Expert and Novice Users’ Visual Attention in Online English Game Playing

Abstract

This pilot study employed an eye-tracking technique to examine expert and novice students’ visual attention while playing online English games. An online interactive English game, Talking Island, was used as an experimental material in this study. Twelve primary school students, six experienced users and six novice users, in Taiwan participated in this experiment. This study focused on investigating the between-group differences regarding their visual attention allocated on the functional windows designed in the game. The results indicated that a significant difference existed between the expert and the novice groups while they were viewing the vocabulary and map windows. The novice players paid more attention on viewing the vocabulary windows than the experienced players. And the experienced players focused more on viewing the map than the novice players. This could suggest that an interactive online game may benefit children’s vocabulary identification efficiency and improve meta-cognitive strategies for game-based learning.