Applying Content-Based Instruction in Seventh-Grade Food-and-Agriculture English Learning with a Robot-Facilitated Board Game

This study integrated robots and tangible objects (R&T) to realize content-based instruction, game-based learning, and embodied cognition in language education. The researchers developed a robot-facilitated board game (RFBG) to facilitate seventh-graders with learning chickens-and-eggs vocabulary and knowledge in English. The purpose was (a) to investigate target seventh-graders' knowledge acquisition, word acquisition, and word recognition, and (b) to examine their learning experience with the game play. This paper adopted mixed-methods research design through a single-group experiment at a private junior high school. By immersing in a game narrative with elements such as digital dice-rolling, answering leveled questions, using playing cards, and oral practice, the participants improved significantly in terms of word acquisition and recognition, and their overall feedback via RFBG was positive. The results inform EFL practitioners about how to better integrate educational robots and tangible objects into content-based language learning.