THE EFFECTS OF THE ONLINE GAME BAMBOOZLE ON PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH: A CASE STUDY AT LE QUY DON SCHOOL

Tóm tắt

This study investigated whether Baamboozle-integrated English review during the review stage of Grade 2 lessons was associated with stronger classroom motivation than teacher-centered review, and how students and their teacher experienced that format in a Vietnamese public primary school. The study addressed the problem of uneven and sometimes psychologically unsafe participation in ordinary review, where more confident pupils tend to dominate while hesitant pupils remain peripheral. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, the research used a mixed-methods case study with an embedded pre-test/post-test comparison between two intact Grade 2 classes (N = 60) taught by the same teacher over six weeks. Data were collected through a 12-item emoji-based motivation questionnaire, 24 observed review lessons, 14 student interviews, and one teacher interview. The two classes were equivalent at pre-test, but at post-test the Baamboozle class reported significantly higher motivation than the comparison class (M = 28.67, SD = 2.95 vs. M = 25.27, SD = 2.83), t(58) = 4.56, p < .001, d = 1.18, with stronger gains also evident across autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Qualitative findings showed that Baamboozle made the review stage more exciting, easier to enter, less intimidating, and more socially supportive, while also revealing conditions related to noise, pacing, fairness, and technology. Within this bounded case, Baamboozle appears to support broader and more psychologically safe participation during English review in Vietnamese lower-primary classrooms when carefully mediated by the teacher.