Evidence for the task-induced involvement construct in incidental vocabulary acquisition through digital gaming

This article reports on an investigation of the suitability of mobile vocabulary games for inducing a state of incidental vocabulary acquisition. Draw Something, a social digital drawing game in which players draw and guess words, was selected as a focus for this investigation. Results from an exploratory factor analysis of the questionnaire data collected from 92 Taiwanese undergraduate and graduate students found three factors corresponding to the motivational and cognitive dimensions of the task-induced involvement construct: Need, Evaluation and Search. ANOVA results investigating participants' perceptions of digital game interactions found participates involved themselves in Search the most, followed by Need and finally Evaluation. Investigation results suggest that other digital games, under the right conditions, may also induce incidental vocabulary acquisition; however, it is suggested that future digital game developers increase game elements that can further induce Evaluation. This study also illustrates how exploratory factor analysis can be used to evaluate other digital games in terms of inducing involvement load to encourage incidental vocabulary acquisition, retention and resistance to decay.