The use of computer games for SAT vocabulary acquisition
By: Aradhana Mudambi
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 140
Subjects: SAT (Educational test); Study guides; Vocabulary tests; Vocabulary; English language; Study and teaching; Video games; Education; Effect of technological innovations on; Computer-assisted instruction; College entrance achievement tests; Educational tests and measurements; Social aspects
Description: In my thesis, I followed two lines of questioning. First, do current, low-end, self-implemented, SAT vocabulary test-preparation materials provide statistically significant gains compared to not studying at all? Second, can online games improve the low-cost SAT vocabulary test-preparation genre? I tested two SAT vocabulary interventions, both based on the keyword methodology, a mnemonic technique designed to help students learn vocabulary by connecting words to phonologically similar words through imagery. The first intervention was a series of books called Vocabulary Cartoons. The second intervention was an online game that I designed and programmed. I based both the content analysis that I used to choose Vocabulary Cartoons and the creation of the online game on two sets of frameworks: a pedagogical framework that I developed and a motivational framework, which I adapted from Calleja (2007). I additionally based the game on design principles unearthed from research by Gee (2003, 2007), Mayo (2009), and Squire (2011). I tested the two interventions against the control activity of reading the book, Gulliver's Travels. In my analysis, I found that being part of the experimental groups was associated with both a greater rate of learning and higher posttest scores given pretest scores than being part of the control group. I however could not distinguish between the experimental groups in terms of their average posttest scores given pretest scores and their rates of learning. Although descriptive statistics demonstrated that the computer program had slightly higher posttest scores given pretest scores and slightly higher rates of vocabulary gain, these differences were not statistically significant. Also, being a member of the control group was associated with spending more time on the assignment than being a member of the experimental groups. Being a member of the computer group was associated with spending more time o
Notes: Vita.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-139).