Martínez&Reyes InformeFinal Octubre 2022

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Approval of director
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Educational games to foster reading comprehension in 11th graders at Jorge Eliécer Gaitán High
School
Willinton Martinez Gonzalez
ID 1006487038
Yeisson Reyes Colorado
ID 1077875243
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

of Licenciado en inglés at Universidad de la Amazonia
Universidad de la Amazonia
Faculty of Educational Sciences
English Language Teaching Program
Florencia, Caquetá
2022
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Educational games to foster reading comprehension in 11th graders at Jorge Eliécer Gaitán High
School
ID 1006487038
ID 1077875243
DIRECTOR:
M.A. Paola Julie Aguilar Cruz
Universidad de la Amazonia
Faculty of Educational Sciences
English Language Teaching Program
Florencia, Caquetá
2022
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Dedication
I dedicate this work to my little brother, who has given me the best example of hope,
discipline, and heroism for life. To my mother, because of her example of self-improvement and
effort, her unconditional support, and the great love I receive from her hands. To my older
brother for his protection and advice. To God for my existence, and to the love of my life for her
presence in mine.
First, I thank God for my existence. Secondly, I dedicate this study to my family and especially to
my parents, who have strongly supported me in every way since the beginning of my formative
process. I express my enormous gratitude to them, who have been a fundamental pillar in my
human and professional formation process. Thank you for teaching me that despite the
difficulties, the family will always be there to support you in your projects and life goals. I also
want to dedicate it to myself, that despite all the insecurities and bad decisions, I was able to take
this first step in my professional growth. Last but not least, I thank my co-worker who was very
supportive in this process, being patient and encouraging me to continue.

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Acknowledgements
We thank God for this life opportunity and the privilege of carrying out this degree
project successfully.
Likewise, we would like to express our most sincere gratitude to Professor M.A. Paola
Julie Aguilar, for her leadership, guidance, motivation, and support as director in this research
process. To Professor M.A. Jaime Duque Aguilar for his meaningful advice in the development
of this research idea while the Didactics I course.

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“Neither the director nor the jurors of the present work are responsible for the ideas and
conclusions exposed within this document; they are exclusive of its authors”.
Florencia- Caquetá, Octubre de 2022.

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Abstract
This research paper deals with an action-research study about the implementation of educational
games to foster EFL reading comprehension skills among 11th graders at a state school in
Florencia, Caquetá. The study participants were 33 students from Jorge Eliecer Gaitán high
school. In relation to the methodological design, this study was developed under a qualitative and
descriptive approach. Surveys and focus group interviews were the instruments used for data
collection. For the data analysis, we used the grounded theory approach and data triangulation.
The results showed that educational games promoted students' motivation for enhancing English
as foreign language (EFL) reading comprehension, facilitating the students' engagement while
implementing innovative teaching strategies. Moreover, the games’ mechanics such as the use of
keywords and visual elements through in the graphic design triggered the student's EFL reading
comprehension and helped them understand the instructions in the game. In conclusion,
educational games provided students with an interactive, fun, and comfortable educational
environment for the development of their EFL reading skills.
Keywords: Educational games, EFL reading comprehension, Game design.

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Resumen
Este documento trata de un estudio de investigación-acción sobre la implementación de juegos
educativos para fomentar las habilidades de comprensión lectora en estudiantes de 11º grado de
un colegio público de Florencia, Caquetá. Los participantes del estudio fueron 33 estudiantes del
colegio Jorge Eliecer Gaitán. En relación con el diseño metodológico, este estudio desarrolló un
enfoque cualitativo y descriptivo. Los instrumentos utilizados para la recolección de datos fueron
las encuestas y las entrevistas a grupos focales. Para el análisis de los datos se utilizó el enfoque
de la teoría fundamentada y la triangulación de datos. Los resultados mostraron que los juegos
educativos promovieron la motivación de los estudiantes para mejorar la comprensión lectora del
inglés como lengua extranjera, facilitando el compromiso de los estudiantes durante la
implementación de las estrategias de enseñanza innovadoras. Además, la mecánica de los juegos
estimuló la comprensión lectora de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera, utilizando
palabras clave y elementos visuales en el diseño gráfico para ayudar a los estudiantes a
comprender las instrucciones de los textos del juego. En conclusión, los juegos educativos
proporcionaron a los estudiantes un entorno educativo interactivo, divertido y cómodo para el
desarrollo de sus habilidades de lectura en inglés como lengua extranjera.
Palabras clave: Juegos educativos, comprensión lectora en EFL, Diseño del juego.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Introduction..................................................................................................................................13
Chapter I.......................................................................................................................................15
The Research Problem.................................................................................................................15
Problem Statement...................................................................................................................15
Rationale....................................................................................................................................19
Research Objectives..................................................................................................................22
Chapter II......................................................................................................................................23
Theoretical Framework...............................................................................................................23
State of the Art..........................................................................................................................23
International Context...............................................................................................................23
National Context.......................................................................................................................25
Regional Context.......................................................................................................................27
Conceptual framework.............................................................................................................28
Chapter III....................................................................................................................................32
Methodology..................................................................................................................................32
Research Design........................................................................................................................32
Data collection instruments......................................................................................................33
Instructional design..................................................................................................................34
Chapter IV....................................................................................................................................44
Data Analysis and findings..........................................................................................................44
Data analysis procedures..........................................................................................................44
Data triangulation.....................................................................................................................45
Research categories...................................................................................................................45
Findings......................................................................................................................................46
Implementing educational games in the classroom promoted student’s motivation and learning for
reading comprehension......................................................................................................................46
Game’s mechanics trigger students’ reading comprehension............................................................51
Chapter V......................................................................................................................................58
Conclusions and Pedagogical Implications................................................................................58
Conclusions................................................................................................................................58
Pedagogical Implications..........................................................................................................59
Limitations.................................................................................................................................59
References.....................................................................................................................................60
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Appendixes....................................................................................................................................65
Appendix A. Informed consent..................................................................................................65
Appendix B. Need analysis survey............................................................................................66
Appendix C. Exit Survey...........................................................................................................68
Appendix D. Focus interview questions....................................................................................71
List of Figures
Figure 1. Need analysis question 1…………………………………………………………………..……16

Figure 2. Need analysis question 2............................................................................................................17
Figure 3. Need analysis question 3............................................................................................................17
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Figure 4. Game number one......................................................................................................................37

Figure 5. Game number two......................................................................................................................38
Figure 6. Game number three....................................................................................................................40
Figure 7. Game number four.....................................................................................................................41
List of Tables
Table 1. Pedagogical desing......................................................................................................................35

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Table 2. Research categories.....................................................................................................................44

Table 3. Exit survery question 5................................................................................................................46
Table 10. Exit survery question 1..............................................................................................................55
Introduction
Along the early twenty-first century, Serious Games (SGs) became a major attraction for
strengthening communication skills in students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in

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different educational settings. This phenomenon is due to the student’s suitable embracing of the
SGs and the good results obtained throughout their implementation in EFL teaching-learning
environments (Aguilar-Cruz & Álvarez, 2021). In this sense, SGs reinforce the learning process
of EFL students by emphasizing the development of different communicative skills. In addition,
SGs motivate not only the students but also the teachers to look for different methods to acquire
and teach the foreign language effectively (Aguilar-Cruz & Álvarez, 2021). Thus, both the
student and the teacher are actively involved in the learning process, improving their performance
with remarkable projections for the use of technology for educational purposes.
In Colombia, the National Ministry of Education (MEN) has developed audiovisual
didactic materials, such as textbooks or videos, as a strategy to reinforce the EFL teaching and
learning in a more effective way. In this sense, the MEN has also promoted the development of
SGs and gamification as didactic technological strategies for the state institutions. However, there
is still a lack of research conducted in this area that provides information about how these
strategies influence students’ reading comprehension processes.
In this order of ideas, our qualitative action research study was aimed at designing SGs to
foster reading comprehension for 11th graders at Jorge Eliécer Gaitán High School in Florencia
Caquetá. In terms of structure, this manuscript consists of three main chapters. Firstly, we
provide an overview of the research issue, its background, and who is affected. Later, we support
the need for the study, the research question, and our project aims. In the second chapter, we
structure the theoretical framework that supports our research study. Firstly, we updated the
current knowledge about the matter; then, we stated the nature of the relevant variables for this
study. The third chapter undertakes the methodology, which displays the details of our research
design, the settings and its participants, the data collection tools, the research stages and the
instructional design. Then, the fourth chapter deals with the data analysis procedures, the data
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triangulation, and the research categories. Subsequently, the fifth chapter contains the
conclusions, pedagogical implications, and limitations.

