Teachers’ attitudes towards the effectiveness of teaching English via digital game-based learning in Chinese primary school

Abstract
Digitial games in language teaching are no longer for the entertainment purpose but instead considered as learning tools that can improve students’ motivation and immerse them in knowledge. This perception consequently has encouraged teachers to engage in the new learning context to explore and examine their beliefs in teaching practices. Therefore, this study investigates teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards the effectiveness of digital game-based language teaching and learning. Based on the previous research, semi-structured interviews complemented by the classroom observation were conducted in Xinghua Primary School in Harbin, China. During the research, three Year-3 English teachers participated in the interviews. Findings have revealed their relatively positive attitudes towards digital game-based learning (DGBL) in spite of several drawbacks and difficulties they have mentioned. With the integration of the complexity theory and the evaluation of DGBL effectiveness, the analysis has answered the research questions in a systematic way that the complex teachers’ belief systems have shown their relationships with internal elements as well as the external contextual factors.

Keywords: DGBL, teachers’ beliefs and attitudes, context
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