On the Effect of Employing Story-Based Video Games on Iraqi EFL Learners' Vocabulary Retention and Motivation

The current study was an attempt to examine the effect of employing story-based video games on vocabulary retention of Iraqi EFL learners. In order to accomplish the purpose of the study, 40 pre-intermediate Iraqi EFL learners, divided into two groups of experimental and control groups with 20 participants assigned to the experimental group and 20 participants assigned to the control group. The experimental group received vocabulary instruction by employing story-based video game: Clifford the Big Red Dog. The treatment took15 sessions. In each session twenty minutes were devoted to vocabulary instruction. The control group enjoyed other techniques of vocabulary teaching, the traditional techniques including visual techniques (such as blackboard drawings) and verbal techniques (such as synonyms, definitions, giving examples and dictionary use) which were prevalent in Iraqi EFL contexts were used. The duration was also 15 sessions and in each session twenty minutes were devoted to vocabulary instruction. For the motivation part, Gardner’s Motivation Test (2004) was given to the learners before and after treatment in both control and experimental group. The quantitative analyses were carried out by independent-sample t-test as well as Wilcoxon Signed-rank test to determine the differences between the groups with regard to vocabulary retention and motivation. The results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of vocabulary retention and motivation, which suggest the effectiveness of employing story-based video games in helping the learners expand their vocabulary knowledge