A Contributory Study into the (Non)Effect of Augmented Reality Game-Mediated Learning on Students’ Comprehension and Performance in English for Nursing Purposes

Simulation in the new generations of games has paved the way for employing flipped classes. Given the significance of learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP), this complementarity study with a full-factorial design using Augmented Reality- (AR)-mediated English for Nursing Purposes (ENP) classrooms was administered in the fall semester of the academic years 2019-2020. This way, 240 (from among 249) male (n=89) and female (n=151) students from Medical University of Isfahan were selected and randomly divided into Commercially-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) sets with interdisciplinary and disciplinary circles to learn ENP listening and reading comprehension in homogeneous and heterogeneous make-up. The data were collected through a questionnaire, continuous assessment, journaling, real-world assessment, and an interview. The gathered data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially through repeated measures ANOVA, which, in turn revealed that AR-mediated ENP Learning (AAEL) led into students' comprehension and outperformance in both instructional-learning and professional contexts. Along these lines, practicing ENP reading and listening via self-made AR-assisted activities in interdisciplinary circles with heterogeneous make-up facilitated students’ progress and performance. Accordingly, it can be argued that educational stakeholders have been inspired by and shaped the EdTech-assisted scenarios. The findings can be tapped into for developing new language curricula in higher education.