Title: A multi-party Mahjong-like spelling game for English vocabulary learning

Authors: Cheng-Yu Tsai; Jenq-Muh Hsu; Hung-Hsu Tsai; Pao-Ta Yu; Wen-Feng Huang

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chung Cheng University, No. 168, Sec. 1, University Rd., Min-Hsiung Township, Chia-yi County 621, Taiwan ' Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chiayi University, No. 300, Syuefu Rd., Chiayi City 60004, Taiwan ' Department of Information Management, National Formosa University, No. 64, Wunhua Rd., Huwei Township, Yunlin County 632, Taiwan ' Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chung Cheng University, No. 168, Sec. 1, University Rd., Min-Hsiung Township, Chia-yi County 621, Taiwan ' Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chung Cheng University, No. 168, Sec. 1, University Rd., Min-Hsiung Township, Chia-yi County 621, Taiwan

Abstract: English vocabulary is combined with some letters to form an English word. It is a basic skill to effectively combine the right letters to form a correct word in English learning. A word spelling game can engage the learners to effectively understand and memorise English vocabularies. Mahjong is a traditional Chinese game for gambling and entertainment. The player tries to combine the corresponding tiles within a particular sequence based on the game rules of Mahjong. The tile combination of Mahjong is similar to spell letters forming a word in English vocabulary learning. In this paper, we have designed and implemented a multi-party Mahjong-like spelling game to learn English vocabularies. The learners play the Mahjong-like spelling game to compete with other peer learners in cooperative learning. It can engage the learning effects to effectively spell the correct vocabularies and to promote their spelling abilities in English vocabulary learning.

Keywords: Mahjong; spelling games; English learning; vocabulary learning; multi-party games; cooperative learning; language learning; English vocabulary.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2016.076795

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2016 Vol.19 No.4, pp.397 - 411

Received: 07 Nov 2014
Accepted: 12 Nov 2014
Published online: 01 Jun 2016 *

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