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Abstract

Abstract: The main purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of four digital games (i.e. Catapult, Volley, Moonshot, and Rally) with those of a conventional method (i.e. teacher-fronted instruction) on the development of knowledge of English phrasal verbs among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To conduct the research, a Solutions Placement Test was run among 90 EFL learners of Shokouh English Institute, and 60 intermediate language learners who scored 47 and beyond were selected as the main participants of the study. Then, they were divided into two equivalent groups of experimental and control through simple random sampling method. After that, the pretest of phrasal verbs was administered to the participants to assess their knowledge of English phrasal verbs. Next, the students in the experimental group received a type of mobile game instruction, while the control group received the conventional treatment method in their attempt to learn how to use phrasal verbs in a form of class activities and researcher’ explanations. Finally, another test of phrasal verbs was administered to both groups at the end of the study to assess possible difference of performance of these two groups. The collected data were then processed through statistical analysis by the use of t-test and two-way ANOVA through SPSS23 software. Statistical analysis of the results provided evidence in support of the positive effects of modality of instruction and participants’ gender on the development of knowledge of English phrasal verbs among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. Although, the interaction between gender and instructional modality did not produce a differential impact and the last hypothesis was rejected.