The acquisition of French vocabulary in an interactive digital gaming context

Abstract

Prêt à Négocier (PàN) is an interactive digital information gap game designed to help French students improve their interaction skills. In this study, we examined the effects of its use on improving French learners’ vocabulary. Following a pretest/posttest design, we compared the development of 20 French words between an experimental and a control group. Although both groups followed a similar trajectory in vocabulary learning, some participants benefited from the proposed game-based pedagogy more than others due to individual differences. Our findings highlight how interactive and meaningful games such as PàN can complement and enhance the learning of second/foreign language (L2) vocabulary.