Language Learning and Teaching Using Kahoot!: International Journal of Modern Education June 2020
Language Learning and Teaching Using Kahoot!: International Journal of Modern Education June 2020
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Article history: There are various technological tools and software that can be used to
Received date:13.01.2020 enhance the language teaching-learning process. Research has shown that the
Revised date: 12.06.2020 integration of ‘gamification’ based software like Kahoot! has the ability to
Accepted date: 14.06.2020 influence and enhance language learning outcomes and can be used as
Published date: 15.06.2020 effective teaching and assessment tools in language classrooms. This study
explores the language teaching and learning experiences of five teachers and
To cite this document:
50 secondary students in an international school when they used Kahoot! in
Kaur, P., & Nadarajan, R. (2020). their English classes. The study employed a questionnaire with ten items
Language Learning And Teaching using a five-level categorical Likert scale and a semi-structured interview to
Using Kahoot!. International Journal collect data. Almost all the teachers reported that Kahoot! was an effective
of Modern Education, 2(5), 19-28. teaching and assessment tool, and the use Kahoot! enabled the teachers to
engage students actively in classes. The results from the questionnaire
highlighted that almost all the students reported positive experiences when
DOI: 10.35631/IJMOE.25003 they had lessons integrated with the use of Kahoot!. The majority of students
reported that they were able to engage actively in their language lessons when
Kahoot! was used. Almost all the students reported positive experiences
when they used Kahoot! in their language classrooms. Generally, it was
found that Kahoot! enabled students to engage and actively participate in
their language learning processes, and teachers used Kahoot! to create a more
meaningful and rich language learning experience for their students.
Keywords:
Introduction
Research shows that technological hardware and software such as computers, tablets, online
teaching and learning applications have the ability to enhance students’ engagement and
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International Journal of Modern Education (IJMOE)
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DOI: 10.35631/IJMOE.25003
active participation in the classrooms in an effective manner as well as help teachers teach in
a more meaningful and effective manner (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2007; Cox &
Rogers, 2005; Chun, Kern & Smith, 2016; Kim & Reeves, 2007; Koile & Singer, 2006).
Technology increasingly occupies most aspects of our lives. Thus education contexts need to
change and adapt according to the current needs learners and their learning strategies and
preferences. Education too needs to prepare citizens for the workplace that is becoming
increasingly dependent on technology. Therefore, teachers and educators should try to
complement traditional textbooks with learning software in order to enhance students’
engagement in learning and prepare students for the job market.
Malaysia requires a workforce that need to function and compete in a globally and
technological enhanced world. Thus, the Ministry Education of Malaysia has outlined a set
of additional skills and competencies that are aligned with the National Education
Philosophy, which will provide students a competitive edge at an international level.
According to the Malaysian Educational Blueprint 2013-2025, there are several strategies to
ensure that students are prepared with the required skills to face global challenges and to
transform students through the application of Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) in relevant subjects. Several strategies and curriculum enhancements
have been introduced to increase the development of students’ skills and competencies.
These strategies include new innovative learning approaches and an enhanced curriculum that
emphasises high order thinking skills.
Various learning software and platforms have been specifically developed to assist English
language teachers in their classrooms (Chun, Kern & Smith, 2016). These software and
platforms are also developed to enhance and optimise students’ language learning
experiences. Adaptive learning software such as Kahoot! that are based on gamification
elements enrich classroom activities as this software can engage students, supply feedback
and structure participation courses. Various researches and studies that involve educational
settings have proven that the infusion of ‘gamification’ in the teaching and learning process
has the ability to influence learning experiences as well as students’ behaviour and language
learning outcomes (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011). Studies should examine how
students’ experiences with such gamification based activities can lead to higher engagement
in their language learning processes as well as how teachers integrate these activities into
their classroom teaching. This exploratory paper examines the perspectives of English
language teachers and students about the use of Kahoot! in language classrooms in an
international school located in northern Malaysia. Specifically, this study examines the
effectiveness of the Kahoot! platform from students’ and teachers’ point of views in terms of
language learning and teaching experiences.
Literature Review
There three sub-sections in the literature review. These include technology in the language
classroom, gamification in language learning and teaching, and Kahoot! in the language
classroom.
raised in a digital, media-saturated world” (Meyer, 2010). Therefore, in order for classrooms
and schools to be relevant to these digital natives, teaching and learning need to cater for the
digital lifestyle of today’s generation, and new technologies need to be integrated in
classrooms. Increasingly, various adaptive learning software and technological tools have
replaced traditional classroom methods that are based on textbooks and blackboards as
learning and teaching tools.