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Chapter I
The Research Problem

Problem Statement
Reading comprehension is considered an indispensable skill to develop in EFL students
because of their need to be able to understand written language properly in order to advance in
their language acquisition process. In this respect, Pardede (2019) affirms that the development of
reading comprehension skills in EFL learners helps them in many aspects of life not only to
strengthen their lack of interaction with an English context but also in a holistic way to their
intellectual and personal development. In this order of ideas, we realized that it was necessary to
conduct innovative strategies to foster the improvement of reading comprehension skills in our
educational surroundings.
The results from the ICFES Saber Pro in 2021 at Jorge Eliécer Gaitán High School
evidenced a low performance in reading comprehension and a lack of vocabulary in 11th graders.
Additionally, results of the Pruebas Evaluar para Avanzar (EVA) 2022 confirmed that 11th
graders continue to have low results in reading comprehension. This implies that there was a need
to carry out research in the area of reading comprehension to understand how to improve this
aspect that is necessary for students graduating from 11th grade.
Additionally, it was observed, from our roles as pre-service teachers, that students seemed
to be demotivated by the traditional instruction given in the school contexts. From our
observation practice, we realized that students did not participate in class since they found the
classes boring and demotivating. This implied that there was a need to foster strategies that
include SGs that could not only provide fun environments but also promote effective learning
outcomes.
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We also conducted a needs analysis survey with 11th graders to determine how students
rate some aspects regarding reading comprehension features to support our research idea. The
following graphs show the students' answers and the value they gave to each one of the
statements.
Figure 1
Students’ responses in the need analysis survey
The result in Figure 1 shows that a high number of participants considered that the
amount of English vocabulary that they knew was enough to understand English texts. However,
between 10% and 30% of the participants rated their perception of English vocabulary when
reading English texts in the low to medium range. In this sense, two fundamental aspects were
revealed: first, students were aware of the importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension in
EFL. Second, some of the students considered that their level of vocabulary knowledge was not
enough to understand English texts. Due to these aspects, it was part of our task to implement a
strategy that allowed students to acquire vocabulary and benefited their reading comprehension.
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Figure 2.
In this figure, the results showed that most of the participants felt engaged in playing
English video games. This affirmed that students were used to playing on digital means, which
was a valuable factor for the development and implementation of technological strategies such as
educational games to address the improvement of EFL reading skills. Moreover, we found a very
good predisposition from students to interact with this type of technological teaching strategy.
Figure 3.
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In this opportunity, the graphic showed that 70% of the participants considered reading
English texts was an easy task. However, 30% of the participants stated their difficulty in reading
English as intermediate. In this sense, it was essential to deepen the development of this skill
through a strategy that addressed this learners’ need contribute to the improvement of their
reading comprehension in EFL.
From this perspective, and considering the previous problems stated, our research project
was aimed at exploring educational games as an appropriate strategy to improve the reading
comprehension level of 11th grades at a state school in Florencia, Caquetá and answer the
research question: How does the implementation of educational games foster reading
comprehension in 11th graders at Jorge Eliécer Gaitán High School?

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Rationale
Currently, the application of SGs have become a subject of the research study in the
educational field. According to Pardede (2019) this is due to its effectiveness as an educational
instrument to foster the ELF learning process in students from a non-English speaking context. In
this way, SGs helped students to have a more realistic interaction with the target language in
remote regions of the world like ours. In addition, Alonso-Fernández et al. (2020) affirm that the
SGs' captivating property helps to motivate and engage students in the learning process of any
subject of knowledge. In this sense, this technological tool was adapted into an educational
instrument to foster the improvement of the students’ EFL communicative skills. Hence, the use
of educational games sought to promote the reinforcement of reading skills while changing the
mode or paradigm in which English teachers in our educational surroundings commonly worked.
Firstly, our research examined the application of educational games to improve reading
comprehension skills. According to Tlili et al. (2021) the use of educational games enhances
English vocabulary learning in EFL learners. In this sense, with the use of SGs, the acquisition of
vocabulary was favored, which is a fundamental aspect of the process that must be developed to
better understand the key ideas of any text (Perfetti et al., 2005). In addition, Chen and Hsu
(2019) state that the development of the tasks or missions within the educational game
contributes to the student's improvement in vocabulary acquisition and reading skills. With this in
mind, we considered appropriate the development and implementation of educational games to
contribute to 11graders’ reading comprehension strengthening.
Additionally, the use of SGs fosters EFL students’ motivation and engagement to improve
their reading skills. According to Al-Azawi et al. (2016), educational games in comparison to
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traditional instruction are more attractive to catch the students' attention, which increases their
motivation to learn. Moreover, Godwin-Jones (2014) affirms that SGs have a significant
influence on teenagers since SGs involve a chance to connect with those students who dislike
traditional instruction. In the same line of thought, Hanandeh et al. (2018) concluded that the
implementation of SGs has a significant impact on increasing students' motivation and
satisfaction toward English reading skill development. Having this in mind, the implementation
of SGs allowed catch the students' attention to promote reading comprehension improvement
while using an innovative EFL teaching strategy in our educational settling.
Taking this into account, 11th graders are at the appropriate age to strengthen this useful
linguistic ability because they are about to start the university phase where they will need this
reading ability most of the time. Additionally, eleventh-grade students faced assessment
challenges during their current scholar year such as the APTIS for teens test and the national test
Prueba Saber 11. Indeed, both of those tests measured the reading comprehension capacity so
training students in abilities that helped them to approve those tests became an imperative duty
for EFL teachers at Jorge Eliécer Gaitán High School. Thus, obtaining high results in both exams
generated positive effects for the students, on their way to their higher-level education and for the
school by increasing its qualification at the MEN.
To sum up, the implementation of SGs to foster reading comprehension brought positive
aspects to the EFL teaching community around, which according to Solano et al. (2017), is it
effective since it allows a suitable engagement at any level of the education system. Thus, all the
materials developed along this project application ended up in the hands of EFL teachers who use
traditional teaching strategies. Otherwise, future research proposals about the SGs' impact on the
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EFL teaching and learning process in our region were supported by the insights and data we
found in this research paper. Hence, this research study sought to highlight the importance of
implementing and evaluating the impact of educational games to foster reading comprehension
and innovation in terms of EFL teaching.

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Research Objectives
This section presents the research objectives that underline the development and
implementation of our research study. We describe the general objective and the specific
objectives that helped us to design, implement, and describe the outcomes of our research idea.
General Objective. To describe 11th graders’ reading comprehension learning process
through educational games.
Specific Objectives. To design educational games focused on reading comprehension
skill.
To implement the educational games with 11th graders at Jorge Eliécer Gaitán High
School.
To describe the effects of the educational games on students’ reading comprehension
improvement.
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Chapter II
Theoretical Framework
State of the Art
This section compiles and highlights some articles that coincide with the main concerns in
the same vein of this research. It also highlights the relevance of developing this research
considering the international, national, and regional research fields in which satisfactory studies
have been carried out that are related to the problems proposed in this research.
International Context
In the international context we found three studies that are the most closely related to the
use of SGs for educational purposes. Chen and Hsu (2019) attempted to determine how much
knowledge about history and vocabulary the participants acquired after playing a serious game.
In addition, the study aimed to find out how participants evaluated the use of SGs to enhance
their learning process improvement. The population in this study was sixty-six participants, EFL
students who were given a pre-test, a post-test, and a survey to determine the impact of the SGs
development on participants' knowledge and their perspective about the strategy application.
Finally, Chen and Hsu (2019) concluded that the students felt engaged and motivated playing the
game, and the learning process which involves SGs can be both enjoyable and funny. In this
sense, this study, as well as our research study, sought to improve the development of a skill
which was vocabulary, by using educational games in the classroom. In addition, in terms of
motivation and engagement, this research reported significant results through the use of this
digital strategy, which was related to what we wanted to achieve in our population where the
phenomenon took place.

