PICTOWORD GAME: Improve Compound Nouns Among ESL Students

Abstract

The importance of integrating mobile technology in assisting language learning is becoming a trending in the learning of ESL. Apple store and Google Play are online applications, which people can easily downloaded games and can be used as an educational tool. Therefore, this is an action research focuses on improving the pupils’ spelling skills in compound nouns words through the usage of Pictoword Game. The participants of this research were thirty-five Year 5 pupils from an urban school in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor. The Pictoword Game had been used as intervention method in improving pupils’ spelling compound nouns.  Steps in the implementation were Spelling Bee games as pre-test, “Two Pictures One Word” games from the Pictoword Game, and then proceed with two crossword puzzles as post-test. The findings of the research were analysed mixed method using the Triangulation of spelling document analysis, observation’s checklist and Emoji survey. The findings indicated that there had been an improvement in the participants’ spelling performance in compound nouns after the intervention and gave positive opinions concerning the use of the game application. Apart from that, this research has limitations to be furthered to verify the long run effectiveness as the words provided already programmed in the game application.