Communication games in college freshman English in MSU, Marawi City : an analysis of their acceptability and effectiveness

• Main Author: Badinas, Gloria M. Catabas
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 1989
• Subjects: Educational games; Simulation games in education.; Language arts > Simulation methods; English language > Study and teaching > Audio-visual aids
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/1287
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study attempts to measure the degree of acceptability and the effectiveness of communication games in the teaching of English to college freshmen students at Mindanao State University in Marawi City during the first semester of school year 1988-1989. Involved in the study were 2 sections of English 1: one served as experimental class, which used communication games during the entire course of the study the other as control, which did not. The weighted mean score obtained by each of the participants in the experimental group in the Communication Games Attitude Scale Questionnaire was used to measure degree of acceptability. Pearson product moment correlation was used to establish the relationship between acceptability and performance on the written and oral tests. The Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) served as the main statistical tool used in determining the effectiveness of the method used. The findings revealed that Communication games were highly acceptable to a large majority (86 percent) of the samples that used them. Seven percent found the games very highly acceptable, and another seven percent considered them just moderately acceptable. The correlational analysis showed that there was a high correlation between experimental group's acceptability rating and their performance on the written test and the oral test and its four parts.The results of the analysis of covariance showed that there was no significant difference between the experimental group and the control group, based on their performance on written and oral tests. A high correlation was found between the samples' performance on the written test and on the oral test. The secondary analysis made on the influence of the samples' sex and academic status revealed that the performance of the males and females on the two tests did not significantly differ however, the performance of the scholars and non-scholars did. Implications drawn from the results were:1. Since majority of the samples found games highly acceptable, the incorporation of games in English 1 was deemed feasible. 2. The high correlation between the degree of acceptability of communication games and the written and oral test results indicates the high potential that games hold for language learning. This is because as the finding suggests, students who spend some time playing - thus, having fun, learn as much as those who stick to drills and exercises that sometimes become monotonous. 3. The absence of any significant difference in the performance of both groups on the two tests justifies the use of communication games in the language classroom. 4. The high correlation between the written and oral tests implies the need for teachers to develop students' written skills along with oral skills. Hence, learning of language structures should be supplemented with exercises that engage students in communication exchanges.