Interactive Learning for Young Minds: “What A Day!” Card Game as a Tool for English Language Acquisition in Secondary School Learners

Game-based learning has emerged as a dynamic pedagogical approach to assist independence learning to foster active engagement and meaningful language use in educational contexts. This study evaluates the effectiveness of What a Day! an analogue educational tool, in enhancing English language acquisition among Malaysian secondary students through cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. A quasi-experimental one-group pre-test–post-test design was used, and significant improvements were observed across all domains. Cognitive gains, supported by Mayer’s multimedia learning theory, reflected enhanced understanding, recall, and application. Affective outcomes revealed increased motivation and positive attitudes, aligning with Self-Determination and control-value theories. Psychomotor improvements included higher attention, instruction following and independent learning, consistent with embodied learning and Total Physical Response principles. Correlational analyses confirmed strong intra-domain coherence. The findings validate the pedagogical value of integrating narrative, interactivity, and multimodal elements in game-based learning to promote holistic, learner-centred language development.

Game-based Learning; Language Acquisition; Cognitive; Affective; Psychomotor

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