The effect of prior knowledge and flow on the understanding of poetry in game-based learning

Poetry is the most concise language, which is full of creativities. Reading poetry enhances imaginations. However, many teachers find it hard to teach poetry because of the lack of pedagogical role model and the difficulties of explanation. Moreover, the difficulties to interpret the meanings of poetry also decrease student's learning motivation. On the other hand, game-based learning has been widely used to promote student learning. Thus, to improve students' motivation and the level of their understandings of poetry, this study uses a game-based learning environment to guide students interpreting poetry. Previous research found that prior knowledge and flow have positive effects on student learning so this study also examines the effects of these two factors on the understandings of poetry in the game-based learning environment. The result shows that game-based learning improves students' motivation to read poetry, but the ignorance of descriptions and the difficulty of games should be concerned to improve learning effectiveness.