Running head: TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 1

Teaching ELL's With Computer Games

Lisa Cruz

7202T.Net

December 18, 2013

Dr. O'Connor- Petruso

TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 2

Teaching ELL's With Computer Games

Table of Contents

I. Abstract………………………………………………………………………….3

II. Introduction……………………………………………………………………..3

Problem Statement………….…………………………………….………….….4

Hypothesis Statement………….……………………………………………....5-6

Literature Review………….….……………………………………….………6-18

III. Method……………………………………………………..…………………...19

Participants/ Instruments………………………………………………………..19

Experimental Design…………………………………………………………19-20

Procedures………………………………………………………………………..20

Threats to Internal Validity………………………………………………………21

Threats to External Validity……………………………………………………..22

IV. Results……………………………………………………………………..…22-23

V. Discussion/ Graphs……………...………………............................................23-24

VI. References…………………………………………………………………...25-28

VII. Appendices…………………………………………………………………...29-32

A. Students Interview Questions…………………………………………………29

B. Teacher Survey Questions…………………………………………………….30

C. Pre and Post Test……………………………………………………………...31

D. Student/ Teacher engagement Ranking Score sheets…………………………32

TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 3

I. Abstract

The action research was done with 15 English Language Learners’ (ELL) in a New York
City public school, using educational computer games to try to help these students become
more engaged during math lessons. The duration of the research was three times a week for
four weeks. The main focus of this action research project was to see if we could help ELL
students become more engaged during math activities by allowing them to interact with
technology that they may fine more entertaining. Reducing the gap of engagement levels
between ELL and non ELL students is another goal. Students were given a pre math test, and
then allowed to take part in the computer interactive games three times a week for four
weeks. A post test with the same math question as the pre test was given to these students
after the four weeks. The results showed that the ELL students who took part in the action
research test scores increased, some more than others. After pre and post interviews and
observations with the teacher, noticed that the ELL students who took part in the research
also showed evidence of increased engagement during other classroom lessons.

II. Introduction

I am a graduate students currently enrolled at Brooklyn College. I am perusing a master’s in

education with bilingual extension. I am currently certified in early childhood education birth-

second grade. I am working as a substitute teacher with the New York City Department of

Education in a New York City Public School. The school has a current grade level of A, with an

overall score of 83.0. They have a current enrollment of approximately 825 students in grades

Pre Kindergarten to Eight. There are approximately 20.9% of the students with an IEP, and

23.8% of the students are ELLs. As of May, 2012 the school has 406 females and 419 males

enrolled. 0.12% of the students are not reported and American Indian or Alaskan, 0.36% are
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 4

Native American/ Pacific Islander and Multi-Racial, 11.52% are Black, 18.67% are Hispanic,

27.88% are White, and 40.97% are Asian. The school has 24.24% of their students who are ELL,

82.30% are General Education, 14.79% are Least Restrictive Environment, and 2.91% are Most

Restrictive Environment (http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/Schoolreports)

The neighborhood surrounding the school also has a very diverse population; a number of

different languages are spoken. Based on Movoto.com, the residents identify with a variety of

ethnicities, such as Asian Pacific Island, English, Spanish, Other Indo-European, and Other. The

average rental prices are approximately $600- $1,000$, with most of the occupants being renters.

The residents of this neighborhood fall in the lower-middle income category with less than

$30,000 total household income (Http://www.movoto.com/neighborhood/NY/Brooklyn).

At this school I have been to a number of different classrooms and I have seen many

things that I think are being done well and a few things I feel that can use a little working on.

One think that I have noticed in many of the classes is that there are a few children that are

ELL’s and they don’t speak English very well. Some of these children sit in the back of the room

either doing their own thing or sleeping with their heads down. Even though they don’t disrupt

the rest of the class, I feel that this is something that should be focused on for the benefit of the

students. This is what led me to my research questions, and throughout my research I plan on

finding a way to engage these children with the rest of the class during lessons.

Problem Statement

I have noticed that some of the students don’t speak English well and have trouble focusing

and staying engaged during lessons. These students end up sitting at their desks doing nothing or
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 5

with their heads down. I think this problem is occurring because there are many non or limited

English speaking students in the classroom and only one teacher who don’t speak the many

languages of the students. The teacher doesn’t have enough time to give each child the one on

one focus and help they might need during the day and still teach the rest of the class.