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Additionally, Wouters and Oostendorp (2017) focused on exploring the effectiveness of
games-based learning to increase students' motivation and the improvement of learning
processes. Besides, these authors claimed that the purpose of developing educational games is to
take advantage of technological tools. In such wise, this research supported our investigation
because it sought to improve the students’ experience while fostering motivation and facilitating
the students’ learning process through educational games in the digital context.
In the same vein, Hanandeh et al. (2018) carried out research with the aim of exploring
the effects of implementing SGs activities in English skills development. In this case, the study
focused on how the participants' motivation influences English reading skills development.
Additionally, the authors used questionnaire forms as data collection instruments before and after
the pedagogical interventions of the SGs strategy in order to gather the participants' feedback
towards the activity. As conclusions, Hanandeh et al. (2018) found that the participants'
motivation was significantly improved due to the SGs strategy usage to trigger the students’
engagement in reading. As well as this study found that the students’ confidence and satisfaction
levels were positively affected during the SGs implementation. In this sense, this study provided
us with some methodological aspects that were considered when we applied our research project.
Furthermore, this study's targets were similar to our research objectives since it made emphasis
exploring the effectiveness of educational games on EFL learning, addressing students' feelings
and perspectives regarding this subject.
Within this framework, the studies addressed at the international level provided us with
useful ideas, regarding methodological and design issues to perform a suitable implementation of
the educational games in our educational setting. However, we must clarify that those studies
were carried out in contexts where English is a foreign language as well. Moreover, the results
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obtained showed that combining technology and video games for educational purposes was
increasing within the current education model. In this sense, we saw how educational games
achieved great acceptance by students and researchers in different international settings,
achieving not only the development of language skills in the learners but also improving their
experience while interacting with the foreign language.
National Context
In the national context, it was evidenced that there were no relevant studies published in
indexed journals related to the development of SGs for teaching EFL. In addition, there were no
studies related to the implementation of SGs to foster reading comprehension. However, we
found three studies that were not published in an indexed journal, but their contribution was
related to the development of educational games in the Colombian context. The first study was
published by Arango-López et al. (2017) who conducted a study in which they compiled a
catalog of gamification patterns that helped the development of games for educational purposes.
In addition, the authors explored some educational institutions to test the hypothesis that the
development of educational games containing certain patterns positively influences students'
motivation. In this sense, Arango-López et al. (2017) provided a list of game patterns that
contribute to increasing students' motivation in the development of educational games both inside
and outside the classrooms. Additionally, Arango-López et al. (2017) concluded that it was
possible to increase student motivation in learning through the implementation of educational
games in the EFL lessons. In this sense, the patterns found in that study addressed some of the
aspects that we included in our game design to carry out our study in order to generate a positive
impact on students' motivation regarding reading comprehension in EFL.

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Furthermore, Camacho and Ovalle (2019) attempted to determine how playing video
games influenced learning new vocabulary on English learners. In this study, the target
population was a group of fifteen students from 8th semester of B.A in English at Universidad
del Tolima. In addition, the authors explored the use of video games beyond the purpose of
entertainment, by adding an educational purpose. Moreover, Camacho and Ovalle (2019)
concluded that the students acquired new vocabulary by playing video games. In this regard, the
use of educational games for educational purposes had a positive influence on students' learning
process. Besides, this study influenced our research regarding implementing educational games
for educational purposes to promote reading comprehension. The results of Camacho and
Ovalles’s study provided a positive foundation to conduct our research, which was the
meaningful vocabulary acquisition in learners using educational games.
On the other hand, Moreno Cadavid and Moreno (2019) developed a systematic literature
review to figure out the gaming elements that help to develop SGs with the purpose of English
teaching. Moreover, this study focused on finding elements that can be combined with
educational aspects for improving English learning motivation. To conclude, Moreno Cadavid
and Moreno (2019) found that the game elements that were considered relevant in SGs were
those that required performing tasks or completing actions. In this regard, the integration of
pedagogical aspects such as feedback, teacher communication, and the improvement of the
student's learning experience contributed significantly to the high-performance development of
learners at the end of the study. Based on this, this methodology underlines the accomplishment
of great outcomes when putting together some games' components such as the adaptability for
developing tasks with didactic purposes. Indeed, during the design of the educational games for
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our research, we also considered this property of digital games in order to provide a digital tool
that appropriately combined technology and pedagogy.
In short, although some authors in the national context had explored the use of video
games for educational purposes, this remained a little explored area within the educational
context, specifically in the area of EFL. In this sense, we considered the contributions made by
previous studies to reaffirm and propose our study, in order to explore and determine how the use
of games contributes to promoted reading comprehension. These results and conclusions, such as
game design patterns, the influence on the acquisition of important vocabulary, and important
elements for a successful development of educational games, were taken as inputs to develop our
study.
Regional Context
In the regional context, we found one article carried out by Aguilar-Cruz and Álvarez
(2021) which was aimed to explore 10th graders' perception regarding the use of the SG Bethe1
Challenge in classroom activities. In this study, researchers applied interviews, pre-test- and post-
test to gather information about the students' perspectives after the development of gamified
activities with the Bethe1 Challenge. The main objective of the researchers in using the pre-test
and post-test was to gather detailed information in order to obtain meaningful results. Finally,
Aguilar-Cruz and Álvarez (2021) claimed that according to the results, students found the
Bethe1Challenge as an interesting and enjoyable game that fosters EFL learning. We did not find
more articles from our region published in this area. However, this article is aligned with one of
the axes of our research, which sought to determine the impact of educational games on students'
interest, motivation, and improvement of reading comprehension in EFL learning process.

