Sixth-grade students in a Puerto Rican public school who played My English Coach in class showed significant pre-post growth in English receptive vocabulary, but so did a same-school control class that did not play it, while an external control group did not¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · checked against its sources 2026-11-01 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q2 i? The experimental group's words known rose significantly from pre-test (M = 1664) to post-test (M = 2513), but a same-school internal control class that did not play the game also rose significantly (M = 2211 to 3252); the authors suggest a Hawthorne effect. → Vélez-Agosto 2018 q2 i? The external control group, in a different school, showed no significant pre-post difference in words known (M = 1807 to 1954, p = 0.281); equivalence was not tested. → Vélez-Agosto 2018 (2)

Evidence¶

Vélez-Agosto 2018¶

Vélez-Agosto, N. M. & Rivas-Vélez, A. (2018). Benefits and meanings of educating with videogames in a Puerto Rican sixth grade public school classroom. International Journal of Educational Technology, 5(1), 9-19. http://educationaltechnology.net/ijet/

q2 · i? · causal · r1

Small-scale pre-post quasi-experiment with purposive sampling; EG students (n = 25, one missing post-test) played the game twenty minutes daily for four weeks. Paired-samples t-test showed a significant difference in words known, t(23) = 4.346, p = 0.000. The internal control group (n = 22; same school and same English teacher, no game) also grew significantly, t(16) = 4.877, p = 0.000, and the article describes "significant and extensive growth of words known for the EG and ICG", which the authors say could be explained by a Hawthorne effect (both groups shared the same English teacher). Groups were compared only within themselves, pre to post; no between-group test is reported.

"In the EG, there was a significant difference in words known at T1 (M = 1664; SD = 827.1) and words known at T2 (M = 2513; SD = 880.9); t(23) = 4.346, p = 0.000."

Vélez-Agosto 2018 (2)¶

q2 · i? · causal · r1

External control group (n = 30) in a different school without the tool was tested on the same Vocabulary Size Test at both time points; the paired-samples t-test was not significant, t(24) = 1.102, p = 0.281; equivalence was not tested.

"Fort the ECG, there was not a s ignificant difference in words known at T1 (M = 1807; SD = 811.4) and words known at T2 (M = 1954; SD = 1014); t(24) = 1.102, p = 0.281."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

Vocabulary — outcome: instruction changes it

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