What I would like to do with this problem is find a way to help the ELL students learn using

technology and by helping them learn, I will help them to focus on the lessons due to the fact that

they will be able to follow along. I also will help the teacher by giving them a way to have the

ELL students learning and focusing on something while he/she does a lesson with the rest of the

class that the ELLs aren’t able to do yet.

What I would like to do with this problem is find a way to help the ELL students learn using

technology and by helping them learn, I will help them be able to focus on the lesson. I feel that

technology is the way to go with this because every classroom has at least one computer in the

room for the children to use and, most of them have interactive smart boards. Technology such

as computers are being used by children more and more each day with this generation and what

better way to help children learn and stay focus then by letting them use something that interest

them, and they use already. My research questions are; How can giving ELL students access to

learning games on the computer help them learn in the classroom? And How can helping ELL

students learn using computer games, help them stay engaged during classroom lessons?

Hypotheses Statement
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 6

Based on my observations and my research questions I wanted to see if introducing and using

computer math games in the classroom to introduce and to reinforce math concepts could help

increase ELL students test scores. I wanted to see if using these tools could help increase the

student’s engagement during teacher lead lessons as well.

Reviewed Literature

(Abedi, 2009) This study compared ELL’s and non-ELL students in the fourth and eighth

grade, under two different testing conditions. They used various tools on the computer to help

the students with the test. Some student used the tools and some did not. The research questions

that they had were; is computer testing a form of accommodation effective in making content-

based assessments more accessible for ELL students? Does computer testing accommodation

impact the validity of the assessment, i.e. change the content of the assessment? Can the

computer accommodation be easily implemented? The students were each given computer based

test to take and were shown how to work the tools that were provided such as translations;

English dictionaries, English glossaries, extra time, etc. The results showed that some of the

accommodation strategies help some of the students and made a difference while others didn’t

make much of a drastic difference between the two.

(Abuseileek, 2012) This article was on the effects of EFL (English as a foreign language)

speaking and writing skills in a computer based environment. The study also looked at grouping.

They felt that smaller groups would provide a better learning environment for people so the

groups were formed with two – seven members. The study used 216 general English language

students, all with Arabic as their native language and their ranges between 19-31 years old. The

participants were randomly assigned to one of two cooperative learning mode; Positive
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 7

interdependence and Individual accountability. Each group category had eight groups ranging

from 2-7 members. All members were assigned task to do on the computers, and test to take. The

results showed that the Independents group significantly outperformed the interdependent group.

The fie member group also gained the highest mean on the post test, with the lowest mean gain

being the groups of two and three members. These results showed that the way the groups are set

up has an impact on the skills gained.

(Atif, 2013) This article is about using the conventional learning model in a classroom,

set up with technology. The point is to show how technology can enhance the learning of

students in a conventional classroom that is set up in a way where the children are seated in

groups, with each having desktop computers and are facing three touch screen interactive wall

mounted screens. Based on the information gathered though the case study, it showed that it

favored a generally conventional learning approach in the classroom designed, over conventional

learning in a regular classroom.

(Charsky & Ressler, 2011) This article was on a study done to see if playing a computer

game Civilization III, could help motivate them to learn historical concepts. The research

question was Does the use of commercial computer games improve student motivation as

compared with more conventional classroom instructional techniques? And do different

instructional activities, specifically concept mapping activities, affect students’ motivation when

they play a commercial computer game as part of their classroom instruction? If so, how are

concept maps and commercial computer games most effectively employed to elicit greater

student motivation? The participants of the study were from the ninth grade, of a high school in

north Colorado. The schools population included 65% white, 33% Hispanic, and 23% of students
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 8

who received free lunch. The results of the study showed that the answer to the question is it

depends; sometimes the scaffolding and lack of time or support had the opposite effect with the

game.

