İngilizce öğretmeni adaylarının kültürlerarası yetkinliğin geliştirilmesinde dijital kaçış odası oyunlarının etkinliğinin araştırılması: Yarı deneysel bir çalışma

The aim of this study was to reveal the effect of digital escape room games in fostering intercultural competence of pre-service EFL teachers. For that purpose, a quasi-experimental research design was adopted. The study was conducted at a state university in Türkiye, and totally 52 4th grade pre-service EFL students attended as participants. An intercultural competence scale was used to collect quantitative data. In addition, participant's views were collected through open-ended questionnaire after the treatment of the games. The analysis of the gathered data revealed that the experimental group's post-scale score was significantly higher than the score of the control group, including the sub-dimensions of the intercultural competence scale. The examination of the qualitative data enlightened that integrating digital escape room games were found to be effective in fostering intercultural competence by the participants in terms of especially learning information about cultures, recognizing other cultures, and improving communication skills. While some participants mentioned that they found these games advantageous because they were enjoyable, motivating, and provided technology integration, teamwork, and innovative learning, some of them stated the disadvantages as technology necessity and connection problems. While most of the participants noted that they were willing to use these games in their future teachings, only one of them stated her unwillingness because she found these games time-consuming. Overall, this study was designed with the overarching purpose of making a substantive contribution to the field with its findings, as well as pedagogical implications and suggestions arouse from the study.