Teaching Practice Report

Improving the Japanese College Students’ Academic
Vocabulary Mastery on Synonyms With Kahoot!


Maki Matsuda

Abstract
Acquiring a strong vocabulary is a crucial skill for college students. However, inthe context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning in Japan, students
often struggle with acquiring new vocabulary due to a lack of exposure to newEnglish words. This case study aimed to explore the impact of Kahoot!, an online
quiz platform, on Japanese college students’ academic vocabulary mastery ofsynonyms and their perceptions of the learning process. Sixty Japanese university
students majoring in Literature, Community and Human Services, and Contemporary
Psychology and learning English as a foreign language participated in the study
during the spring semester of academic year 2023. The quantitative results derived
from pre- and post-tests presented that the students’ mean scores on a 50-point
synonym test increased from 31 to 39 points, representing 26% improvement, fromthe start to the end of the semester. The qualitative analysis of students’ feedback
revealed that they had positive experiences with Kahoot! with the majority reporting
the most significant improvement in reading (45%), followed by writing (33.3%) andeven speaking (21.7%) skills. The author suggests that English teachers incorporate
Kahoot! to improve their students’ mastery of academic vocabulary throughsynonyms and recommends additional academic tasks to maximize their learning.
Keywords: ICT use in Education, Kahoot!, Academic vocabulary learning, Synonyms

Introduction“How can I build my vocabulary efficiently and effectively?” or “I struggle with reading
quickly because I stop reading when I find unfamiliar words.” These are common questions
or concerns that the author has been asked by students in the classroom. The challenges ofmastering a foreign language, particularly in countries like Japan where English is taught as asecond language, are far-reaching. The intricacies of language acquisition with the focus on theessential role of vocabulary, have been extensively explored by scholars like Webb (2007) andNation (2022). In their seminal works, they underscored the indispensable nature of vocabularyacquisition for language learners, with Wilkins (cited from Thornbury, 2002), going so far as100

Improving the Japanese College Students’ Academic Vocabulary Mastery on Synonyms With Kahoot!

to assert that “without grammar, little can be conveyed, and without vocabulary, nothing canbe conveyed.” It is evident that a robust vocabulary lays the foundation for mastering all four
language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Drawing upon the insights of Sembiring and Ginting (2019), who identified eight
vocabulary teaching techniques, the significance of employing diverse methodologies becomesapparent. These techniques, ranging from contrast and synonyms to enumeration and word
games, offer a comprehensive toolkit for educators. Synonym instruction, a traditional yet
effective approach, emerges as a key strategy to help students grasp nuances in meaning without
relying on translation into their native language. Recent research, exemplified by the workof Chen et al. (2015), demonstrated the positive impact of teaching synonyms on enhancing
students’ writing skills. The study utilized an innovative online system called PREFER,
incorporating various paraphrasing options, including synonyms, and observed improved
writing proficiency in EFL students.
In addition, Webb (2007) conducted research with 84 Japanese EFL students byimplementing ten tests to determine the learning of English words and their synonyms. Theirstudy examined the effects of learning two groups of words. The first group consisted of ten
words including unfamiliar synonyms and the second group included familiar ones. The
results of the study indicated that the participants scored better when learning words that had
known synonyms. Synchronizing this result, Nation (2022) emphasized the importance of theconnection between the acquired knowledge of the target language and the vocabulary yet tobe learned.
Games in Language Learning
It is not uncommon for students to experience a loss of attention or inspiration in theclassroom, which can result in adverse consequences. To counteract this issue, educators must
implement engaging and interactive learning activities to maintain their students’ focus andinvolvement. One approach to enhance student engagement is the use of game-based learning(Wang & Tahir, 2020). Kahoot!, a popular online quiz platform that exemplifies this method.
It employs a multiple-choice format and allows users to use existing quizzes or create theirown to share. The game can be played individually or in a group setting and it is available forfree. Since its launch in 2013, Kahoot! has been adopted by over six million educators globallyand played by 4.4 billion users (Kahoot.it/.com, 2013). During the game, questions appear on
the screen and students can select their answers by pressing the corresponding color on theirpersonal devices (mostly through smartphones). A strict time limit as low as five seconds tothirty seconds can be set to increase the focus of the game as well as excitement from theparticipants. The platform automatically awards the correct answer to the player who answers
the quickest, with higher scores being earned for a quicker response. A leaderboard is displayed
immediately after each question, which excitingly shows the rankings and stimulates students
to compete each time it appears. From the author’s experience, the class always erupts in101

