ABSTRACT
The study was designed to investigate the comparative effect of two instructional game resources on junior secondary school students’ interest and achievement in English vocabulary. The study also determined the influence of gender and location on students’ interest and achievement in English vocabulary. The interest and achievement of students taught vocabulary using scrabble game were compared to that of students taught with word search puzzle game. The study, which was conducted in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State, adopted a quasi-experimental 2x2x2 pre-test-post-test non-equivalent control group factorial design which involved four intact classes. Ten research questions and ten hypotheses guided the study. 148 (61 males and 87 females) JSS II students purposively selected from four co-educational schools in the urban and rural areas of the zone constituted the sample for the study. One intact class was selected from each of the sampled schools making it four intact classes. Two experimental groups were used for the study. Each experimental group was made up of one urban and one rural school. Experimental group 1 was taught English vocabulary using scrabble game as an instructional resource while word search puzzle game was used for teaching experimental group 2. Two validated instruments, namely theEnglish Vocabulary Interest Inventory (EVII) and the English Vocabulary Achievement Test (EVAT) were used for data collection. The cronbach’s alpha coefficient method was used to determine the internal consistency ofEVIIwhich yielded a reliability coefficient of0.85. EVAT, on the other hand, yielded 0.82 using Kuder-Richardson’s formula (K-R 20). EVII, on the other hand, yielded 0.85 using cronbach’s alpha coefficient method. Before the commencement of the treatment, EVII and EVAT were administered as pretest to the two experimental groups in the sampled schools. After the treatment, which lasted for six weeks, the same instruments were administered to the subjects as posttest. Scores obtained from the pretest and posttest constituted the data for the study. Mean scores were used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results indicated that instructional game resources had significant effect on students’ interest and achievementin English vocabulary. However, those taught using scrabble game showed higher interest and also had higher mean achievement in English vocabulary.The results also showed that although the males showed a slightly higher interest than the females, gender was not shown to be significant in the test of hypothesis but gender had a statistically significant influence on students’ achievement in English vocabulary with males achieving significantly higher than females. While students’ interest and achievement in vocabulary were significantly influenced by location, there was no significant interaction effect of instructional game resources and gender on students’ interest and achievement in English vocabulary. The results further showed that there was no significant interaction effect of instructional game resources and location on students’ interest and achievement in English vocabulary.On the basis of the empirical evidence and the results provided in this study, it was concluded that instructional game resources such as scrabble and word search puzzle games are efficacious in improving students’ interest and achievement in English vocabulary. This implies that if scrabble and word search puzzle games are integrated and utilized as instructional resources by English language teachers, there is the tendency that students’ interest and achievement in English vocabulary could be enhanced thereby enhancing their overall achievement in English language. It was therefore, recommended, among others, that teachers should be creative, resourceful and innovative instead of bemoaning the lack of instructional resources and that teacher preparation should focus more on how teachers can produce and use game resources in teaching since instructional game resources are rarely used in vocabulary classes. This will help to equip teachers with no expertise in creating and using instructional game resources with such knowledge.