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It was concluded that from the international, national, and regional contexts, there was a
tendency to conduct research on the development and application of SGs or educational games in
teaching and learning EFL. Furthermore, after analyzing the previous studies, we concluded that
the development and implementation of educational games contribute meaningfully to the
processes of teaching and learning EFL. However, when we delimited our analysis to the national
and regional context, we realized that they were still a little explored area. In this sense, due to
the background found, it reinforced the need to carry out our research study that contributed to
exploration of the extent of educational games in EFL skill development.
Conceptual framework
The following conceptual framework relates the study theme of educational games to
foster reading comprehension. For this reason, we explored from a theoretical perspective the
constructs that framed this study: Reading comprehension and Educational Games.
Reading comprehension
First, many authors have supported the idea that it is important to foster reading
comprehension. However, it was essential to clarify the concept of reading comprehension.
According to Perfetti et al. (2005) "Comprehension occurs as the reader builds a mental
representation of a text message” (p. 228). In the same way, Kanmaz (2022) affirms that the
“Reading and comprehension process is the most effective way of understanding the reality of
everyday life, facilitating the acquisition of information, and gaining a critical perspective on
phenomena” (p. 2). For this reason, if students manage a suitable reading comprehension level
within the EFL learning process, it facilitates the acquisition of other educational processes too.
Moreover, Pickren et al. (2021) claim that " Reading comprehension is an essential lifelong skill
that can affect students’ ability to learn information across core curricula" (p. 1). As children
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move beyond the beginnings of learning to read, the breakdown of comprehension can be caused
by familiarity with key vocabulary words in the text. Thus, reading comprehension was
understood as the ability to understand writings and internalize their content for the development
of future intellectual tasks.
EFL reading comprehension. Learning a new language involves the development of
multiple skills and mastering reading comprehension is a must in the process of EFL language
acquisition. In this regard, Pardede (2019) states that reading comprehension is the most essential
EFL skill in the learning process, especially in environments in which English is not a second
language. In this sense, reading comprehension is vital to learning and keeping in contact with
English as the language targeted. In addition, Pardede (2019) considered reading as the most
suitable way to receive language inputs in environments lacking English speech interaction. In
this regard, reading comprehension in EFL contributes to the learning process, providing a
meaningful cognitive tool that learners will use to discover new environments with new content
for increasing their intellectual capacity. On the other hand, Alyousef (2006) claims that in order
to improve reading comprehension, it is essential that teachers implement strategies that motivate
and keep students engaged. In this regard, due to the relevance of reading comprehension in the
EFL learning process, it was meaningful to explore strategies that contributed to the students'
engagement in reading comprehension improvement.
Educational games
Another concept to discuss is educational games. In theory, educational games are defined
as tools that allow working aligned content in educational systems for users to learn the content
being worked on (Ritterfeld et., al 2009). Similarly, Tlili et al. (2021) claim that "educational
games are effective tools in enhancing the learning process" (p,215). It showed that the use of
educational games helped the needs of students learning a second language. Likewise, this
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educational game development promotes a significant impact on the processes of learning and
motivation. In fact, Kiili (2004) affirms that "in educational game design both dimensions,
educational goals and gameplay, should be balanced in order to achieve a meaningful entity"
(p.16). Thus, educational games provide a means to offer possibilities for teachers to develop
learning environments. Regardless, Kiili (2004) also claims that due to inadequate presentation of
multimedia learning materials, educational games also run the risk of overloading the player's
working memory through multimedia overload.
The previous information promoted the creation of educational games to foster reading
comprehension since the design of SGs allowed to engage the students’ attention and their
reading comprehension improvement, which was significant and helpful for the EFL learning
process on them.
Educational games in EFL. Educational games are considered a powerful tool for their
positive impact in terms of applicability for addressing educational purposes within the EFL
teaching field. Al-Azawi et al. (2016) state that educational games demonstrated significant value
for enjoyment and there has been considerable success when games were designed to support the
improvement of any communicative skill in EFL students. Therefore, many teacher-researchers
claimed to achieve a high impact on their students not only in their skill development but also in
terms of motivation for the EFL learning through these digital tools. According to Chen and Hsu
(2019) educational games involve enjoyable and formative properties which are attractive for
both teachers and students within the teaching and learning process of a foreign language.
Besides, the use of digital games in EFL teaching did not represent a major obstacle in the field
of management for learners, since many of them were too accustomed to the use of technology in
all areas of their daily lives. Al-Azawi et al. (2016) establish that teenage students develop
abilities and a habit of learning by playing computer games every day, nevertheless, this issue is
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not considered by schools or universities for designing more successful EFL teaching methods. In
the same vein, Solano et al. (2017) suggest that EFL teachers must learn to manage these
technological tools to better serve today's technology-native student population.
Educational games for reading comprehension. The use of educational games to foster
the development of reading comprehension mastery in EFL students has obtained favorable
outcomes for some researchers. In this regard, Chen and Hsu (2019) found that using educational
games to foster EFL learning, helped students considerably in reading comprehension growth
since they were capable to interpret unknown vocabulary, instructions, and missions based on the
keywords and the gaming context. Moreover, Godwin-Jones (2014) claims that educational
games benefit the promotion of reading comprehension by activating the cognitive engine of the
players due to the continuous exposure to unfamiliar vocabulary, and instructions to complete
tasks, where the player must take actions based on the interpretation. Likewise, Pardede (2019)
argues that due to the great growth and transformation of printed information into digital texts,
students are increasingly adapting to reading in electronic environments. In this sense, the
development of reading comprehension skills in EFL students with educational games was a
strategy aligned with the way in which information was currently being read through digital
media or even video games.

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Chapter III
Methodology
Research Design
This study was framed under the qualitative research methodology since it aimed to
strengthen knowledge in alignment with educational games to foster reading comprehension in
eleventh-grade students at Jorge Eliécer Gaitán High School in Florencia Caquetá. Firstly,
qualitative research emphasizes observation, management and gathering data from the
phenomenon setting that contains behavioral descriptions of the participants and its interpretation
(Vasilachis et al., 2009). Moreover, qualitative research applies several instruments to gain data
that emphasizes texts or opinions recognition rather than numbers to undertake social issues
(Creswell, 2012, p.16). Hence, qualitative research is interested in understanding how individuals
in any given setting understand their experiences, their worldview, and what meaning they attach
to their life background (Merriam et al., 2015).
Type of Study.
Our study was an action research study, which in Creswell’s (2012) words refers to
studies carried out to develop practical solutions to any practical problem in a determined
context. Indeed, these types of research usually follow a community development philosophy that
engages the participation of all its members from the problem-identification phase to the final
stage of applying solutions (Kumar, 2018). Most of cases, action research is carried out by people
in educational settings aimed at collecting data for improving their methodological approaches in
terms of innovating issues they face in their traditional teaching and learning strategies (Creswell,
2012). In this respect, with the employment of this research design, educators from all over the
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world are seeking to empower, transform, and liberate students from the barriers that block their
self-growth in the learning process (Creswell, 2012).
Research Phases. We defined five phases to accomplish our research objectives.
● Phase one: Apply a needs analysis to identify students’ needs and preferences regarding
games and topics for reading comprehension texts (See appendix B).
● Phase two: Analyze the data from phase one and design the educational games. We
designed four games that involved reading comprehension.
● Phase three: Implement the educational games and survey students after each
implementation. After the final intervention, some students were chosen to develop a
focus group interview (See appendix C).
● Phase four: Analyze and interpret the results from the surveys and focus group
interviews (See appendix D).
● Phase five: Write the conclusions and the pedagogical implications of our study. Share
these results with the educational community.
Data collection instruments
We selected two data collection instruments to collect data during the pedagogical
intervention. The instruments that were used were surveys and focus group interviews aimed at
gathering the necessary data to achieve our research objectives.
Surveys. Creswell (2012) define surveys as a data collection tool that allows for the
analysis of data and compares statistically to verify the hypothesis of a study. Also, Creswell
(2014) claims that surveys collect data from a certain population where a trend is usually
obtained based on the opinions of a certain population. In this sense, surveys helped us to
34
understand students’ likes and preferences regarding reading comprehension topics and their
desire to use games in the classroom. Additionally, surveys served to track students’ reading
comprehension improvements during the implementation of the games.
Focus Group Interviews. Interviews are a tool that allows for visualizing the
participants' perceptions, interests, and opinions regarding specific issues (Vaughn et al., 1996).
Also, Creswell (2012) claims that focus group interviews allow for collecting comments and
interaction between participants. Hence, focus group interviews serve to detect and reveal
expected or unexpected results in a study from the participants' perspective (Vaughn et al., 1996).
In other words, focus group interviews help researchers to take into account participants' opinions
and obtain detailed data. In the same vein, Kelly (2003) claims that focus group interviews are
designed to elicit information about students' attitudes or opinions based on their experience
following their participation in a study of a particular phenomenon. Focus group interviews
provided us with data to deepen our knowledge of students' reading comprehension learning
processes, and understand how students interacted with the games.
Setting and Participants
This research was carried out at the Jorge Eliécer Gaitán High School, located in the
urban area of Florencia in Caquetá. The participants enrolled in our study were 30 students from
11th grade from the English Emphasis group that the school offers. These students had good
English learning performance; however, it was evidenced that they had issues when reading tasks
were delivered by the teacher. The group had 30 students, of which 20 were women and 10 were
men, whose ages varied between 15 and 18 years.

