The added value of a gaming context and intelligent adaptation for a mobile application for vocabulary learning

Two groups participated in a study on the added value of a gaming context and intelligent adaptation for a mobile learning application. The control group worked at home for a fortnight with the original Mobile English Learning application (MEL-original) developed in a previous project. The experimental group worked at home for a fortnight with MEL-enhanced, the original application embedded in an adventure game and augmented with intelligent adaptation. Two learning themes were used: Zoo animals and Neighbourhood. Both groups attended lessons at school on Zoo Animals and Neighbourhood during the same periods they were allowed to work with the application at home. A pre- and post-test were conducted to establish the initial vocabulary knowledge and the knowledge acquired during the learning phase. The main results indicated that the students in the experimental condition (MEL-enhanced) outperformed the children from the control group (MEL-original), although the former group did not spend more time with the learning material than the latter, and that the students in the experimental group valued MEL-enhanced more than the children from the control group valued MEL-original.