A CASE STUDY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN A MOBILE GAME-ASSISTED ENVIRONMENT DURING THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

Abstract

The research explores the motivational role of digital mobile games and the effect of anxiety/stress upon the participants during English Language Learning (ELL). Moreover, it also describes how the digital games develop the participants' interest and how these are helpful in ELL during the COVID-19 lockdown. It is the case study of three (03) English language learners with a secondary level of English proficiency, stuck at home due to COVID-19 lockdown in Pakistan. The participants were asked to play Spaceteam ESL, a digital mobile game that demands fluent oral exchanges of information. The participants played Spaceteam ESL in three (03) sessions, and every session consisted of an hour. Then the data was collected through the observation method and semi-structured interviews from the participants. Findings reveal that the participants' continuous responsive interaction during the game and the sense of not being judged by a teacher create a non-threatening and stress-free zone. It develops the participants' greater interest, becomes the ELL source, and has fun and killing time during the COVID-19 lockdown. The research is distinctive because its observations are based upon the outside classroom environment. In addition, it also finds the pedagogical utilisation and different features of Spaceteam ESL helpful in ELL. Keywords: digital games, language teaching tools, English language learning, Anxiety, MALL