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excitement every time the leaderboard shows up on the screen. Figure 1 presents the example
images from the game.
Figure 1
Screenshots From Kahoot! Question Example and a Leaderboard

In the context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning in Japan, students
often struggle with acquiring new vocabulary due to a lack of exposure to new English words.
Furthermore, college students in Japan frequently take standardized English tests such as the
TOEIC Listening & Reading Test and the TOEFL ITP, which ALWAYS include questions on
synonyms. Despite the importance of vocabulary skills, previous research has not explored how
Japanese students view the use of synonyms to enhance their vocabulary, or how an online gameplatform like Kahoot! can help with this. The current case study aims to address this gap byexamining the impact of the online application Kahoot! on Japanese college students’ masteryof synonyms and their perception of the use of Kahoot! for improving their vocabulary skills
and provide additional suggestions for peer teachers.

Background Information
The online game platform Kahoot! was applied in a first-year English Reading &Writing class at a private university in Tokyo, Japan from April to July 2023. The author was the
instructor of three English Reading & Writing courses, and the classes were conducted in a faceto-face format on campus. The classes were 100 minutes in length and were held once a week.
This Reading & Writing course was mandatory for all-first year students and in these three102

Improving the Japanese College Students’ Academic Vocabulary Mastery on Synonyms With Kahoot!

classes student majors include Literature, Community and Human Services, and Contemporary
Psychology. Students’ language levels ranged from 380 to 480 on the TOEIC Listening andReading Test, which equates to levels A2 to B1 according to the Common European Frameworkof Reference for Languages (CEFR). The textbook, Q: Skills for Success: Level 3: Reading andWriting, (3rd edition), (Ward & Gramer, 2019) was used as the main course material.

Research Questions
The purpose of this study was to address the following two research questions:
1. What is the impact of using the online platform Kahoot! on Japanese college students’mastery of synonyms related to their academic vocabulary?
2. How do Japanese college students perceive and respond to the use of Kahoot! forlearning synonyms in English?

Methodology and ProceduresThis study employed a case study approach. The data was collected from 60 students
enrolled in the first semester of three mandatory English Reading & Writing courses for firstyear students majoring in Literature, Community and Human Services, and Contemporary
Psychology during the academic year 2023.
At the start of the semester, in the first of 14 classes, the students were administered a
50-point pre-test to identify synonyms for 50 words using Google Forms uploaded on the LMS
called canvas. At the end of the semester, a post-test was conducted to evaluate their progress.
The target words were selected randomly from the main textbook, Q: Skills for Success: Level
3: Reading and Writing, (3rd edition), (Ward & Gramer, 2019), that includes essential academic
words.
In the meantime, students engaged in a word quiz activity during each meeting using
Kahoot! to identify synonyms from the assigned reading section of the textbook throughout the
spring semester 2023. Depending on the length of the reading passage, students had chances
to review vocabulary over a two-week period. While the game could be played in groups, theauthor chose to conduct the activity individually to ensure equal participation for all students.
Table 1 below shows the assigned reading topics as well as target word examples from the book.

