of gender have not been investigated in this research.
Recommendations
Future research could go deeper into some aspects of this study. An important point is
to obtain more participants, in order to draw generalized conclusions. Also, since there are
many things to learn when learning a second language, other aspects of a language could be
tested by game-based learning, such as grammar and different types of words, instead of using
solely nouns. Besides this, for this research images were used to study the words, but the same
research can be carried out using vocabulary lists. For this research only concrete items have
been used, in which pictures are useful, but learning verbs or grammar using pictures might
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
33
result in a different outcome of a research.
Since online experiments can’t be controlled, an option for follow-up research is to
perform the research in an offline environment in order to be able to control all influences
from the outside and to have the participants all use the same device to participate in the
experiment, or to investigate the differences between different devices.
A possibility for future research is to let people fill in the words themselves, instead of
letting them answer multiple choice questions, which should be harder to do. Also it might be
interesting to look at differences between gender, age and education level.
Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible differences between a goalbased and a non-goal-based approach in learning a second language using games. In addition,
the differences between assigning a low goal and a high goal have been researched. No
research on a goal-based approach to second language learning using a game had been
performed before. Previous studies have shown that using games to learn a language is
effectively and, that goal-based learning leads to a positive performance. This performance is
even more positive when a high goal has been assigned.
An online experiment has been performed in which 102 people participated. Based on
the results of these participants, the research question “What is the influence of having a goalbased approach when learning a second language using games?” could be answered. Despite
the theoretical evidence for the formulated hypotheses, none of these hypotheses could be
accepted in this research. No evidence has been found in differences between a goal-based
and a non-goal-based approach, neither there was any significant difference between a low
and a high assigned goal.
On the whole the conclusion of this research is that a goal-based approach in learning
a second language using games does not have influence on the performance of the
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
34
participants, neither on the time they spend or the fun they experience. This finding is
inconsistent with results of previous literature, however previous literature researched either a
goal-based approach or a game-based approach. A combination of the two approaches hasn’t
been investigated before, but together these approaches are an interesting topic for future
research.
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
35
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41
Appendix A
Results Pilot
I thought it
was boring
I am motivated
I like to Correct
to learn a foreign play
answers test
language
games 1
1 agree
disagree
agree
neutral
6
6
6
6
6
9
wo
1 agree
neutral
agree
2
3
6
2
2
5
40-64
mbo
1 totally agree
totallyagree
4
5
5
6
7
40-64
hbo
2 totally agree
2
6
6
5
6
7
f
18-25
wo
2 totally agree
5
5
6
6
6
10
f
18-25
hbo
2 totally agree
agree
totally
agree
totally
agree
totall
yagree
2
m
3
3
6
5
6
6
m
26-39
wo
3 agree
5
6
6
5
10
18-25
3 totally agree
totallyagree
6
6
6
6
6
10
f
40-64
wo
vmbo/
havo/ vwo
agree
totally
agree
6
f
disagree
totally
disagree
totally
disagree
totally
disagree
totally
disagree
totally
disagree
totally
disagree
totally
disagree
disagree
disagree
2
6
6
6
6
10
Gender
Age
group
Education
f
18-25
wo
m
18-25
f
Test
group I liked it
3 totally agree
totallyagree
totallyagree
totallyagree
neutral
Correct
Correct
Correct
Correct
Correct
answers test answers test answers test answers test answers
2
3
4
5
final test
42
Appendix B
The memory cards used in the experiment
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
43
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
44
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
45
Appendix C
Screen-shots of the online experiment
Figure C1
Screen-shot of an incorrect combination of two memory cards
Figure C2
Screen-shot of a correct combination of two memory cards
USING GAMES FOR GOAL-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING
46
Figure C3
Screen-shot of a finished memory game
Figure C4
Screenshot of an example multiple choice question of a test