Impact of Digital Resources on ESP Academic Performance

Abstract

Technology, constantly present in current society and education, needs to make use of the most effective digital resources to optimize the teaching-learning process. Despite the growing body of literature on the pedagogical effectiveness of digital resources in a second language (L2) context, limited research has been conducted when working with English for specific purposes, especially with the tourism sector. To this end, this research aims to determine whether the implementation of digital resources with game mechanics improves students' academic performance in face-to-face university contexts. A study was conducted for 4 months with ESP Tourism students (n = 145) using a quasi-experimental design to compare the use of traditional resources and the employment of digital resources with game mechanics (Nearpod and Quizizz) and digital platforms (Prezi and Genially) on their academic performance. The results show that students obtained better results when using digital resources than with traditional resources (textbook). Furthermore, when using digital game-based resources, students performed better than when working with digital platforms. Thus, this study contributes to the scientific community by presenting a practical proposal that demonstrates the effectiveness of digital game-based resources in the ESP face-to-face university classroom.