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Table 1
Weekly Assigned Reading Topic and Target Word Examples
Class

Assigned Reading Topic

Target Word Examples

2 Unit 1: Small Talk: A Big Deal

accomplishment, authentic, appreciate, consider,confidence, demonstrate

3 Unit 1: 21st Century Job Interview

effective, expect, impress, maintain, offensive,
professional

4 Unit 1: 21st Century Job Interview

punctual, research, responsible, select, slang,weakness

5 Unit 2: Knowing Your Tastes

arrange, artistic, balanced, identical, identify,
influence

6 Unit 2: Eating with Our Eyes

likely, method, occasion, principle, recognize,
sensitive

7 Unit 2: Eating with Our Eyes

status, system, typically, contrast, brightly, be willingto

8 Unit 3: Cars that Thinkobstacle, obey, benefit, respond, limitations, blame,
polite9 Unit 3: Classrooms without Walls

monitor, digital, revolutionize, discover, interactive,
reliable

10 Unit 3: Classrooms without Walls

dominate, feedback, adapt, global, motivate, app

11 Unit 4: Can Targeted Ads Change You

browse, target, specifically, accurate, acknowledge,
annoying

12 Unit 4: In Defense of Advertisingbroadcasting, impact, relevant, suggest, reflect,annual

13 Unit 4: In Defense of Advertising

donation, memorable, imply, relevant, support,
surrounding

In addition to the quantitative pre- and post-tests, qualitative data was collected froma post-class survey to gauge students’ perceptions for their vocabulary mastery of synonyms
through the use of Kahoot!. The survey included three Likert-scale questions assessing whether
students were actively engaged, found Kahoot! helpful for vocabulary mastery, and whichskill (listening, reading, writing, or speaking) the activity contributed to the most. The survey
also included an open-response item for students to provide reasons, general comments, or
impressions about their learning. Written in Japanese, the survey was distributed online usinga Google Form and completed anonymously. The author translated and analyzed the datausing the thematic analysis procedure outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006), categorizing thestudents’ responses into themes and refining the specifics of each theme. Table 2 below shows
the translated version of questions asked on the Google Form.

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Improving the Japanese College Students’ Academic Vocabulary Mastery on Synonyms With Kahoot!

Table 2
Questions in the Questionnaire
1 Were you able to actively engage with Kahoot!?
2 Did you find the use of Kahoot! helpful for your vocabulary mastery on synonyms?
3 To which skill do you think the use of synonyms contributed the most? Listening/Reading/Writing/Speaking
4 Any reasons for your responses or general comments?
Note: Questions developed by the author

Results & Discussion
Students’ Vocabulary Scores
To answer the first research question, “How does the use of the online application
Kahoot! contribute to college students’ vocabulary mastery on synonyms?” the pre- and posttest scores of 60 students were compared. As shown in Figure 2, using Kahoot! in a classroom
activity related to vocabulary mastery on synonyms led to a significant increase in students’performances in identifying synonyms. As shown in Table 3, the mean score of students at
the end of the semester increased by 26%, from 31 to 39, compared to the beginning of thesemester. Furthermore, almost all students (54 out of 60) showed an increase in their scores,
with one student exhibiting 82% improvement from 22 to 40 after using Kahoot! over the springsemester. These results suggest the effectiveness of using Kahoot! to enhance their vocabulary
mastery of synonyms.
Figure 2
Comparison of Students’ Vocabulary Scores105

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Table 3
Summary of Vocabulary Scores
Mean

SD

Minimum

Maximum

Pre-Test Score

31

6.4

17

44

Post-Test Score

39

5.5

23

48

Note: N=60, Perfect score=50

Post-Class Survey
Regarding the second research question, “How do they respond after learning English
synonyms through the application of Kahoot!?” the post-class survey was conducted to examine
whether the students were able to actively engage with the vocabulary activity on Kahoot!. All
60 students participated in the survey.
According to the results of the post-class survey, as shown in Figure 3, 80% of the 60
students strongly agreed that they were able to engage with the Kahoot! activity, and none of
the students disagreed. In terms of whether they found the use of Kahoot! helpful for their
vocabulary mastery on synonyms, 81.6% of the students strongly agreed and no one opposed
the question. The students perceived that the use of synonyms contributed the most to theirreading skills (45%), followed by writing skills (33.3%), and the least to their speaking skills(21.7%). No student reported an effect on their listening skills, which may be related to the factthat listening is a receptive skill that requires quick processing, leaving little time for thinking
about synonyms.
Figure 3
Students’ Perceptions of the Use of Kahoot! and Their Mastery of Synonyms

106Improving the Japanese College Students’ Academic Vocabulary Mastery on Synonyms With Kahoot!

