Practising Transition Signals through LINK-IT:

A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Engagement, Design Usability, and Iterative Refinement

Abstract

This mixed-methods classroom study evaluates LINK-IT, a tabletop board game for practising English transition signals, focusing on learner engagement, design usability, and refinement priorities. Forty students played the game in small groups during regular class time and subsequently completed a brief post-use questionnaire containing Likert-scale items and two open-ended prompts. Quantitative responses indicated strong motivation, enjoyment, and sustained attention during play, while perceptions of rule clarity and overall usability were positive. Qualitative or thematic analysis of students’ written comments reinforced these results, highlighting novelty, social interaction, and suspense as key drivers of engagement. Students also identified areas for enhancing learning value, including clearer onboarding, more transparent mechanics, and a more deliberate progression of challenge. The discussion integrates both data strands to propose a practical refinement plan that introduces a short demo round and quick-start card to reduce cognitive load, a staged bank of items to align difficulty with learner readiness, light decision-making elements to reward knowledge over chance, and brief “apply and justify” prompts to encourage transfer from recognition to production. Although limited to a single cohort and focused on post-use perceptions rather than performance outcomes, the findings suggest that LINK-IT provides a low-tech, high-interaction complement to writing instruction on cohesion, with clear opportunities for iterative improvement.