The Effectiveness of Implementing Gamification Using Movie Clips in Improving Students’ Vocabulary Parts of Speech Mastery

Abstract

Vocabulary mastery, particularly in parts of speech, is a fundamental foundation for reading comprehension in EFL contexts. Despite its importance, eighth-grade students at a public junior high school in Kawali demonstrated critically low vocabulary achievement, characterized by difficulties in contextual word usage, rapid lexical loss, and passive classroom participation resulting from conventional instructional methods. To address these challenges, this study investigated: (1) whether there was a significant difference in students’ vocabulary parts of speech mastery before and after being taught through gamification using movie clips, and (2) how students perceived this approach in their learning process. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed, involving 23 students from Class 8A as the quantitative sample and six purposively selected students for semi-structured interviews in the qualitative phase. The intervention integrated Zootopia animated movie clips with the Baamboozle digital gamification platform across two instructional sessions, focusing on adjectives and adverbs of manner in alignment with the Merdeka Curriculum. Quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, a Paired Sample T-test, and Normalized Gain (N-gain) score analysis. The results revealed a statistically significant improvement in students’ vocabulary mastery, with the mean score increasing from 4.96 (pre-test) to 6.22 (post-test), yielding a t-value of 2.15, which exceeded the critical two-tailed t-table value of 2.07 (p = 0.043). Nevertheless, the overall N-gain score of 0.13 reflected a low effectiveness level, primarily attributed to the limited treatment duration. Qualitative thematic analysis further generated three key themes: (1) visual scaffolding for meaning construction, (2) gamification as a motivator for engagement, and (3) morphological awareness and learning challenges. Collectively, these findings suggest that while the integration of movie clips and gamification significantly reduces language anxiety and fosters active vocabulary engagement, sustained and extended implementation is essential to achieve deeper lexical internalization. This study contributes empirical evidence supporting the pedagogical integration of audiovisual media and game-based strategies for vocabulary instruction in Indonesian junior high school EFL contexts.