The Effect of a Gamified Mobile Learning Environment on Vocabulary Learning and Retention among EFL Students

Bagheri, Mohsen; Shahsavan, Ali; Mansoori, Sirus

doi:10.22080/iselt.2026.32041.1199

The Effect of a Gamified Mobile Learning Environment on Vocabulary Learning and Retention among EFL Students

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Associate Professor, Educational Science Department, Arak University, Arak, Iran

² New Educational Technology Center, Arak University, Arak, Iran

³ Associate Professor, Educational Science Department, Arak University, Arak,

10.22080/iselt.2026.32041.1199

Abstract

This research was carried out to examine how gamified mobile learning environment influences both the acquisition and long-term retention of vocabulary among university students. The study employed a quasi-experimental design featuring a pretest and posttest alongside a control group. The participants were 34 students from the educational sciences department at Arak University, selected through convenience sampling and randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group received vocabulary instruction through a researcher-developed gamified mobile learning environment, TabTest, which incorporated interactive learning materials, immediate feedback, progress monitoring, points, leaderboards, and course-based competitions, whereas the control group received conventional classroom instruction A researcher-developed test containing 30 questions was used to measure the students' vocabulary of specialized academic texts. The results of an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) at the 0.05 significance level revealed that gamified mobile learning environment had a meaningful positive effect on both vocabulary learning and retention. After accounting for the pretest scores, significant differences were observed between the experimental and control groups regarding both learning and retention. Additionally, paired-samples t-test results showed that while both groups made progress from the pretest to the posttest and retention test, the improvement in the experimental group was significantly greater. These findings indicate that the incorporation of gamification elements not only enhances immediate vocabulary learning outcomes, but also supports the preservation of learning over time.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Copyright © 2027 The Author(s). Published by the Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages at the University of Mazandaran. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

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