EMBEDDING AUGMENTED REALITY IN MOBILE LEARNING WITH A GAME-CENTERED APPROACH IN EFL CLASSROOMS

Growing interest towards mobile learning in education brings several opportunities and advantages for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners who tend to have difficulty in productive skills, particularly speaking. Foreign language learners often lose interest and motivation towards classroom activities due to experiencing similar exercises and learning materials provided either by course book publishers or the language teachers themselves. Even if publishers and language teachers provide students with audio-visual classroom materials, such materials do not allow learners to interact with each other, engage in activities, and more importantly, enjoy their learning experiences. When AR-based learning materials are designed with games-centered approach, they can offer learners rich, real time, colllaborative and contextual learning experiences. Since learners are likely to perceive such materials as games, their motivation and interest towards learning a foreign language tend to increase. In their oral productions, they feel less anxious, but more confident while collaborating with their classmates. As a part of mobile learning, Augmented Reality (AR) technique facilitates learning through enjoyment over learning tasks, engagement and motivation. Augmented reality simulations provide language learners with intrinsically motivating gameful experiences, challenge and unexpected delight, which in return results in crossing the border between formal and informal learning. This study, therefore, intends to examine EFL learners’ opinions regarding the implementation of AR-based learning materials in their language learning process.