Appraisal Attitude in Students' Game-Based Learning Experiences: A Case Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31949/educatio.v12i3.19141Abstract
Student attitudes play a central role in shaping EFL learning success, yet they remain underexplored from a linguistic perspective, particularly in non-digital game-based learning (GBL) contexts. Most existing studies examine digital GBL or rely on general psychological measures, leaving a gap in linguistically grounded analyses of secondary-level learners' attitudes toward non-digital activities. This study examined how eighth-grade female EFL students' attitudes toward a four-session non-digital GBL intervention were realized through the Affect, Judgment, and Appreciation domains of Martin and White's (2005) Appraisal Framework. Using a qualitative case study design bounded by one intact class at a junior secondary school integrated with an Islamic boarding school in Karawang, Indonesia, data were collected from ten students through guided reflective journals (94 entries) and semi-structured interviews with five volunteering participants. A total of 617 primary-domain attitudinal instances were coded following Ary et al.'s (2019) procedure and checked through expert validation. Appreciation was the most frequent domain (246 instances, 39.9%), followed by Judgment (191 instances, 31.0%) and Affect (180 instances, 29.2%). Students shifted from fatigue-related disengagement to active participation, emphasized effort and cooperation, and evaluated the games as engaging and educationally valuable. These patterns suggest that non-digital GBL can foster positive, multidimensional attitudes among secondary EFL learners in resource-limited settings when supported by adequate orientation and teacher facilitation; because language achievement was not independently measured, these claims are limited to students' perceived experience. Future research should examine these patterns in larger and more varied populations using longitudinal, mixed-method designs.
Keywords:
appraisal theory, attitude, game-based learning, EFL, qualitative case studyDownloads
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