(Deoksoon, 2011) This article is on a qualitative research done on ESOL teacher

candidates using podcast, blogging and other technologies to help teach English language

learners. The research focused on two questions; how do ESOL teacher candidates produce

podcasts and blogs while compiling their EL case-study project? How do their attitudes toward

podcasts and blogs change and how do they grapple with processes geared toward implementing

instructional technology? Another question is how do ESOL teacher candidates construct their

pedagogical reports via podcasting and blogging? What matters? The study used a total of 6

people, five females and one male enrolled into being ESOL certified in elementary or secondary

education. Observations and field notes were collected throughout the study, to see how the

participants were using, and planning for the objectives given (using podcast and blogging in the

classroom). The participants were also asked to create portfolios, and reflect on what they were

doing. Results showed that though there were concerns about technological issues and

implementing and creating the podcasts and blogs, the rewards were greater and the participants

were able to have a greater impact on the new generation of students, while also gaining a new

attitude and self-esteem towards technology.

(Edwards-Groves, 2012) This article is about a study done on teachers with experience

that ranged from three to twenty-four years. The study was to see if the teachers were given the

opportunity to have staff meetings and have trainings that help them integrated technology into

the classroom, would it help them become more comfortable with using it and would they have
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 9

changes in their pedagogical thinking. These teachers showed interest but had little change in

their pedagogical practices. These teachers met with mentors to learn and plan how they would

incorporate the technological software’s, generate learning lesson plans and to understand what it

is that they were doing. They would also have staff meetings to talk about what they were going

in the classroom and if they saw any changes. The results showed that there were changes in the

way the teachers arranged student’s interactivity. It also showed that there were three main

changes common in the lessons. The main result of this showed that there were changed in

pedagogies when teachers collaborated with colleges and with others about lesson planning and

integrating new technologies into the classroom.

(Fengfeng, 2013) This study was on the potential use of computer mathematics games as

an anchor for tutoring mathematics. The study was done with students at a middle rural school,

and a Hispanic serving school. The study used 10 computer games that were designed for middle

school math curriculum and were from credible educational organizations. The games chosen

were picked because they were thought to be likable, and enjoyable. The study lasted five weeks

with two one hour sessions each week. The results of the study showed that there were

improvements in students state test performance at the pueblo school after the program, but the

improvements was not significant at the urban school.

(Freeman, 2012) This article was on using technologies to fix the inequalities that ELL’s

face when learning math. The study used a mixed method approach. The program was done at

the end of the day for 40 minutes, over a six month period with two phases of the activity. The

research question was; what is the impact of a digital math intervention on secondary ELL

students’ mathematical capabilities and perceptions of their future possibilities? The results
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showed that HELP Math improved students’ perceptions of their functioning’s and future

possibilities in math.

(Gerr & Sweeney, 2012) This article is about how important student’s voices are when it

comes to identifying 21st century pedagogical approach to learning. They talk about how

involved in the digital world children are today, and how this could be used to the advantage of

the teachers to help students learn. The study focused on a school in South Australia with about

460 students from 5 to 13 years old. The study analyzed data collected from the students.

Different forms of collecting this data were used for each grade level such as having the students

that were 5 years old draw pictures of things that they use or things that help them learn.

Computers were the most common thing picked by most of the students that help them learn.

Results from the study showed that students today are more involved in technology and have

become more independent in today’s world. This also shows that by integrating technology we

can increase the process in which and the content of what children learn.

(Hoffman & Nadelson, 2010) In this study a mixed method design was used to identify

factors associated with motivational engagement in video gaming. The games were administered

to 189 students who were assessed in various tasks, 25 participants were also interviewed and the

results were analyzed to identify patterns that influenced their gaming. Multi-level games were

used because they become increasingly challenging and complex as the player progresses. The

study was designed to answer three research questions 1) what factors do individuals consider

when deciding to engage in video gaming? 2) What aspects of the experience contribute to

consistent reengagement? And 3) what are the significant motivational variables associated with

video game play? The results revealed that the gaming was socially captivating, and had a
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 11

positive effect even when unsuccessful results were achieved by the gamers. They concluded that

transfer of motivational engagement in gaming for entertainment to educational contexts was

unlikely to occur.

(Judson, 2010) This study was used to see if there was a connection between technology

literacy and achievements in math, reading and language arts. Approximately 5,000 fourth and

fifth graders and 5,000 seventh and eighth grader students were accessed. The technology

literacy was measure with the Tech Literacy Assessments. The research question was when

students improve their technology literacy, are there positive effects in traditional subjects areas?