35
Instructional design
Our research was aimed at describing the implications when applying educational games
with game-based learning approaches to reinforce reading comprehension skills in 11 th graders of
a public institution. In this order of ideas, Solano et al. (2017) highlight the need of doing
research on this type of English teaching strategy, related to technology usage, when contributing
to the development of students' communicative competences. In addition, the increase of
technological management in education in recent years raised the teachers' interest to propose
alternative methodologies to implement in their classes. All this seeks to improve not only the
process of learning a foreign language but also the students' experience in relation to knowledge
acquisition and the development of their communicative skills. However, these innovative ideas
that involve the use of technological resources had certain limitations depending on the
educational context in which they were expected to be developed. In our country, Colombia, it is
still very exhausting to try to carry out these projects because of all the possible difficulties that
can be found within educational settings.
In this sense, to accomplish our research objective, we decided to implement four
pedagogical interventions where we invited eleventh graders to participate in digital games'
utilization to strengthen their reading skills. Indeed, Al-Azawi et al. (2016) state that Game-based
learning promotes the students' active participation in the learning process while they develop
activities on digital games, then it makes the learning experience more attractive by bringing joy
to the learning process. Thus, we found a digital platform called RPG MAKER where we
successfully designed a four-level interactive game with a game-based learning approach. This
free-to-use platform gave us the opportunity to use its interface and all its graphic resources to
create four different environments with different philosophies. Furthermore, the RPG MAKER
36
software, as an additional positive aspect, did not require an Internet connection either for the
creation of the games or to play them once they were launched. Initially, for the elaboration of the
instructions and the interactive script of the game we took into consideration the contents
suggested curriculum for the teaching of English by the MEN in Colombia. Hence, we were able
to adapt a more specific vocabulary to the needs and level of proficiency of our students. In the
following section, we describe our pedagogical intervention.
Pedagogical intervention
According to Al-Azawi et al. (2016) the main objective of all educational games focused
on game-based learning approaches is clearly to foster learning and enhance the student's
experience while developing a certain set of skills or a specific one. Following this line of
suggestions, the educational games that we designed and implemented during the pedagogical
interventions, with RPG MAKER, had a specific learning objective for the students to pass all the
levels until reaching the end of each game. In the following table, we briefly outlined the
pedagogical intervention for the implementation of each game in the classroom environment.
Table 1.
Pedagogical design.
Stages Intervention 1 Intervention 2 Intervention3 Intervention 4

Pre Introducing the Taking the Taking the Taking the
RPG MAKER participants to the participants to the participants to the
program to the computer lab. computer lab. computer lab.
participants.
Explaining the Explaining the Explaining the
Asking students to content of the game, content of the game, content of the game,
sign informed the type of the type of the type of
consent with their vocabulary, and the vocabulary, and the vocabulary, and the
guardians. number of players number of players number of players
allowed per desktop. allowed per desktop. allowed per desktop.
Taking the
participants to the
computer lab.
Explaining the
37
content of the game,

the type of
vocabulary, and the
number of players
allowed per desktop.
While Asking students to Asking students to Asking students to Asking students to
play the first game play the second play the third game play the fourth game
called My grandpa's game called My first called Amazonian called Diamond
farm, which house, which warrior, which Hunter, which
involves the involves the involves defeating involves stealing
development of exploration and enemies to free the diamonds from
several farm tasks. acquisition of a captive animals, in relatives in several
house according to the jungle. locations.
the player's choice.
Post Surveying students Surveying students Surveying students Surveying students
to evaluate the to evaluate the to evaluate the to evaluate the
implementation of implementation of implementation of implementation of
the game. the game. the game. the game.
It is necessary to clarify that the intervention process took place in the Technology Room
of the school. The game installation process on each computer was a long procedure we carried
out before taking the students to the lab for the pedagogical application. After we made sure that
all the games worked correctly on each computer, we proceeded to explain the content of each
level of the overall game. In this sense, we explained to the students that they would play one
level per class intervention, in which they would find vocabulary related to animals, family
members, places of the city, places of the house, colors, numbers, fruits, vegetables, and
directions, that they were previously taught from sixth grade until eleventh grade. In addition, it
was emphasized that they had to follow the instructions given by the game to complete each task
until they finished the level satisfactorily. Also, we told the students to ask the teachers about any
doubts or concerns regarding unknown vocabulary or any issues with the development of the
game. Then, the students were invited to enter the game and start following the instructions given
one by one, so that it was an honest job. After finishing each level of the game, we asked each
participant to evaluate several aspects of the game application from 1 to 5, through a rating scale
survey we developed using Google forms (see Appendix C).

38
In this order of ideas, in the first intervention, the students played a game called My
Grandpa’s Farm, in which they coped up with ten farm tasks they needed to accomplish in order
to finish the game. This game level mainly contained vocabulary of animals, colors, vegetables,
fruits and numbers. In order to complete the ten tasks, they had to walk all around the backyard
of the farm to carry food and see all the animals. For each task done, the players earned one
diamond, so they needed to gain ten diamonds to fulfill the mission. Those tasks were related to
feeding the animals or describing them, also, they needed to answer some quick questions
correctly regarding the physical appearance, and favorite food of the animals. Therefore, during
this first level of the game developed with RPG MAKER, the players' main objective was to use
their reading skills to understand the game's indications so that they could complete the ten tasks
to win the match (see Figure 4).
Figure 4
Example of game-level 1, at the backyard of the farm.
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During the second pedagogical intervention, students played the game-level number two
called My First House. In this game level context, students were asked to visit three different
houses in a neighborhood, by a seller. In the end, students had to choose one of three houses
according to their preference, which would become their property for good. In this game-level
students dealt with more complex English structures, and vocabulary regarding to places of the
house and household stuff. Over the course of the game, students had to interact with the seller,
and follow her directions to correctly explore each of the three houses from top to bottom, where
they would find quick questions about vocabulary and other topics. Hence, during this second
level of the RPG MAKER games, the mission of the players was to use their reading skills to
understand the seller's guidance to explore the three houses and pick one of them at the end of the
match (see Figure 5).

40
Figure 5.
Example of game-level 2, the neighborhood.
Eventually, during the third pedagogical intervention, the students played game level
three of the RPG MAKER game called Amazonian Warrior. The purpose of this game level was
to free several animal species from a gang of animal traffickers, in different locations in the
jungle. To accomplish this, players had to cope with vocabulary related to animals, places of the
jungle, and many instructions provided by the dynamics of the game. Moreover, students had to
defeat all the traffickers while they were walking in the jungle. Once they overcame all the
traffickers, the wild animals were immediately freed from their captivity and a portal was opened
for the player to go to another location to free more animals and defeat more traffickers. In the
end, the player was congratulated by the local people of the jungle for helping them to save the
wild animals. In short, through the students' reading skills, they were immersed in a context
41
where helping to save the animals was the main objective. In addition, the game's graphical
design helped them to understand all the indications of the game's dynamics and other issues,
putting into practice their pragmatics skills. (See Figure 6).
Figure 6.
Example of game-level 3, second location.
Finally, during the fourth pedagogical intervention, the students played the fourth game
level of the RPG MAKER game called Diamond Hunter. In this game level, students faced
vocabulary concerning family members mainly, locations, directions, means of transportation,
and so others. To successfully complete this last game level, students had to help the main
character join his family again by stealing different diamonds from his closest relatives, in
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different geographical locations such as cities, floating castles, and islands. To accomplish this
objective, students had to lead the search by comprehending all the indications given by the
game’s dynamics to catch the diamonds and escape fast from the relatives’ houses or apartments
without being caught. In the end, the main character of the game thanked the player for the help,
and all the family members visited him to take back their treasures and spend some time together
again. Thus, students used their previous knowledge of vocabulary seen in the previous levels,
and their reading skills to follow instructions correctly and overcome all the challenges of this
last level (See Figure 7).
Figure 7.
Example of game-level 4, at the cousin's apartment.
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Consequently, at the end of the development of the four pedagogical interventions, the
appropriate performance of the students through the RPG MAKER game faces was evidenced.
Based on Al-Azawi et al. (2016) Game-based learning triggers students' meaningful learning
from the relevant praxis of language to motivate learning and solving problems actions. This was
highly evidenced when students faced real situations in the digital environments in which they
were highly engaged with the games and very enthusiastic to continue playing them as well. In
addition, taking into account the varying attitudes of the participants towards the research
objective, we developed a series of focus interviews, in which we asked the students about their
viewpoints in a general way on aspects such as the feedback about the development of their
reading skills, and the engagement and motivation they felt throughout the educational games.
Hence, we collected a considerable quantity of data to analyze and interpret in order to answer
our research question.

