The Role of Playing Video Games in Mastering English as a Foreign Language among Children in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract

Nowadays children are highly exposed to video games. The number of hours that children spend playing digital games has rapidly increased throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. A survey was conducted in this study to determine whether playing online video games has an impact on English proficiency and whether online gaming positively contributes to foreign language development. A total of 62 parents of online video gamers (42 males, 20 females) aged between 5 and 13 years responded to a variety of questions on the number and quality of their children’s disclosure to digital games. The findings point to considerable progress and suggest that online games have a significant influence on foreign language development. Areas of the greatest improvements were lexicon and speaking. Going deeper, the findings suggest that extended exposure to online video games during the COVID-19 lockdown played a big part in mitigating anxiety and enhancing confidence and motivation toward learning the target language. The findings demonstrate that online video games offer a positive stimulating authentic environment, which plays a vital role in mastering the target language effectively.