Browsing by Author "Genis, Petronella Facqueline"

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    Die gebruik van taalspeletjies as hulpmiddel vir woordeskatuitbreiding in taakgebaseerde onderrigprogram vir taalverwerwingstudente
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Genis, Petronella Facqueline; Adendorff, E. M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Gamification in education is to a certain extend still controversial, because many educators are uncertain about what it entails and whether it is creditworthy in pedagogy (child-focused teaching) and andragogy (adult-focused teaching). This thesis investigates the credibility of gamification as a tool in teaching vocabulary in a task-based teaching program for Afrikaans Language Acquisition students at the University of Namibia. For this research on the use of games in a language acquisition class I firstly undertook a literature review on the affective filter hypothesis, academic boredom and the task-based approach. Larsen-Freeman and Anderson (2011) builds on the affective filter hypothesis of Krashen (1982) when they say that a low affective filter, low anxiety and an atmosphere that builds self-confidence is a condition for language acquisition. Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) flow theory explains that a good balance between the level of challenge and the level of skill is necessary for flow in which optimal learning takes place. Any unbalanced measure of these two levels will lead to either anxiety (when the challenge is too high) of boredom (when the challenge is too low). Gamification is one possible way to establish flow. The emperical research consists of a qualitative and quantitative study. The instruments which were used in the practical investigation, includes various questionnaires, one for lecturers teaching language acquisition, a reflective questionnaire for both the experimental as well as the control group, and five pre-tests and post-tests, involving vocabulary knowledge as well as questions on their emotional state. Four lecturers completed the questionnaire leading to the conclusion that gamification is a useful tool in language acquisition. The participating students were divided into two groups of respectively eight in the control group and ten in the experimental group. Both groups attended five classes on vocabulary of five themes. The lessons were similar, except for the task phase of the experimental group that was gamified which means that five language games were used. The main conclusion that was made, was that the experimental group’s vocabulary increased with 14% more than that of the control group. Both groups reacted positively on the task-based approach that was taken.