Enhancing low achievers’ EFL learning with interactive digital technologies

Interactive digital technology has great potentiality in providing life-like learning contexts and in-time interactions to facilitate language learning, especially for the low achievers. Contexts are essential for effective language learning. In this study, two types of digital interactive technologies, including interactive digital map (iMap) and augmented reality (AR), were employed to deliver and enhance contextualized learning experiences with gamified learning tasks for the low achievers’. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of type of technology-enhanced learning, including the iMap-enhanced learning and the AR-enhanced learning, on low achievers’ learning performance and attitude while learning from the gamified technology-enhanced contextualized EFL learning. A preliminary experiment showed that (a) the AR-enhanced learning group outperformed the iMap-enhanced learning group on learning performance, (b) all participants’ post attitudes toward the received technology-enhanced learning were significantly increased in all attitude aspects of confidence, preference, anxiety, attention, and learning strategy, and (c) both technology-enhanced learning group revealed similar positive in most attitude aspects, excepted that the AR group showed a higher degree of attention than the iMap group. It was concluded that technology-enhanced contextualized learning is effective in promoting learning attitudes and helping EFL learners achieve acceptable learning performance. Copyright © 2019 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.