Simultaneously Improving Computational Thinking and Foreign Language Learning: Interdisciplinary Media With Plugged and Unplugged Approaches

Abstract

This study proposed plugged and unplugged approaches for young students to simultaneously improve their interdisciplinary learning performance in English and Computational Thinking (CT). The plugged approach involved adopting educational robots to enhance CT and to provide English vocabulary and sentence practice via a board game. The unplugged version of the educational board game involved using a conventional board game without a computer, although it was designed for practicing CT as well as some foreign language vocabulary and conversational sentences. The results show that both approaches were helpful for simultaneously improving the students’ English proficiency of the target vocabulary and sentences, and their CT competence. The students’ foreign language learning anxiety during the English conversation in the plugged game was significantly lower than that of the students playing the unplugged game. On one hand, the cooperation tendency of the CT scale improved significantly for the students playing the unplugged game. On the other hand, the critical thinking of the CT scale improved significantly for those using the plugged approach. This research provides an innovation development and evaluation for plugged and unplugged approaches.