A Comparison of the Effect of Game-Based and Story-Telling Learning Methods on Chinese Academic Achievement and Attitude Toward Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language in Thailand-Based Kindergarten 1 Students

บทคัดย่อ

This quasi-experimental quantitative study was aimed at comparing the Chinese academic achievement and attitude toward learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) among Kindergarten 1 (K1) students under the game-based (as intervention) and story-telling (as traditional instruction) learning methods at an international school in Thailand. A 3-week intervention was implemented on a convenience sample of two K1 classes, enrolled at the target school during the academic year 2022-2023. For the data collection, the Chinese monthly test for November 2022, and the Attitude Toward Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language Questionnaire (adapted from Gardner, 2010), were used. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics (i.e., frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations) and comparative analysis (using independent samples t-tests) on the collected data. From the data analysis, it was found that:

1. K1 students had an average gain of 5.18 ± 2.68 points in Chinese academic achievement after learning under the game-based learning method;
2. K1 students had an average gain of 4.28 ± 2.40 points in Chinese academic achievement after learning under the story-telling learning method;
3. a larger gain in attitude toward learning CFL was observed for K1 students after studying under the game-based learning method (0.38 ± 0.29) than for those under story-telling learning method (0.15 ± 0.34);
4. no significant difference (α = .05) was found in the gain in Chinese academic achievement between the students learning under the game-based learning method and those learning under story-telling learning method; and
5. there was a significant difference (α = .05) in the gain in attitude toward learning CFL between the students using game-based and story-telling learning methods.