The integration of technology into learning and teaching has been an effective measure to
connect with student’s learning style. All students learn differently, and technology allows
educators to accommodate the unique learning styles of different students (Bernard, Chang,
Popescu & Graf, 2017). Allowing students’ to use technology through their devices such as
tablets and smartphones in their learning activities will encourage them to actively participate
in classrooms. In addition, the use of technology by teachers can also transform traditional
passive learning models to more active modes as teachers take on roles as motivators,
advisors and coaches. Teachers will be able to have better interaction with students as they
assist students through the use of technological tools and obtain responses and feedback from
students throughout the learning process. Teaching and learning become more dynamic and
students gain skills that will help them be more viable for the workforce later on.
According to Livingstone (2015), gamification based teaching and learning activities allow
learners to be engaged in meaningful communication and take on active roles in their own
learning. Activities that are based on games stimulate learners and motivate them to learn on
their own. These activities also lessen students’ anxiety towards learning English and create a
positive environment for English language learning. Students need to follow instructions
while playing games in order to get the feedback and at the same time they are exposed to the
target language (Piskorz, 2017). Language teachers often face problems to create lessons that
can sustain their students’ interests and attention in class. Thus, gamification based activities
in English classrooms can offer teachers a more fulfilling and engaging classroom
environment as these activities are relatively easy to design and provide learners with
language practice and can also be used as an assessment tool that provides immediate
feedback to students. Teachers can also design lessons that are tailored to suit learners’
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International Journal of Modern Education (IJMOE)
Volume 2 Issue 5 (June 2020) PP. 19-28
DOI: 10.35631/IJMOE.25003
individual differences. Gamification based activities and tools offer more effective language
learning and teaching environment for learners and teachers.
Many education institutions have begun to invest in adopting technological tools and
software such as Kahoot! in classroom activities as an effort to restructure teaching
approaches with current technological advancements (Zhao, Sheldon & Byers, 2002).
Research has shown that students’ are more engaged and have higher collaboration when
Kahoot! is used in their classrooms (Icard, 2014). Students enjoy participating using Kahoot!
in language-based activities as the content is appealing and fun. Students also can compete
with their peers in real time and this gives them a sense of competition. The features of
Kahoot! also enable teachers to analyze and assess if students truly understand the learning
material covered through the use of Kahoot! quizzes and surveys.
Integrating technology in classroom assessment enables the teacher to facilitate and monitor
the lesson without interrupting students’ participation (Moersch, 1998). Thus, language
learning experiences in the classroom becomes more dynamic, open-ended and
multidimensional. In many education settings, the application of technology is slowly
becoming a common practice in giving feedback and assessing students’ learning (Nicol &
Milligan, 2006; Saade, 2003). Kahoot! based activities offer a method of giving feedback
almost instantly without interrupting students’ engagement in the activity. Kahoot! also
allows students to create their own surveys and quizzes to show understanding of the subject
matter (Medvedovska, Skarlupina & Turchina, 2016).
Kahoot! can enhance students’ engagement in activities while still physically remaining in a
typical traditional class. There is no necessity for access to computer labs to engage in
Kahoot! based activities as students can use their own devices such as phones and laptops.
Traditional activities such quiz, discussion and surveys can be conducted on the Kahoot!
platform but in a more fun and interactive way. Bitner & Bitner (2002) state that teachers are
able to use Kahoot! to manage lessons and assessments. The integration of Kahoot! in
classroom activities creates a fun and interactive atmosphere in the classroom (Lee &
Hammer, 2011). Overall, Kahoot! is a great gaming response system that has a variety of uses
for teachers in the classroom because it is user friendly and open ended. Kahoot! offers
students a learning tool that is interactive, fun and offers immediate feedback. The game-
based feature of Kahoot! is attractive for students and especially useful for language learning
activities as it allows students to freely practice their language skills with their peers in real
time as well as get actual reactions.
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International Journal of Modern Education (IJMOE)
Volume 2 Issue 5 (June 2020) PP. 19-28
DOI: 10.35631/IJMOE.25003
Methodology
This paper examines teachers’ and students’ perspectives and experiences of using the
Kahoot! platform in their English language teaching and learning. This exploratory study was
conducted in an international school situated in the northern Malaysia. There are 51
academic staff in the school and a total of 412 students, Malaysians and foreigners. The
international school offers the British International curriculum at early years, primary,
secondary and pre-university levels. The students need to sit for an English exam to be
placed in their respective classes.
The participants of this study comprised of 50 secondary level students with a mix of Year 9,
Year 10 and Year 11 students; as well as five full time teachers. 33 students were Malaysians
and 17 were non-Malaysians. 29 of the students were learning English as second language
while 22 were learning English as a first language. Three of the teachers were teaching at
secondary level and two at primary. Two of the participants (referred to as Teacher A and
Teacher B) in this study are British while the other three participants (Teacher C, Teacher D
and Teacher E) are Malaysians. The teachers had language teaching experience ranging from
five to fifteen years. All of them are university graduates with Bachelor Degrees in English
language.