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Chapter IV
Data Analysis and findings
In this section, we announce the method used to analyze the data collected. Likewise, we
describe the development of the process and its results, from which we proceeded to deliver our
conclusions and the corresponding discussion. In this order of ideas, we report the categories or
central axes of the project, which served us as inputs to answer our research question previously
mentioned in the document.
Data analysis procedures
For the analysis of the data collected, we found it appropriate to adopt the grounded
theory approach for two main reasons. First, according to Creswell (2012) the grounded theory
establishes a systematic and qualitative method for doing research that allows the creation of new
theories based on the exploration and reflection of specific processes, activities, or interactions in
a particular setting. Thus, the description of events around educational topics, in order to generate
findings objectively, was more related to this type of methodological approach in the analysis of
data of a non-quantitative origin, as in this research project. Second, the application of this data
analysis system suggested organizing the information by codes and then segmenting it axially
during its study process, simultaneously (Creswell, 2012). In this way, by conducting this flexible
approach, researchers can build a web of facts, reflecting on the codes found in the data
collection instruments, while developing the respective tabulation and definition of the different
categories and their subcategories, from which the results emerged. In short, the grounded theory
usage helps researchers from the educational field by conducting an in-depth analysis of
qualitative data to integrate the information gathered and support it with theoretical arguments as
well, aimed at strengthening the reliability of the findings.

45
Data triangulation
For the analysis of the data collected, we followed the triangulation method. In this sense,
Merriam and Tisdell (2015), claim that the triangulation method allows the analysis of the data
collected by more than one collection tool. In this regard, triangulation is appropriate for
comparing the results obtained from surveys and interviews in order to target the objective of
answering the research question. Furthermore, Merriam and Tisdell (2015) state that the data
analysis through the triangulation method supports the credibility and efficacy of the research. In
the same vein, Rossman and Wilson (1985) claim that triangulation serves as a reinforcement for
the rescission of the results. As mentioned above, following triangulation as a method of analysis,
we sought to obtain validity and precision in the results.
Research categories
After having established and conducted the analysis following the grounded theory and
the triangulation method, we were able to achieve a categorization that is shown in Table 2.
Table 2.
Research categories
Research question Category Subcategory

Implementing educational Reading texts through educational
games in the classroom games facilitated students’ engagement.
promoted student’s Innovative teaching strategies increased
motivation for enhancing students’ motivation in reading
How does the EFL reading
implementation of comprehension.
comprehension.
educational games foster
reading comprehension in Keywords helped students to
11th graders at Jorge Eliécer Games mechanics understand instructions in game texts.
Gaitán High School? triggered students’ EFL The graphic design of educational
reading comprehension. games strengthened the students’
understanding of game texts.
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Findings
This section is aimed at showing the findings and the discussion of the data contained in
categories linked to the subcategories. This, with the purpose of determining how the
implementation of educational games fostered reading comprehension in students. Therefore, the
discussion was carried out under two main categories, the first is implementing educational
games in the classroom promoted students’ motivation for enhancing reading comprehension,
and the second is Games mechanics promoted students’ reading comprehension.
Implementing educational games in the classroom promoted student’s motivation and learning
for reading comprehension
This category is focused on the implementation of digital games for educational purposes
to stimulate motivation and benefit students' reading comprehension. Chen and Hsu (2019) claim
that students become motivated after developing activities in which educational games are
involved. In this sense, the use of educational games as a teaching strategy in the classroom had a
positive impact on students. Also, Chen and Hsu (2019) reinforce the statement that
implementing games in the educational environment strengthens motivation in the learning
process. Bearing this in mind, motivation was highlighted as a fundamental aspect of learning as
a result of the development of games in the educational environment. This demonstrated that the
development of the classes can take advantage of games as a complement that can genuinely
provide benefits to the English learning process. Also, this category contains two subcategories
that involve, reading texts through educational games facilitated students’ engagement, and
innovative teaching strategies increased students’ motivation in reading comprehension.

47
Reading texts through educational games facilitated students’ engagement. This
subcategory contained students' perspectives and findings regarding students' engagement in
reading texts in educational games. In this concern, Tlili et al. (2021) pointed out that the
attractiveness of educational games contributes to easily engaging the students in the learning
process on any skill. In this regard, 11th graders showed very high acceptance when reading the
texts in the games, which allowed them to interact in real time with the content itself due to the
game's logical design. In fact, the students were very concentrated, and they performed
appropriate behavior during the whole class. Therefore, the digital interface of educational games
generated a positive response, stimulating participants who were attracted and intrigued to
continue with the development of the game dynamics. Furthermore, Solano et al. (2017) state that
the traditional means of teaching English do not generate the same scope of engagement as digital
tools do. In this respect, reading texts in the game meant a more pleasant cognitive exercise for
students than reading in non-interactive means. This was evidenced by the high average gained
on the survey's results at the end of the implementation of the game (see Table 3).
Table 3.
Exit Survey question 5.
Reading texts in the game is more attractive and

engaging for me than printed texts.
Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4
Mean 4,48 4,44 4,48 4,60
SD 0,63 0,78 0,68 0,56
As we can observe, the table above indicated a high average expressed in number as a
response of the participants to their preference between reading texts in the game and in non-
interactive media at the end of each class intervention. In fact, in the following table, we show
similar results when participants were directly asked about the level of engagement they felt
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during the game’s interventions (see Table 4). The high average achieved in each of the classes
evidenced the significant impact of this type of strategy for the improvement of reading skills in
students of English as a foreign language in this educational setting. At the same time, it was also
evident that the increase in the average was progressive over time, as more interventions were
implemented.
Table 4.
Exit Survey question 2.
I felt engaged playing the game during the English

class.
Mean 4,30 4,44 4,41 4,53
SD 0,61 0,63 0,68 0,62
As we presented above, reading texts through educational games received a great average
of acceptance in the surveys among the participants of the research. In addition, we can support
these results through some of the students' answers during the focus group interviews, where
points of view such as the following participants stood out:
En mi opinión, es muy aburrido estar ahí todo el tiempo, en teoría, y solo escuchar al profesor hable y hable,
y una que otra actividad para leer en una hoja. Eso es muy aburridor, muy monótono, y no llama mucha
atención del estudiante. Al contrario, por medio de esos juegos es más interactivo, me parece que es muy
bueno porque uno se entretiene, a uno le parece muy chévere... para mi es mejor lo práctico que lo teórico
(SPK 10).
In this viewpoint, we noticed how the student was quite emphatic in describing the non-
interactive reading activities in the classroom as neither very stimulating nor interesting. But
then, the student uttered that educational games were a positive strategy for the development of
activities related to reading comprehension since they provided him with a great source of
49
interaction and enjoyment. All in all, reading texts through educational games provided an
appropriate environment for students to be engaged during the development of the game which
supplied benefits to the learning process and the development of EFL target skills.
Innovative teaching strategies increased students’ motivation in reading comprehension.
This subcategory indicates the students' enthusiasm for executing new teaching strategies
aligned to technology usage. Indeed, Solano et al. (2017) state that students are not afraid of
continuous interaction with technology in the classroom; in fact, they love the use of technology
and welcome this type of teaching strategy for a longer period. This was evidenced due to the
favorable attitude and disposition performed by the eleventh-grade students for the
implementation of the activities since they always gave preference to these spaces and executed
the exercises in a very comfortable way. In fact, Godwin-Jones (2014) states that the
implementation of educational games is very attractive to teenagers because technology is part of
their cultural identity since they daily interact with it, so they are very accustomed to it. In
relation to this, we found one student’s perception in the focus group interview that supported
this line of thought:
Hoy en día todo usamos un computador, un teléfono celular, una Tablet. Además, cuando a uno le
dicen que va a jugar un juego en este tipo de aparatos electrónicos, uno se va a interesar más,
porque uno está más acostumbrado a usarlos (SPK 11).
In this order of ideas, innovative strategies within the educational contexts for the reinforcement
of communicative skills motivated learners and had a successful adoption by the audience who
always wanted to acquire new knowledge through the creativity of teachers, and if technology
was involved, it was even better. Hence, through the survey, we obtained positive insights from
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the students’ perceptions regarding their desire or willingness to play educational games in the
future (see Table 5).
Table 5.
Exit survey question 3.
I would like to continue playing this kind of educational game in my

future English classes.
Mean 4,58 4,51 4,58 4,60
SD 0,62 0,73 0,62 0,56
As evidenced above, innovative teaching ways increased learners' motivation for English
learning. These same results were evidenced in the next question of the survey, where the
participants recognized the reliability of this teaching method for their reading proficiency
growth (see Table 6).
Table 6.
I consider that educational games contribute to the improvement

