Group B (Moderate level of involvement load)

The group B participants showed the poorest performance of all three groups in the post-tests. Their task induced a moderate level of involvement load (index 9) and hence, theoretically, they were expected to show the second-best performance after group C. Surprisingly, however, this was not supported by the statistical results, which indicated group B’s performance to be the poorest.

Analysis of the group B participants’ verbalized thoughts and online processes showed that, aside from universal moves, they employed an exclusive strategy and an exclusive move when they repeatedly encountered the target words. I labelled this strategy inferencing from context, and the move hypothesizing. In the strategy inferencing from context, the participants were actively looking for contextual clues. Here “context” refers to two contexts, i.e. the game guide text and the digital game. In applying the inferencing strategy in the game guide, the participants read the text and considered the surrounding textual information in order to guess at the best meaning. For example, in the following excerpt, Ali and Moein found the target word closet by searching for contextual clues.

Ali Moein Ali Moein

EXAMPLE 13 An example of participants employing inferencing strategies

The use of the inferencing strategy (textual clues) was also confirmed by the exit-interview when the gamers were asked “When playing a video game, do you use any tricks to help you with unknown words? What about this game?”

Do you use any tricks, when playing a video game, to help you with unknown words?

What about this game? For example, when we read, in the beginning,

it said click on something; then, it said it was red, yellow; it was helpful to guess what it means; then we looked for red things only in the screen.

Maybe, for example, a word is in a full sentence, if I know some words in that sentence, I can guess what the unknown word means.

Negar

زا میدرک یم هدافتسا ورث کاو نتم I used the walkthrough (the game guide) text.

EXAMPLE 14 Inferencing strategies mentioned by participants in exit interview

Seeking contextual clues also applied in the game context. Monitoring of the participants’ actions in their in-game gameplay videos revealed that they hovered the mouse cursor over the objects on screen to test whether the object’s name would appear. In this game, if the cursor is left on an object for almost 20 seconds, the game reveals the object’s name. This feature of the game was also new to me. The exit-interview confirmed that guessing from the game context by hovering with the mouse cursor showed that the inferencing from the context strategy was a successful effective for the group B participants.

Do you use any tricks, when playing a video game, to help you with unknown words?

We hovered the mouse curser over the game objects, it showed the name, then we could understand what it means.

We hovered the mouse over the objects to show the name of the objects

EXAMPLE 15 Inferencing strategies used by participants in the game context

The Group B participants also performed an exclusive move, i.e. hypothesizing.

This move was labeled hypothesizing as, for each target word, the participants selected one of three options. Thus, they hypothesized their future actions in every encounter with the target words. They manipulated and restructured their hypotheses using contextual clues and the inferencing strategy. For example, for the word sign, Ali and Moein had three options. Thus, based on those three options they developed hypotheses that determined their future actions.

Ali Moein Ali Moein

EXAMPLE 16 Participants’ use of the hypothesizing move by participant

Thus, through the hypothesizing move and testing their hypotheses, they eliminated the options for each target word until found the correct one.

5.2.2.4 Learning Approach by Group B Participants (Moderate Level of Involvement)

As with group A, analysis of the data showed that the group B participants’

moves and strategies were dynamically related and indicated a learning cycle. In this section, I describe group B’s cyclical employment of exclusive strategies and

universal moves and discuss how this cycle formed the group B participants’

learning approach.

The participants in group B first searched for in the game guide in an effort to infer the correct meaning of the target words. They also searched for contextual clues in the game by hovering their mouse cursors on the objects in the scene. After their searches, they negotiated on their guesses and developed hypotheses for their future actions. They then tested their hypotheses in turns although turn-taking was not done in a pre-arranged order. Sometimes, turn taking did not happen at all. If their hypotheses were successful, they reviewed their current and previous actions to organize their minds and proceed to the next task. In the case of failure, they either tested the rest of their hypotheses, referred to the contexts of the game guide and the game to develop new hypotheses or they relied on the trial-and-error move as their final option. As with group A, the digital game was also a motivator for the group B. this was found when the group B participants were asked “What do you focus on when you play video game? What about this game?” The iterative pattern in the mental steps taken by the group B participants to solve the challenges in the digital game task is illustrated in figure 19.

EXAMPLE 17 The motivational role of the digital game indicated by participants in their exit-interview

Reasons can be proposed for the group B participants’ employment of inferencing strategies and the hypothesizing move, which formed theirlearning approach. The first reason might be lack of access to external sources such as dictionaries, internet etc. They were engaged in a task with unknown words and three marginal definitions for each word. Given their lack of access to facilities like dictionaries, internet etc., the participants had no choice but to makes inferences and guesses, while testing their hypotheses was an inevitable next move in finding out if their guesses were correct (Hulstijn, 2001; Rott, 2005).

The second reason might be the nature of the task. As already described, the group B participants had to infer the best definition from the context of use in the game. Therefore, unintentionally, they were encouraged to make inferences and to hypothesize.

The third, and final reason might be the instruction given. The participants in group B were asked to read the game-guide text, select the correct definition, solve the problem, and proceed in the game. To do this, they might have

What do you focus on when you play video game? What about this game?

Ali Moein

یزوریپ مینک در ات منک هدافتسا هروخب ممشچ هب دوب یکوکشم زیچ هی رگا هک فارطا و رود رتشیب ور هلحرم

To win I was looking carefully into the scene to find

suspicious things and use them to solve the problem

Tara Negar

ولج میرب و مینک لح ور یزاب یاهامعم هشیم یچمینیبب و اهرد ندرک زاب و اهامعم لح To solve puzzles and progress in the game

Solving the problems and puzzles, opening the

doors, to see the ending

employed the inferencing strategy and hypothesizing move to follow the instructions as they understood them.