Improving Hindi decoding skills via a mobile game

Abstract

Previous research with alphasyllabaries has shown that children struggle with akshara that have two or more consonants, known as complex akshara. We developed a mobile game that teaches 4th grade children Hindi decoding skills, with an emphasis on complex akshara. All of the children were second language learners of Hindi.There were two versions of the game that varied in terms of stimuli spacing (massed and distributed). We found that the game improved participants' akshara recognition and their ability to read and spell words that contain complex akshara. There is also evidence of learning in the online data; participants were able to more quickly arrive at the correct answers as the game progressed. Both versions of the game yielded equivalent levels of improvement, but participants played the massed version faster. The spacing results are interpreted using the desirable difficulties framework. Overall, the results suggest that mobile technology can effectively improve akshara knowledge.

Integrating Mobile Games in Arabic Orthography Classrooms

“…The significance levels were higher for the intermediate and advanced levels, potentially indicating that the game can facilitate the teaching of advanced Arabic orthography skills. These findings align with those of other studies; that is, significant improvements in learner performance are achieved when integrating mobile games into teaching and learning environments ( (Prensky, 2001;Chaves et al, 2018;Bhide et al, 2019;Acquah et al, 2019;Sandberg et al, 2011;Ahmad, Arab World English Journal www.awej.org ISSN: 2229-9327 158 Shaarani & Afrizal, 2012Cho, Lee, Joo, & Becker, 2018). In all of these studies, researchers concluded that the integration of mobile games enhanced learning outcomes and had significant impacts on students' scores.…”

“…Mobile learning games have been shown to have significant impacts on language learning. Mobile learning games have gained considerable popularity among young learners in recent years, and many researchers believe that such games can enhance the teaching-learning environment (Yamato, Corrêa, & Martins2017;Chaves et al, 2018;Bhide et al, 2019;Vanbecelaere et al, 2019;Juhani Lyytinen, Semrud-Clikeman, Pugh & Richardson, 2021;Alotaibi, & Alharbi,2022;Amorim et al, 2022). According to Johnson et al, (2013), mobile learning games significantly promote engagement, creativity, and authentic learning.…”

“…However, no evidence has been provided regarding the impacts of mobile games on student performance. Bhide et al (2019) created a mobile game to teach fourthgrade students Hindi decoding skills, emphasizing the complex Akshara orthography used in Indian languages. They noted improved recognition skills and abilities in reading and spelling words containing the complex Akshara orthography for the students.…”

The impact of mobile application features on children’s language and literacy learning: a systematic review

“…It will not be possible to ascertain the learning potential of such new technologies without carefully controlled, theoretically driven studies. There was also a lack of included studies focussed on games, despite the popularity of games as a tool for teaching language (Bhide et al, 2019;Duh, Koceska, & Koceski, 2017;Samur, 2019). Thus, there are many gaps in the extant literature which are open to be addressed in future research.…”