The Affordances of Augmented Reality Technology in the English for Specific Purposes Classroom: It’s Impact on vocabulary learning and students motivation in a Saudi Higher Education Institution

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Wael Hamed Alharbi

Abstract

The recent years have witnessed an unprecedented growth and innovation in information communication technology. One of the fields that has benefited immensely from these developments is education. Augmented reality (AR) technology is currently applied in English for Specific Purpose Classroom (ESP). AR technology comes with several advantages including more focused learning, improved motivation among learners, personalized learning and remote learning among others. However, questions have arisen on the efficacy of this approach. Using a Higher Education Institution in Saudi Arabia (private medicine school) as a case study, we target the students registered for this English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course who are all Saudi students. They are B1/B2 CEFR level. They are considered first year college students. We use Krejcie and Morgan sampling formula to get the required sample which is 144. Participants are then sampled using stratified sampling and purposive sampling methods. The study has both control and experiment groups. Mixed methods including questionnaires and interviews are used in data collection. The respective data is collected from 100 MCQs vocabulary questions. Descriptive statistics and content analysis are used in data analysis. The results indicate that although traditional vocabulary learning methods can improve students’ performance, augmented reality technology still leads to better results. While most students in the control group scored less than 80 in the vocabulary questions, a majority of the students in the experiment group scored more than 90. On students’ perception of the AR technology, students who strongly agreed were 124 while those who agreed were 18. This is an indication that AR technology impacts positively in learning motivation and vocabulary retention.

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