The qualitative data collected from the last open-ended question “Any reasons foryour responses or general comments?” added a rich layer of nuance to the quantitative results
indicating that the use of Kahoot! for their mastery of synonyms helped students to understandand increase their vocabulary. Table 4 shows a sampling of analysis with descriptions andexamples.
Table 4
Thematic Analysis with Descriptions and Examples
Theme

Description

Example from students’ comments

Improvement Vocabularyincrease

1) It was helpful to improve my vocabulary.
2) I felt the use of synonyms was effective and efficient.
3) I felt memorizing with Japanese definition was easy toforget but using synonyms stuck far better in my memory.

Reading

Improving reading
skills1) I felt I got faster at reading by rephrasing words withsimpler synonyms.
2) I got better at reading without translating to Japanese thanks
to the use of synonyms.
3) I could visualize the content more easily using synonyms.
4) By doing synonym quizzes, I could understand the parts ofspeech better.

Enjoyment/
Motivation

Gaming effect of
Kahoot!

1) We can enjoy competing with classmates.
2) Answering in the form of quizzes like Kahoot! helps meremember more easily.
3) I had trouble memorizing vocabulary, but using games
removed that hardship.
4) Using games made me review the lesson more frequently.
5) Playing games makes me alert and increases focus on thelesson.
6) I was able to communicate with my classmates moresmoothly after playing games.

Practicality

Writing, TOEIC
test1) It was helpful when thinking of paraphrases in writing.
2) I could solve synonym questions on the TOEIC test moreeasily.

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The thematic analysis identified four themes: Improvement, Reading, Enjoyment/
Motivation, and Practicality. Improvement was related to students’ perception that the use of
Kahoot! helped them to increase their vocabulary and memorize words more easily. Reading
was associated with the idea that students were able to read faster and more efficiently by usingsynonyms. Enjoyment/Motivation highlighted the fun class dynamics, ease of memorizing andreviewing vocabulary through games, and even the focus on the class itself. Lastly, Practicalityemphasized the usefulness of the activity for writing and answering synonym questions on the
TOEIC Listening & Reading test.

Conclusion
The objective of this study was to examine the effect of Kahoot!, an online quiz
platform, on Japanese college students’ academic vocabulary mastery of synonyms and theirperceptions of the learning experience. To achieve this, 60 students were tasked with identifying
synonyms in their weekly classes using Kahoot! and their progress was evaluated through preand post-tests. The students also filled out a questionnaire to provide feedback and perception
on their experience with Kahoot! for their synonym vocabulary mastery.
Two conclusions were drawn based on the results of the study:
The use of Kahoot! appears to have a positive influence on students’ academic
vocabulary in mastery of synonyms, as evidenced by the analysis of quantitative data. The
meaningful improvement in scores indicates that integrating this platform in future language
learning could be beneficial.
The qualitative data analysis revealed that the students had a positive attitude towards
using Kahoot! for learning synonyms. All students actively participated in the Kahoot! activities
and perceived that it helped improve their knowledge and mastery of English synonyms.

Recommendations
The current study has some implications that can be drawn from its results. As a whole,
the results are valuable as they provide insight into the effectiveness of learning academic
vocabulary through synonyms using Kahoot!. However, the students might have displayed alimited understanding of vocabulary usage in context or in actual sentences. To address this,teachers could incorporate specific instructions such as highlighting the different uses of aword and how it functions in a sentence. This approach would provide students with a practicalunderstanding of real-world language use, which could improve their productive vocabularyknowledge.
To further enrich student learning, educators could introduce additional pedagogicalactivities. Assigning specific words to students and encouraging them to find synonyms, alongwith sharing how those words are used in authentic sentences through pair or group work, offers
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a collaborative approach to deepening students’ understanding of vocabulary usage in context.
This multifaceted strategy ensures a holistic approach to vocabulary acquisition, addressing
both receptive and productive aspects of language proficiency.

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