There are many studies that using video games as a way to improve students’ English learning. Squire argues that video games have many factors on why it is
popular and influential for children: a. Video games trigger strong emotional reactions to the players like fear,
happiness, or sadness. b. Those emotions created through the plot, character traits, game achievement
and rewards, and competition or collaboration with other player. c. Video game appears to be rich in socio-
cultural which provides ‘raw material’ in youth culture.
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D. Previous Study
Ting-Yu Yang Chen conducted a study of a group of 60 Taiwanese EFL learners’ perceptions of a commercial adventure video game for secondforeign
language learning. This study wants to determine the effects of a commercial adventure video game on foreign language learning and learners perceptions
toward an adventure game. About twenty two college students in Taiwan were asked to play an English adventure game titled BONE. The analysis results that
students learned some new words, however both groups are not improving on their performance in learning. The researchers then conducting another research to
understand the strength and weakness of using adventure games in learning foreign language, there are 35 college students tested on their perception towards
the game. This study resulting that the students consider playing video game is helping them to make learning foreign language as interesting and motivating. It is
proved that this game is improving students listening, reading and vocabulary skill along with students’ motivation too. The research results identified both strengths
and weaknesses of adventure games for EFLESL based on learners’ perceptions,
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Kurt Squire, Video Games in Education, USA: Cambridge, Massachusetts, Comparative Media Studies Department Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000
and should encourage more studies on the investigation of using adventure games in language learning.
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The study above only investigating the students perception, while the study the researcher wanted to investigate the implications towards reading
comprehensive and the motivations that emerge during playing the game. However, it is not easy to do such research, it is mainly because playing video
games are still considered not educating and sometimes they were considered as ‘violent’. This fact made the researcher eager to prove that video games are not as
what most people said. The second study is the Effect of Video Games on I
ranian EFL Learner’s Vocabulary Learning by Sedigeh Vahdat from Shahid Chamran University and
Amin Rasti Behbahani from Islamic Azad University. In this study, the researchers pick about 40 participants through TOEFL proficiency test; male and
female. The participants then divided into a control group and experimental group consist of 10 males and 10 females each. The control group studied vocabulary
via traditional classes while the experimental group plays a video game titled Runaway: A Road Adventure. The Researchers using three instruments where the
first instrument is simulated TOEFL test, second is an achievement test consist of 40 multiple choice test and the third is a Likert scale to determine the
experimental group’s view and experience when learning through video games. This study proves that video games are useful for students
’ vocabulary learning and the male participants are more interested in learning through video games
than the female participants.
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The third study is the Effect of using Narrative Comprehension Cards Strategy toward reading comprehension on narrative text from UIN Sultan Syarief
Kasim Riau researched by Erika. This study conducted for a senior high school students and it is using quasi experiment where pre-test, treatment and post-test
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Howard Hao-Jan Chen and Christine Ting-Yu Yang, the Impact of Adventure Video Games on Foreign Language Learning and the Perceptions of Learners, Philadelphia: Taylor
Francis Ltd., 2013.
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Sedigheh Vehdat and Amin Rasti B., the Effect of Video Games on Iranian EFL Learner’s Vocabulary Learning, Florida: Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal, 2013
