Augmented‐reality‐enhanced game‐based learning in flipped English classrooms: Effects on students' creative thinking and vocabulary acquisition.

Background: As the concept of flipped classrooms continues to gain interest across disciplines, more research is needed to strengthen the instructional design by integrating active learning strategies and emerging technologies. Among various possibilities, little is known about how game‐based learning combined with Augmented Reality (AR) can be effectively infused into language education to establish supportive flipped learning contexts. Objectives: This study thus proposed an AR‐enhanced game‐based learning (ARGBL) approach, featuring the use of an augmented board game to engage students actively in classroom activities. It further compared the effects of the proposed approach with traditional game‐based learning on the students' vocabulary acquisition and creative thinking as they were instructed to learn English as a foreign language (EFL) in flipped classrooms. Methods: A quasi‐experimental design was adopted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed approach to promote the students' participation in flipped in‐class activities, thereby improving their learning outcomes. Participants were recruited from two classes of the same undergraduate course, one of which was designated as the experimental group to take part in game‐based learning activities in class by playing an AR‐enhanced board game, and the other as the comparison group to learn by playing a paper‐and‐pencil game with identical puzzle content. The desired student learning outcomes were measured by pre‐ and post‐intervention vocabulary tests and creative thinking tests, supplemented by individual interviews. Results: Results indicated that the students in the experimental group significantly outperformed their counterparts in vocabulary acquisition and creative thinking. They also expressed positive perceptions of the augmented game‐based learning experience in the flipped EFL classroom. Take Away: ARGBL can be a promising approach to improving student learning, and it is particularly beneficial to the design of classroom activities in flipped learning contexts due to its affordances for enriched content visualization and active learner engagement through gameplay. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Flipping the classroom is becoming prevalent in education, and researchers have stressed the need to move beyond comparing the outcomes of flipped and non‐flipped settings in order to advance innovation and examine the effectiveness of instructional design.Recent research has shown positive effects of using AR technology for content delivery, with location‐based context‐aware applications being more commonly applied in language education, while the potential of image‐based AR also warrants research attention.Learning by playing games has been considered an engaging strategy that provides benefits for learner engagement, but not all game genres have been fully studied. What this paper adds: This study proposed an ARGBL approach, applying image‐based AR to augment board gaming activities in class when the classroom was flipped.The ARGBL approach was found to significantly improve the students' English vocabulary acquisition.The ARGBL approach was found to significantly enhance the students' creative thinking development. Implications for practice: The innovative merger of image‐based AR and physical board gaming pieces into a hybrid form of mediation, namely the AR‐enhanced board game, likely encouraged face‐to‐face interaction of meaningful language use in flipped in‐class activities, thereby leading to the vocabulary growth and creative thinking development of EFL learners.The effectiveness of the ARGBL approach should be considered as an integrated whole with a holistic understanding of the interplay between the AR technology and the active learning strategy through gameplay in the broader pedagogical context of flipped classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]