Access the Understanding of Form One Students in Mozhiyani Through ‘Question and Answer’ Card Game Created Based on the ADDIE Model

Abstract

Proverbs and idioms in the Tamil language have always been a struggle for Form One students as they encounter them as a new lesson after completing primary school. Therefore, this study is conducted to determine the students’ understanding of proverbs and idioms in Tamil, known as Mozhiyani, through a card game. This study aimed to investigate the problems faced by students in learning Mozhiyani and their interest in understanding it by playing the card game. The study also investigated whether students improved in learning Mozhiyani after using the card game. To encourage students to use suitable Mozhiyani, 20 pieces of cards consisting of four types of Mozhiyani were introduced as a new method of learning. Twenty students participated in this study from a secondary school. In the pre-test, they answered a question paper about Mozhiyani. The majority of the students answered the questions incorrectly, showing that they had not learned it deeply. Then, they played four different ‘question and answer’ card games in groups. During the card game session, there was improvement in students’ understanding. They were also interested and repeatedly played it. In the post-test, most of the students’ answers were correct compared to the pre-test. This eventually helped the students use Mozhiyani correctly in both writing and speaking. It is hoped that this study will highlight the potential of the card game in promoting understanding of Mozhiyani between both target languages in an interesting and ingenious way.