The Create-a-Game Assignment and English Teaching Ability of Japanese College Students

Abstract

Japanese college students ( N = 18) aspiring to become English teachers in junior or senior high schools studied several examples of educational games and created their own English games as an assignment during the last two weeks of an educational psychology course. Results indicated (1) a significant increase between pre- and post- self-evaluations of students' own English teaching ability, and (2) significantly positive ratings of the effectiveness of the assignment from a neutral Likert response point. As the use of games for effective learning has been demonstrated among college students on various psychology courses in the USA, the results suggested this might also be beneficial for (1) Japanese students and (2) educational psychology courses.