A self-developed questionnaire consisting of ten questions was used to collect data from the
50 students. The aim of the questionnaire was to gather students’ perspectives and
experiences of the use of Kahoot! in their lessons. The questionnaire was administered with
during school hours. There are two sections in the questionnaire. Section A consists of four
items about participant’s demographic information. Section B consists of ten items with a
five-point Likert scale. The items are all related to the students’ perceptions and feelings
about the use of Kahoot! in their English language classrooms. All the items were in English
as the students were taken to be proficient in the language.
Data from teachers was collected via semi-structured interviews. Teachers were asked about
their experiences and thoughts about the use of Kahoot! in their classrooms. The interview
consisted of 13 open-ended interview questions. The interview questions were developed by
researchers based on literature review. The responses from the five teachers were transcribed
and analyses. Five themes were discovered from the interviews.
Four out of the five teachers are highly experienced users of Kahoot!. Only, one teacher
(Teacher C) had to develop her knowledge and skills of Kahoot! as a result of the school
policy of integrating Kahoot! Teacher A (a highly experienced user of Kahoot!) describes
“Kahoot! is a two-way technology system to assist in conducting classroom activities such as
quizzes, discussions and surveys. Questions will be posted on the screen and students can use
their smart gadgets either mobile phones, iPads, or computers and answer the questions”.
However, Teacher C (initial novice of Kahoot!), expressed that she did not have initial
knowledge or skills about Kahoot! but attempted to learn and use it as it was highly popular
among students and other teachers. Teacher C reported that “I had no idea what Kahoot! is
until I joined this school and realize most teachers utilize this application in classroom
teaching. I gradually learned about Kahoot! and applied it in my teaching process. I also
learnt about challenging people and also sharing, duplicate the Kahoot! game which already
exist in the online Kahoot! application.”
All the teachers expressed that their students were highly engaged during lessons that
integrated Kahoot!. These teachers remarked that students were highly enthusiastic and
collaborated actively to complete tasks. For example, Teacher A remarked about her students
during Kahoot! activities as “They love it. There is a positive active participation. I frequently
hear this from my students; ‘it’s ‘competitive, I like winning games’, ‘it’s nice to use mobile
phones in classroom with teacher’s permission’, ‘the background music makes me to think
well’, ‘it’s a warm up especially in mornings’”. Overall all the teachers interviewed in this
study agreed that Kahoot! based activities that were integrated into their classrooms were
highly beneficial for their students. Teachers are continuously upgrading and adapting to the
latest teaching method in order to keep up with the latest technological changes as well as to
engage with their students who are more technologically inclined (Livingstone, 2015).
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International Journal of Modern Education (IJMOE)
Volume 2 Issue 5 (June 2020) PP. 19-28
DOI: 10.35631/IJMOE.25003
Based on Table 1, participants mostly chose between ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’ for almost
all the items. Items 1, 2 and 3 are concerned with Kahoot! being a useful resource for
learning. Almost all respondents strongly agreed with items 1, 2 and 3 which measured
Kahoot! as a useful resource for learning. Items 4 and 5 which are related to the features of
Kahoot! as being an innovative tool and provides a sense of competition as students complete
activities in real time and their scores can be seen by their peers. Results showed that for
items 4 and 5, respondents also strongly agreed to both items. Most students agreed that the
features of Kahoot! were useful to them and provided them with ample learning
opportunities.
For item 8, the responses show that majority of the respondents agreed with the statement that
creating question and answer sets together with illustrations on the Kahoot! template enabled
them to learn better. However, a small number (8%) chose to stay ‘neutral’ with the
statement. Majority of the respondents strongly agreed with item 9 that states that Kahoot! is
helpful in improving their language learning in an interesting way. However, item 9 is the
only item that had the highest number of ‘neutral’ responses among all the 10 items. Some of
these students may feel that Kahoot! is not a learning activity as it is gamer based, although
teachers may have integrated learning objectives. For item 10, almost all the respondents
were positive towards the statement that Kahoot! should be conducted at least twice a week.