of my reading comprehension skill.
Mea
n 4,55 4,55 4,62 4,63
SD 0,57 0,82 4,49 0,61
Therefore, the high average in both Tables 5 and 6 meant that this type of innovative
strategy to strengthen reading comprehension skills really motivated students to move forward,
not only with the development of their reading proficiency but also using the educational games’
strategy. Furthermore, this statement was supported by an excerpt from the focus group interview
in which we realized that educational games enhanced not only EFL reading skills but also
motivated students:
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Investigadores: ¿Como se sintieron al jugar cada uno de los juegos?
El juego hace que todo sea más divertido y pues uno al momento de leer se va emocionando porque va
jugando y cumpliendo los retos del juego (SPK16).
A mí me pareció que el juego que era muy divertido y eso hizo que yo quisiera jugarlo cada vez más para
aprender más vocabulario (SPK20).
A medida que fui jugando me pareció muy divertido, podía entender y pues eso motiva demasiado, pues
realmente me quedó gustando los juegos y como que quería jugar más (SPK05).
These statements lead us to establish that educational games increased students'
motivation to keep improving their reading comprehension skills by acquiring new vocabulary
while playing an amusing game. In addition, it also fostered language learning engagement due to
the language interaction they constantly have through the different levels of the game (Godwin-
Jones, 2014). In short, educational games engaged learners to work on the development of their
reading comprehension in a more dynamic and enjoyable way, which was more in line with their
lifestyle in relation to the use of technology not only for entertainment but also for education. In
short, young learners were more interested when conducting innovative activities for the
development of communicative skills using technology than in exercises directly conducted by
teachers through traditional printed material.
Game’s mechanics trigger students’ reading comprehension
The second category presented the 11th graders’ insights on how the mechanics of the
educational games helped them to understand the different texts and, consequently, to follow the
indications to advance in the game match. To clarify, according to Godwin-Jones (2014) the
mechanics of digital games promote player effort and commitment to try to decrypt the unknown
information and thus understand the tasks in order to advance to the next level, or on the contrary,
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the player must stay longer in the level until this cognitive process can be executed. In
educational terminology, this cognitive input was translated into learning because if players
wanted to manage a better performance within the game's dynamics they had to memorize and
internalize the vocabulary throughout the levels. Moreover, due to the game dynamic, this
vocabulary tended to be repetitive along the gameplay, so players eventually needed to recall it to
clearly understand another mission, task, or indications. On the other hand, Perfetti et al. (2005),
state that inference is a fundamental cognitive tool for the proper comprehension process of a
text. In this order of ideas, the visual organization of the game played a meaningful role in
helping students to pragmatically identify the meaning of unknown vocabulary easily. Thus,
players made inferences more easily due to the simple use of language, coherence, and
connection of events in the course of the game (Godwin-Jones, 2014). Thus, the mental process
of the players was developed in a more efficient and direct way, saving time while playing
without feeling frustrated by the unknown words, since the visual context of the game supplied
them with key elements for their interpretation. Correspondingly, this category contains two
subcategories regarding to, keywords helped students to understand instructions in game-texts
and the graphic design of educational games strengthened the students’ understanding of game-
texts.
Keywords helped students to understand instructions in game-texts. This subcategory
involves the students’ perceptions regarding how the keywords within the game texts helped
them to comprehend the statements and follow the instructions. In this respect, Chen and Hsu
(2019) state that the vocabulary included in the texts of the games must serve as clues to
understand unknown terms to comprehend the game tasks. In this sense, all the instructions in the
educational games contained vocabulary that worked as clues to achieve the main objective
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which was guiding the participants through each of the interactions and phases of the game.
Furthermore, this statement was supported by the students' feedback we gathered in the focus
group interviews, in which they expressed the effectiveness of using keywords in the instructions
for their reading comprehension process:
Yo creo que si aprendí, porque las instrucciones del juego eran entendibles (SPK 07).
En mi opinión yo creo que el juego me ayudó a mejorar mi comprensión lectora porque pude entender las
instrucciones dadas por el juego y también pude mejorar gracias al vocabulario que tenía el juego (SPK 02).
Thus, the keywords in the instructions of the games worked as expected, prompting the
students to continue playing to develop the games’ tasks properly. This assertion was also
supported by the overage increase displayed in the following table in relation to the pedagogical
interventions advance (see Table 7).
Table 7.
I was able to comprehend the instructions based on the keywords to

finish the game
Mean 4,37 4,48 4,51 4,73
SD 0,67 0,63 0,63 0,44
Based on the table, the keywords were a successful resource for students to overcome
hesitation issues in understanding the instruction given by the game mechanics. According to the
behavior of the numbers in the table, it was evident that students used strategies to internalize and
adapt to the language of the game. Also, their game fluency increased as they moved forward to
the different game levels because they already knew the terminology which allowed them to
think quickly and advance faster. In this respect, the following table displays the average
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acceptance obtained regarding the use of educational games to increase reading comprehension
degree in EFL students (see Table 8).
Table 8.
I think this educational game contributed to my learning

process on reading comprehension.
Mean 4,62 4,44 4,58 4,56
SD 0,56 0,63 0,68 0,67
According to the information displayed in the table, we stated that the general feedback
from the students regarding the strengthening of their bases to become future readers in the
foreign language was positive. Thus, they highlighted this methodology was effective in
promoting the strengthening of the background of the communicative skill, as was evidence in
the next student's insights from the focus group interviews:
La verdad yo creo que la estrategia me ayudó demasiado a mi comprensión lectura porque en el juego casi
siempre se basaba en escritos pequeños que me ayudaban y me daban pistas sobre lo que tenía que hacer
y además tenía muchas palabras claves (SPK 31).
Yo pienso que el juego si ayuda a mejorar la comprensión lectora en personas que tengan
menos conocimiento del inglés por el vocabulario (SPK 29).
Sí me ayudó a mejorar mi comprensión lectora porque en el juego me pareció mucho vocabulario clave
además, las instrucciones eran fáciles de entender y entonces el juego está muy bueno (SPK 09).
Sí el juego me ayudó porque a pesar de lo poco que se llegue a entender bastante las instrucciones y así
pues se me facilitó mucho comprender y desarrollar las actividades (SPK 17).

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In short, the above results supported that using keywords on the game texts boosted the
students reading comprehension process. It means that the keywords facilitated the whole
cognitive process for students to accomplish a stronger willingness to all the challenges of the
game. In this line of thought, Pardede (2019) suggests that when implementing digital text
strategies to promote students' reading comprehension, teachers should facilitate these types of
strategies in order to improve students' recognition experience of texts with complex structures.
Thus, we noticed how crucial it was to use a familiar language for EFL learners so that their
engagement was not interrupted, and the game was completed in the best possible disposition.
The graphic design of educational games strengthened the students’ understanding
of game-texts. This subcategory highlighted the relevance of the graphic design of educational
games to support the comprehension of the game texts. According to Godwin-Jones (2014) when
students play the game activates their pragmatic ability to advance in the game, even when they
do not understand the keywords. In this way, the graphical design of the game allowed them to
comprehend the vocabulary and indications, only considering what the context offered to them.
Furthermore, Hanandeh et al. (2018) conclude that in educational games the visual aspects, the
storyline, and the challenges are characteristics that are attractive and make students immerse
themselves in playing the game and internalize the content. In this respect, the visual effects in
the design of the educational games were fundamental, helping to understand the game
instructions by connecting the text's content with the graphics elements. Hence, in the following
table, we report the average acceptance obtained regarding the use of the graphic context of the
game to better understand the game instructions by the students (see Table 9).
Table 9.
56
The vocabulary used in the game was easy to understand due to

the context.
Mean 4,51 4,31 4,55 4,63
SD 0,68 0,71 0,68 0,61
From the above table, we affirmed that the graphical elements in the game constituted an
extra resource that was also highly examined by the students to guide themselves through the
game, even without having identified keywords. In this order of ideas, we attach the following
table with the students' judgments about the difficulty they encountered in following the
instructions of the game, to better support this subcategory (see Table 10).
Table 10.
I consider that the instructions in the game were easy to

