Vocabulary Acquisition through Video Games : With second language acquisition as a focus

The purpose of this study, in the research field of Swedish as a second language, is to investigate whether a connection between form and meaning is established in the pupils’ receptive vocabulary when they play the video game Sweet City in pairs. Two subsidiary purposes are to see whether the use of language scaffolding in the video game affects an vocabulary acquisition and how the situation around the vocabulary tests worked out. The vocabulary change was measured through a pre-test and an instant after-test, hence the focus on the connection between form and meaning. The method was based on Schmitts’ (2010) principles of testing vocabulary change. Because the group was small, with only nine participants, a more qualitative approach was necessary and a discrepancy framework was developed and used to rule out participants’ guessing of target words. The findings show that seven of nine participants had an increase of two to four new words in the connection between form and meaning. Further, the results hint that a use of the video game’s language scaffolding gives a positive effect if used extensively. The discrepancy framework further showed that some participants had guessed extensively in the vocabulary tests, which could have been an effect of a long day of material collection and a desire to get a higher test result