In the results we see that there were non-significant differences among the fifth- grade groups in

the areas of math, and reading, and the same with the eighth grade group in math. In the seventh

and eighth grader reading levels there was a gain. The fourth and fifth graders had a significant

increase in language arts.

(Kim & Chang, 2010) This is about using computer games to improve students’

academic performance. They wanted to find out if computer games in a math classes associated

with the fourth grade students performances in math, if it changes with different linguistic

groups, and if the connection changes with gender. The study used the NAEP 2005 database to

analyze fourth grade math. The statistics showed that the mean math score for the males were

higher than the mean math score for the females. The results also showed that the mean math

score for the non-ESL students was higher than the mean math score for the ESL students. Based

on the study gender and linguistic differences have an effect on NAEP fourth grade math skills.

(Lee, Waxman, Wu, Michko, & Lin, 2013) This article is on the effects of teaching

children in K-12 grade with technology. The study focused on answering two research questions;
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 12

what is the general magnitude and direction of the relationship between teaching and learning

with technology and student outcomes? And are there specific technology characteristics,

teaching strategies, and instructional features that affect teaching and learning with technology

on student outcomes? Due to the fact that this study had 58 studies with 366 effect sizes. For the

cognitive outcome the mean weight was 0.42 with 243 effect form 48 studies. The affective

outcome was 0.18 with 92 effects from 21 studies. Between the different grade levels 9th -12th

grade had the lowest mean effect at 0.22 compared with grades K-3rd at 0.50, grade 4-6 had 0.41

and 7-8 had 0.59.

(Liang, Huang, & Tasi, 2012) This article is on a case study of an Interactive Whiteboard

Based Learning environment and its interactions of support and lack of teaching and learning for

the children. The study was on one teacher and 29 students in a Mandarin course. There were 17

males and 12 females in a second grade classroom. The students all had only half a year

experience with the whiteboard before the experiment started. The interactions were categorized

into different subcategories for the study. IST (Whiteboard supported teacher), TSL (Teacher

supported learning), ISL (Whiteboard supported learning), and SIL (Student interactive learning.

The results show that ISL and TSL were the two dominate factors over SIL and IST. This shows

that most of the learning done on the smart board was teacher supported.

(Lopez, 2010) This article focuses on a digital learning project conducted in a Round

Rock Independent School District for a year. Three schools took part in this study. It focused on

ELL’s and the use of interactive whiteboard usage. They wanted to focus on the students’

achievement gap between two groups in the third and fourth graders math and reading scores.

Three research questions guided the evaluation; 1) was the performance parity achieved between
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 13

ELL students and regular students in traditional classrooms? 2) Was performance parity achieved

between ELL students in digital learning classrooms and regular students in traditional

classrooms? 3) Did student’s achievement increase for ELL students in digital learning

classrooms compares to ELL students in traditional classrooms? The classes were put into two

groups ELLs in digital learning classrooms and ELLs in traditional classrooms, in both grades,

and were assessed in both math and reading. When using the quasi-experimental design, the

results showed that the IWBs can help by increasing the student achievement gap between ELL

and regular students.

(McNeil, 2012) This article was on the use of talk to scaffold referential questions for

English language learners. In the article it stated the importance of the language that is used,

during teacher student communications. A teacher was observed in a fifth grade urban dominated

southeastern city in the United States. The teacher was away that she was being observed but not

the content that was being observed. Data was collected over a five day period in all subjects,

and questions and answers were recorded. This gave them a way to see how she spoke to them

and how they responded. In order to identify referential questions they put the questions the

teacher asked into categories. The data showed that when the teacher failed to scaffold the

questions that she asked to the ELL’s most of the time they didn’t answer the questions correctly.

This shows the connection between the languages that a teacher uses when asking referential

questions and the quality of the answers that they get in return.