The findings from questionnaires revealed that that almost all the respondents have positive
experiences and feelings about the application of Kahoot! in their language learning. None of
the students strongly disagreed with any of the ten items. Only item 7 “Kahoot! team mode
enables me to discuss and collaborate with my teammates” showed a ‘disagree’ reaction by
6% of the students. Some of the students may have introvert personalities who prefer to learn
on their own (Bitner & Bitner, 2002). Activities based on Kahoot! mainly need students to
collaborate in order to complete activities, and therefore may be unsuitable for students who
prefer to work alone. For most of the items, majority of the students either agreed or strongly
agreed with the statements. This is indicated that these students had positive perceptions
about the use and the features of Kahoot! in their own language classes. Even the teachers
who were interviewed, largely expressed positive reactions and experiences about the use of
Kahoot! in their teaching. These teachers also expressed that their students seemed to enjoy
and benefitted from the use of Kahoot! based activities.
The findings in this study are similar to the findings of the study done by Bicen (2018) where
it was found that students, who were preservice teachers reported positive reactions on the
use of Kahoot! in their classes. Bicen (2018) reported that the preservice teachers reported
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International Journal of Modern Education (IJMOE)
Volume 2 Issue 5 (June 2020) PP. 19-28
DOI: 10.35631/IJMOE.25003
Kahoot! had a positive impact especially the features of instant feedback as well as the
engaging activities in Kahoot! made learning seem fun. Yapici & Karakoyum (2017) also
found that their respondents who were preservice teachers had positive experiences with
Kahoot! where these future teachers indicated that they would adopt the use of Kahoot! in
their own classes when they start teaching. These preservice teachers reported that Kahoot!
made their learning engaging and enhanced their learning experiences (Yapici & Karakoyum,
2017).
One factor that needs to be highlighted in this study is the context and sample of the study.
As the context of this study is an international school with students who are mostly proficient
in the English language, this could have influenced the findings and limited the study. An
international school has its own unique features that consist of multinational students, global
curriculum and ample infrastructure that may allow teachers and students to fully use
Kahoot!. Teachers in this school are also encouraged to use Kahoot!. Those who have no
knowledge about Kahoot! are given training to integrate Kahoot! in their classroom activities.
Infrastructure to support the use of technology in teaching and learning is also constantly
upgraded to meet with current changes and advances. Thus, the school provides a platform
and instills an awareness of the importance of technology and its benefits in education.
According to King (2017), information and communication technology improves the quality
of education. Teachers need to be given training to fully utilise technology to enhance their
teaching and enhance students’ learning experiences. Students are digital natives and only
focusing on traditional methods and materials may not be enough to engage these students in
classrooms. Although, the context may limit the generalisation of the findings, this study
shows that given the proper infrastructure and training game-based applications such as
Kahoot! can benefit teachers and learners.
Conclusion
Kahoot! based activities in English language classrooms can help to instil positive attitudes,
increase motivation of students, create fun and enjoyable learning environment (Medina &
Hurtado, 2017). For teachers, Kahoot! offers an alternative assessment method and helps
create meaningful activities that can promote student engagement. Thus, teachers need to
have access to technology within their classrooms and feel comfortable utilizing that
technology in their instruction. Kilickaya & Krajka (2010) found that although technology
appears to make instruction meaningful to students, teachers are unsure how to incorporate
technology into their instruction. Teachers should receive professional development to
incorporate game-based learning platforms into their daily instruction to help students remain
engaged, motivated, and to promote retention (King, 2017).
From this small exploratory study, it can be seen that Kahoot! can provide positive learning
experiences to students in their language classroom. Students involved in this study expressed
positive experiences and outcomes in their language classes when they engaged in activities
via Kahoot! in an organized and sustained manner. Teachers in this particular school also
seemed to be using Kahoot! to assist in their language classes and ample support is given in
terms of IT support and facilities. The expressed that the features of Kahoot! such as real-
time based activities, competing with peers, allows them to track their progress and
interactive nature were beneficial to their language learning.
interactive learning experiences. As the results of this study show, almost all the students
found Kahoot! to be an effective learning experience and they feel happy and competitive
when they are engaged in Kahoot! based activities. Teachers in this study also expressed
positive experiences about the use of Kahoot! in their classes.
Kahoot! is a suitable platform to use for all levels of students, in most subjects and especially
language classes. Students are normally eager to use their mobile phones or tablets and
implement technology into the classroom. These applications provide a positive environment
in the classroom, increase energy and add enjoyable moments in learning (Drigas & Charami,
2014). Kahoot! is also able to motivate students and promote competitive as well as
cooperative learning environments (Malamed, 2012). Kahoot! is also an effective assessment
tool whereby all the results, scores and percentages of the questions can be recorded online
and downloaded manually too. All level of students can benefit by getting involved in game-
based learning platforms like Kahoot!. The games created in the Kahoot! platform too can be
kept for other classes and teachers can re-use and adapt the games for other classes in the
future. Kahoot! provides positive learning experiences to students as shown in this study.
Kahoot! is also a tool for teachers to engage their students in language classrooms.
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