Students’ opinion on a language game: a preliminary study on monoEnglish / Siti Aishah Taib... [et al.]

This study was conducted with the aim to investigate ESL students’ opinion on the usefulness of the
language game on ESL learning, in relation to affective domain, and their opinion on how the game can
be improved. The game was designed by four ESL students and supervised by their lecturer within 3
weeks. It was then played by a class of ESL students (n=28) for four ESL lessons. A set of
questionnaires was distributed to the students to answer the research questions. The findings revealed
that the respondents agreed the game was useful on ESL learning. It aided to improve their English
language skills (median = 4.00), helped them learn English while having fun (median = 4.50) and
improved their knowledge about English language (median = 4.00). Respondents would recommend
the game to other people (median = 4.50), and they wanted to play the game in their English class
(median = 4.50). In relation to affective domain, the game motivated them to use English (median =
4.00) and they were excited to learn English when playing the game (median = 4.00) and became more
confident to use English after playing the game (median = 4.00). The respondents also believed that
the game needed improvement in its appearance (57.1%, n=16), content (42.9%, n=12) and rules
(35.7%, n=10). Their comments revealed four themes which are compliments, suggestions to improve the game, benefits, and others. Discussions of the results and future research recommendations are
also included in this paper.