(Oliver, 2011) This article was about how drama could help engage ELL’s. The research

question was; how can incorporate drama in the curriculum provide an interesting context in

which to involve students while they are learning? The teacher would act out stories that she was
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 14

doing with the children and saw that she was involving the children in problem solving, helping

them interact with each other, and learning new vocabulary. The teacher helped the children with

their creativity by helping to create list of props they would need for each story. The children

also gained problem solving skills by reading the beginning of a story that they didn’t know and

stopping in the middle, then the children had to come up with and write what they thought was

going to happen next in the story. In conclusion using drama helped her ELL children engage in

learning, through problem solving, learning new vocabulary, in interacting with fellow students.

(Osman & Bakar, 2012) This article discusses how children in Malaysia are very

familiar with computer games but how it hasn’t really been used for learning in the classroom.

The paper wanted to discuss the availability of learning games, the issues of adapting and

designing educational computer games and problem with implementing educational games all in

a Malaysian classroom. The educational computer games were for a chemistry class. Chemistry

was picked because it is the subject that is usually the most difficult for students. They thought

that since the curriculum is structure is what they felt made the concepts of chemistry difficult

for the students they figure that is the context in which the subject was taught was changed, the

information might be easier to comprehend. In the results the authors discuss that the initial

reason for integrating educational computer games into the classroom was for engagement and

motivation, but after research and the study it was clear that the games could provide much more

than just motivational change in students. The children get to work independently and game

social skills by collaborating with classmates. Computer games could also work for adults; some

doctors are practicing surgical procedures by using computer games.

TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 15

(Padron, Waxman, Lee, Lin, & Georgette, 2012) This article is about the use of

technology in the classroom to teach English language learners. They say that the use of

technology has been shown to increase opportunities for these children. The study was done in

three urban elementary public schools in the south United States region. The study was done to

examine urban elementary schools using technology to teach math to ELL’s. The classes were

observed for 50-60 minutes during regular math time, and the teachers knew they were going to

be observed but not exactly when or what the purpose of the observation was. The findings were

that the use of technology, such as computers gets children to stay focused, and helps keep them

engaged in the lesson, but they aren’t being used very often in the three urban elementary

schools with the ELL students.

(Sarhan, Alzboon, Mufleh, & Al-Zboon, 2011)This article was about increasing the

educational level of the elementary school children in Jordan through Science educational

computer games. In the article they focused on the process in which a person goes through when

making problem solving decisions. This is known as the problem solving strategies. They wanted

to see if they provided computer games that focused on similar problem solving strategies that

we do in other aspects, if it could help elementary schoolchildren learn science using computer

games. Results showed that the participants of the study increased in their knowledge in science.

It was thought that this had to do with the fact that they say computer games engage the

participant more than traditional learning techniques.

(Paquette & Rieg, 2008) This article was about incorporating music into lessons for

English language. The teacher in this article used music to teach her kindergarten children many

different things. She wanted to see if integrating music in her everyday activity could promote
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literacy development. She used music to teach her children things like rhyming words and

grammatical rules. She used music with literacy to promote reading fluency skills along with

individual letter sounds and how to spell words, as in the song BINGO. The teacher also used

music in art projects by having the children make different musical instruments and listening to

the sounds that they make and comparing them to the sounds of the real instrument. In

conclusion the teacher saw that integrating music into the classroom curriculum and everyday

activities can promote literacy development.

(Sandberg, Maris, & De Geus, 2011) This article is on using mobile technology in a

primary school for English language learners. The study was don’t on three groups that all

focused on zoo animals during the study. The question that this study focused on was given a

well designed application how does mobile learning effect learning performance? With the three

groups each group was provided the learning mobile for a different amount of time. They were

also given the same post and pre test; each group got the same exact test. The mobile devices that

were used were T-mobile smart android phones. These phones provided games for the children

that would use visual and audio in a game to teach and lead the children with GPS to different

animals in the zoo. The questions ranged from yes/no answers to multiple choices even spelling

correction questions. The results showed that the groups scored higher on the post test than on

the pre test. The group that had the longest time with the mobile devices was also the group that

had the highest change on the post test.

(Shaltry, 2013) This Article was on a program created for an undergraduate class, to

teach future teachers how to use technology effectively in their teaching strategies. The course

started with students that had little or no experience with using technology in the classroom.
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 17

These students were explained the importance and the benefits the use of technology could have

in a classroom and were given the freedom to choose many different aspects of technology to

focus on. The study compared three different courses like this that used different approaches.