follow.
Mean 4,69 4,45 4,45 4,60
SD 0,60 0,69 0,74 0,56
Based on the table above, the students did not feel any major difficulties in figuring out
the instructions of the game. This was interpreted in favor of the graphic design of the game,
which complemented what was exposed in the instructions of the game so that the students
advanced with calm and confidence in each of their movements over the maps. These statements
were also supported by the students' perceptions in the group focus interviews:
57
Yo considero que el juego me ayudó a mejorar mi comprensión lectora por qué si había palabras que no
conocía la verdad no eran muchas y con el contexto de las demás instrucciones visuales era más fácil lograr
comprender lo que significaba cada palabra desconocida (SPK 08).
Si uno no llegaba a entender algo pues el contexto del juego lo guiaba. Por ejemplo, decía vaya al norte a la
izquierda y el juego le mostraba a uno para donde poder ir (SPK 16).
El contexto que daba el juego era pues, muy divertido, o sea, uno se siente motivado a seguir jugando y a
conocer más, o sea de aprender más vocabulario (SPK 11).
También se volvía muy curioso todo lo que había en el juego, las interacciones, lo que pasaba en cada lugar
al que nos movíamos en el juego (SPK 23).
También me gustó la implementación de los muñequitos, los dragones, las plantas y los
escenarios para entender mejor el juego (SPK 38).
Even though, we found students' comments where they stated that the graphic design of
the educational games caught their interest to play even when they did not feel interested in
digital gaming.
Yo no soy de jugar videojuegos, pero el hecho de uno ver vocabulario en un contexto diferente al estar en
un tablero es una forma de aprender así rápida porque hay personas que aprenden visualmente (SPK28).
Finally, according to the information collected, the students judged the incorporation of
graphic elements in the games as very effective to facilitate their cognitive process of
interpretation. In this regard, Godwin-Jones (2014) affirms that the approach when designing the
game is to try to add graphic elements and effects that serve as second alternatives so that the
player can understand pragmatically what he cannot understand in written language. In this sense,
all the visual aids incorporated into the game interface helped the students enhance their reading
58
skills. At the same time, these factors stimulated their curiosity and enjoyment when
accomplishing the game activities.
Chapter V
Conclusions and Pedagogical Implications
This section compiles the conclusions we reached after analyzing the data and the
discussion. Also, this section includes the pedagogical implications, limitations, and
recommendations for future research.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the implementation of educational games in 11th graders at Jorge Eliécer
Gaitán High School fostered reading comprehension skill improvement because educational
games provided them with a more interactive, fun, and comfortable environment for carrying out
activities aimed at strengthening communication skills.
In the first place, the use of educational games fostered EFL students’ motivation to
improve their reading skill. In this regard, we found that reading texts in games facilitated the
students’ engagement for developing all the activities. In this sense, carrying out reading
activities in digital environments was more engaging for EFL students than using traditional
methods by the printed text. In addition, we found that innovative teaching strategies increased
the students’ engagement in reading comprehension. Hence, students felt comfortable when using
the game program since they were all digital natives. Based on this, digital tools did not mean any
obstacle for young students, on the contrary, they all became much more interested in practicing
and learning.
59
In the second place, we found that the interactive game mechanics of the educational
games such as keywords and elements in the graphic design activated students’ EFL reading
comprehension. firstly, we found that the keywords meant a useful aid for students to
successfully understand the tasks and challenges to overcome obstacles and reaching the end of
the games. Secondly, we realized that the graphic elements in games supported students to
pragmatically comprehend games instruction as well. In short, Keywords and the graphic design
of educational games worked as a useful teaching and learning strategy since they impacted in a
positive way the students’ development of their EFL reding comprehension skill through this
innovative technique.
Pedagogical Implications
Firstly, we consider that it is necessary for more EFL teachers to make use of this type of
strategy in their classes since it helps students feel motivated to learn and improve their reading
comprehension skill. In this sense, we recommend teachers evolve towards the adoption of
innovative and interactive instruction methods supported by digital tools to obtain the benefits
executing educational games. On the other hand, we suggest EFL students to encourage the
autonomous elaboration of activities that increase their vocabulary level and their EFL grammar
management. Finally, it is necessary that more researchers investigate what motivates students to
use video games to learn English due to the lack of studies in our region regarding to this topic.
Limitations
Notwithstanding the positive results of this study, we faced some limitations during the
development and implementation of the strategy. Firstly, game designing is a time-consuming
task due to the number of elements that had to be included in each of the scenarios, levels, and
60
the adaptation of the English topics in each of the games. Secondly, during the implementation of
the strategy, the number of devices available was part of the obstacle faced in the interventions.
There were few computers in the Technology Room and some of them were not working. So, in
some interventions, we asked students to share computers. In short, the lack of enough
technological resources or computers in the educational institution was a factor that delayed the
implementation of educational games to foster reading comprehension in EFL.

61
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Appendixes
Appendix A. Informed consent

66
Appendix B. Need analysis survey

67
uuuuuiy
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Appendix C. Exit Survey

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Appendix D. Focus interview questions

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1

Willinton Martinez Gonzalez

Yeisson Reyes Colorado

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

Willinton Martinez Gonzalez

Yeisson Reyes Colorado

M.A. Paola Julie Aguilar Cruz

Willinton Martinez Gonzalez

supportive in this process, being patient and encouraging me to continue.

Yeisson Reyes Colorado

of this research idea while the Didactics I course.

Florencia- Caquetá, Octubre de 2022.

environment for the development of their EFL reading skills.

Keywords: Educational games, EFL reading comprehension, Game design.

inglés como lengua extranjera, facilitando el compromiso de los estudiantes durante la

implementación de las estrategias de enseñanza innovadoras. Además, la mecánica de los juegos

proporcionaron a los estudiantes un entorno educativo interactivo, divertido y cómodo para el

desarrollo de sus habilidades de lectura en inglés como lengua extranjera.

Figure 1. Need analysis question 1…………………………………………………………………..……16

Figure 4. Game number one......................................................................................................................37

Table 1. Pedagogical desing......................................................................................................................35

Table 2. Research categories.....................................................................................................................44

strengthening communication skills in students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in

of EFL students by emphasizing the development of different communicative skills. In addition,

In Colombia, the National Ministry of Education (MEN) has developed audiovisual

strategies influence students’ reading comprehension processes.

conclusions, pedagogical implications, and limitations.

The Research Problem

Reading comprehension is considered an indispensable skill to develop in EFL students

aspect that is necessary for students graduating from 11th grade.

Students’ responses in the need analysis survey

reading comprehension in EFL.

comprehension in 11th graders at Jorge Eliécer Gaitán High School?

mind, we considered appropriate the development and implementation of educational games to

contribute to 11graders’ reading comprehension strengthening.

implementation of SGs has a significant impact on increasing students' motivation and

while using an innovative EFL teaching strategy in our educational settling.

school by increasing its qualification at the MEN.

and innovation in terms of EFL teaching.

General Objective. To describe 11th graders’ reading comprehension learning process

through educational games.

Specific Objectives. To design educational games focused on reading comprehension

To describe the effects of the educational games on students’ reading comprehension

phenomenon took place.

Additionally, Wouters and Oostendorp (2017) focused on exploring the effectiveness of

games-based learning to increase students' motivation and the improvement of learning

and perspectives regarding this subject.

achieved great acceptance by students and researchers in different international settings,

experience while interacting with the foreign language.

studies related to the implementation of SGs to foster reading comprehension. However, we

development of educational games containing certain patterns positively influences students'

possible to increase student motivation in learning through the implementation of educational

impact on students' motivation regarding reading comprehension in EFL.

entertainment, by adding an educational purpose. Moreover, Camacho and Ovalle (2019)

meaningful vocabulary acquisition in learners using educational games.

student's learning experience contributed significantly to the high-performance development of

that appropriately combined technology and pedagogy.

interest, motivation, and improvement of reading comprehension in EFL learning process.

the development and implementation of educational games contribute meaningfully to the

exploration of the extent of educational games in EFL skill development.

comprehension. However, it was essential to clarify the concept of reading comprehension.

of future intellectual tasks.