Development of a Contextual Game for Improving English Vocabulary Learning Performance of Elementary School Students in Taiwan

One of the 21st core competences is the ability of international communication, which refers to English. It has been included in the compulsory education in Taiwan. However, students often feel bored while memorizing the vocabulary because they think it is irrelevant to their lives. Besides, the most used items in the exams are usually multiple choices, which can only test students´ passive knowledge. Passive knowledge is hard for students to apply in the real context. Therefore, in this study, contextual digital games combining passive or active knowledge question items were proposed to promote students´ learning achievement as well as motivation and to increase the application in their daily lives. Two classes of students in an elementary school were assigned to learn with the game with passive knowledge question items or the game with active knowledge question items. The results show that the learning achievement of those students learning with the game with active question items is better. No significance was found in students´ learning motivation but the ratings still increase. The cognitive load of students learning with active knowledge is heavier. Those findings imply that an approach with certain degree of cognitive load might still have positive impacts on students.