One is the Fully Integrated approach, the second is the single three-credit approach, and the third

is a combination of both the other two approaches. This last approach is the less adopted strategy

but has been shown to be effective. The main goal of the courses is to increase the technology

used in the classrooms by increasing the confidence, flexibility and knowledge of new teachers.

The results showed that the teachers were able to use technology successfully in collaborating

with other teachers to find solutions to problems and to reflect on ways that they could use

technology in the classroom.

(Shelton & Scoresby, 2010) This article was on creating an educational computer game

that was fun and interesting. This game was implemented in a ninth grade English classroom.

They wanted to know if what we learned by playing computer games truly beneficial,

worthwhile, and valid. Researchers came up with three research questions; 1) How is the theory

of activity-goal alignment implemented for instruction through the game genre of Interactive

Fiction? 2) Why is interactive Fiction a good testing ground for the alignment theory, and how

do teams interact to pursue instructional goals through game activity? 3) What kinds of game-

like activities are designed to ensure successful alignment, and what instructional goals lend

them well to game play? The computer games were set up into three different general areas,

indicating that the games provide different opportunities and challenges. This means that they

have to be understood and applied differently as well. The game was designed by seven self

selected graduate students at a four year research university, and aged between 21 and 31. They
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 18

all had some online gaming experience. The results from the study showed that the alignment

theory created extra challenged and rewards for the game designers. They struggled with creating

an exciting game-like atmosphere with inventive programming techniques while staying focused

on the narrative structure and instructional goals.

(Sun, Huang, & Liu, 2011) This article is about students who have Chinese as their first

languages and are learning English as their second language. The article demonstrates that these

students have difficulty with near-synonym words; words that start out the same such as the

“transf” in the words transfer and transform, may have a similar definition using the word

“change” but when you look at the context of the word you see that they have different

meanings. In the article they combine the Discovery Learning theory with the NSSL (Near-

Synonyms and Similar-looking words) word learning system to help them when learning

English. To prove the performance of the system there were three experiments conducted.

Results showed that the study enhanced the previous vocabulary learning system.

Based on the research that I have done I have learned what other researchers have done

with their classes to try to engage them and help them learn using computer games. I see that

games where children have to do thinking and problem solving as a way to help them achieve a

goal; such as building a bridge to get their character across a river by solving math problems, are

one of the best games to help kids learn. In games like this the children are solving a problem to

help them achieve a goal in the game, but are also earning how to correctly solve math problems.

The games I used are Math games that teach kids or have them problem solve and learn

as a hidden agenda. I think that kids will focus more on the smaller tasks they are given and

forget that they are actually learning. This could help with engaging them to the learning process
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 19

III. Methods

Participants

This action research project was conducted with fifteen first graders from a Brooklyn

New York City Public School. The students selected were all English language learners

(ELL’s) in the same class. The students were all on the lower half of the cooperating

teacher’s math grade list, and have all shown little engagement during math lessons. The

participant’s consistence of six girls and nine boys, five Hispanics students, six students of

Middle Eastern decent, and four students of Eastern European decent.

Instruments

The teacher of the classroom signed a consent form for the students to participate in the

action research project. She also filled out a questionnaire indicating how she feels about and

if she has used computer games to teach prior to this research project. The students answered

interview questions before the beginning of the research project as well, inform the

researcher their familiarity and exposure to computer games. The researcher also

administered pre and post test to the students, and had the teacher as well as all the students

rate their engagement in math pre and post the ARP.

Experimental Design

This is a pre and post test quantitative experimental design. The students will not be

selected at random and they are ELL from the same first grade classroom. (O) is the test
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 20

scores prior to the experiment, (X) is the four week experiment, and (O) the test scores after

experiment.

Procedures

The Action Research Project was conducted in six weeks, beginning in mid September

2013 school year. The fifteen participants were observed for one week by the researcher and

the teacher for one week to observe their engagement during math lessons and knowledge

with computer games. The researcher then began the ARP by giving the participants a 20

question math post test, and then allowing the fifteen participants to play educational math

games on the computer for 45 minutes, three times a week for four weeks. During this time

the student were observed by the researcher and the teacher for any change in their

engagement during math lessons.

After the four weeks the participants were given the post test, which was the exact same

test as the pre test, to see if there was an increase in this score. The next week the participants

were observed by the researcher and the teacher for any engagement behavior changes, and

were given a post research rating survey to see if there was a change in how they felt their

engagement on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being very engaged, during math lessons after the four

weeks. The teacher also ranked the students engagement pre and post the action research on a

scale of 1-10 with 10 being very engaged.

TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 21

Threats to Internal Validity

History: This is a valid threat because I cannot control what video games the children are

accustom to playing and how they will react to playing the educational games.

Testing/Pre-test Sensitization: This could be a threat do my research due to the fact that I will

be using a pre and post test that contain the same questions. Once students have seen the test

questions they may have remembered their previous answers and answer the same way without

trying to solve it.

Mortality: This could be a valid threat to my research because if something occurs and a student

or students are not present for the duration of the experiment, it could affect the outcome of their

learning.

Statistical Regression: This could be a threat based on the fact that the participants are all at

different level of learning, and some might have a greater change then others. Also the

experiment is being done on a small sample of students.

Differential Selection of Subjects: This could be a threat because the participants will all be at

different levels when the study starts.

Selection-Maturation Interaction: This may be a factor because some students have the ability

to learn things faster than others. Since the research is over a short period of time, some students

may be able to learn and use what they have learned while other may need more time to

successfully put it into use.

TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 22

Threats to External Validity

Generalizable Conditions: This can be a threat because this same research can be duplicated

and the results may be different.

Selection Treatment Interaction: this may be a major threat because the participants are all

English language learners from the same class, and school. They will not be selected at random.

Specificity of Variables: I will be trying very hard to not make this a treat. I will try to make

sure I do everything I can while creating assignments that are easily measured.

Results

The main focus of this action research project was to see if incorporating Math computer

games would help increase the math test scores of ELL students, and if it would help increase

their engagement during teacher lead math lessons. According to the research done the results

showed that all the students’ math scores between the pre and post test shown improvement.

Figure 1.1

Students A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O

Pre-Test 11 13 9 12 11 11 14 13 10 12 13 12 13 13 11

Post- 18 18 18 19 20 16 20 17 17 19 19 19 20 18 19
Test

The average test score for the post test was 11.86, while the average test score for the

post test was 18.46. This resulted in an overall 6.6% increase in math test scores. See figure 1.1.
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 23

Figure 1.2 shows the correlation between the ranking each student gave themselves in math

engagement and the amount of points they increased in the post test.

Figure 1.2

10
Y- Axis Points Increased by on

6
test

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
X- Axis student engagement

The independent variable (X-Axis) is the rating of how the students felt they rank on their

engagement in math. The dependent variable (Y-Axis) is the amount each student improved by in

the post test. The data shows a strong positive correlation between the independent and

dependent variables.

Discussion

The action research results show that including educational math computer games can

improve the math test scores in first grade ELL students. It also shows that the math computer

games may also help improve the engagement of these ELL’s during teacher lead math lessons.

Some students improved more than others, and observations show that the students who

improved more showed higher improvement in their teacher lead math lesson engagement.

Students who did not enjoy the computer games as much, showed some but less increase in their

classroom engagements, and some but less improvement in the post test. Based on the teachers
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 24

and researcher’s observations and interview, you can conclude that the children who enjoyed

playing the math computer games more became more engaged with the teacher lead lessons, and

improved more on the post test.

Based on the results from the action research project and the review literature, it can be

concluded that educational computer games have a strong positive correlation with ELL

student’s increased learning in math and increased engagement during teacher lead lessons. it can

also be concluded that technology and other learning aspects that children enjoy will increase

their engagement in the classroom.

Graphs

Students X- Axis Y- Axis

Math Test Scores A 5 7
20
B 3 5

15 C 5 9
Test Scores

D 4 7
10
E 4 8
5
F 3 5

0 G 3 6
A C E G I K M O
pre test H 1 4
Students
scores I 3 7

J 5 7
Figure 1.3
K 3 6

L 4 6

M 3 6

N 2 5

O 5 8

Figure 1.4
TEACHING ELL'S WITH COMPUTER GAMES 25

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