The aim of this study was to contribute to the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) by investigating the individualization of intentional vocabulary learning. A total of 118 Japanese-speaking university students studied 20 low-frequency English words using flashcard software over two learning sessions. The participants practiced retrieval of vocabulary under different learning schedules, with short or long time intervals between encounters of the same word in each learning session: Short–Short, Short–Long, Long–Short, and Long–Long. Two individual difference measures – learning efficiency and language aptitude – were examined as predictors of long-term second language (L2) vocabulary retention. Learning efficiency was operationalized as the number of trials needed to reach a learning criterion in each session, whereas a component of aptitude (rote memory ability) was measured by a subtest of Language Aptitude Battery for the Japanese. Multiple regression and dominance analyses were conducted to evaluate the relative importance of learning efficiency and language aptitude in predicting delayed vocabulary posttest scores. The results revealed that learning efficiency in the second learning session was the strongest predictor of vocabulary retention. Language aptitude, however, did not significantly predict vocabulary retention. Moreover, the predictive power of learning efficiency increased when the data were analyzed within each learning schedule, underscoring the need to assess learners’ abilities under specific learning conditions for optimizing their computer-assisted learning performance. These findings not only inform the development of more effective, individualized CALL systems for L2 acquisition but also emphasize the importance of gauging individuals’ abilities such as learning efficiency in a more flexible, context-sensitive manner.

We investigated three aspects of paired associate learning of vocabulary in an unfamiliar language: monolingual-bilingual differences, effects of dominance and language proficiency, and the possible role of associative strategies. Spanish–English bilinguals (48 English-dominant and 48 Spanish-dominant) and English-speaking monolinguals (n = 48) learned Swahili–English and Swahili-Spanish word pairs. Learning was assessed using cued recall (Swahili cue or Swahili response) and associative recognition tests. English-dominant bilinguals did not outperform English monolinguals on any learning measure. Cued recall accuracy was higher when learning through the dominant language than through the non-dominant language, whether the Swahili words were cues or responses. Proficiency scores in the known language were positively correlated with cued recall accuracy, whether the cue or the response was in Swahili, indicating that proficiency effects occurred not in retrievability of known words but in learning of associations. Bilingual and monolingual participants did not differ in their reported use of associative strategies.

This paper aims to guide the training of all Latin instructors and learners who want to optimise the process of acquiring the language by applying the results of research carried out in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), specifically here those related to the acquisition of vocabulary. Consequently, some theoretical considerations on the psycholinguistic operations that govern vocabulary learning are first offered, in order to build a better understanding of language acquisition and to make instructors and learners more knowledgeable about the vocabulary learning process, from the noticing of an unknown word and its integration into the subject's competence to the expansion and development of knowledge about the acquired words. The theoretical aspects of vocabulary learning will be illustrated at all times with practical examples taken from methods and books for learning Latin, as well as, in the fourth section, with a wide catalogue of practical advice – must-do items for the class – that can be easily implemented by Latin instructors.

Recent studies have shown that watching videos with dual subtitles can promote vocabulary learning. This study investigated the extent to which vocabulary learning may be enhanced through repeated viewings of dual-subtitled videos. A 3x3 counterbalanced experimental design was adopted to examine English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ immediate vocabulary gains and retention under different learning conditions across three experimental sessions, including (a) immediate repeated viewing, (b) spaced repeated viewing, and (c) no repeated viewing. Participants were 60 Chinese-speaking lower-intermediate university EFL learners. They were divided into three groups and given each of the three treatments in each experimental session. ANOVA results revealed that viewing dual-subtitled videos with repetition allowed learners to achieve greater vocabulary gains than viewing with no repetition, with evidence indicating the superiority of immediate repetitions over spaced repetitions.

The study examined whether false-cognates, overlapping in form but not meaning across languages, are easier to learn due to form overlap, or more difficult to learn due to meaning competition, compared to unambiguous control and cognate words. Fifty-four native Hebrew speakers learned 14 cognates, 14 false-cognates, and 28 control Arabic words in one session. Cognates were learned better than control items. There was no overall difference in learning false-cognates relative to controls, but individuals with higher phonological short-term memory, or with lower L1 verbal fluency, did exhibit a false-cognate learning-advantage. For these individuals, form overlap was more influential than meaning competition. Lexical decisions to Hebrew words following Arabic learning were slower for false-cognates than controls, indicative of backward influences. The findings reveal the influence of prior knowledge on learning and processing, and highlight the importance of jointly considering item-based and learner-based characteristics during the initial stages of vocabulary learning.

This meta-analysis examines the effectiveness of technology-assisted second language (L2) vocabulary learning as well as identifies factors that may play a role in their effectiveness. We found 34 studies with 2,511 participants yielding 49 separate effect sizes. Following the procedure developed by Hunter and Schmidt (2004), we corrected for sample size bias and measurement error. The overall effect size for using technology to learn L2 vocabulary was d = 0.64, which is a moderate effect size. The Q statistic indicated a significant variability in effect size, so we followed up with a theory-driven moderator analysis. The results of the moderator analysis revealed that learners benefited more from technology-assisted L2 vocabulary learning with incidental instruction than with intentional instruction; types of assessment were not significant moderators of the effect on technology-assisted L2 vocabulary learning; technology-assisted L2 vocabulary learning is more effective when the target language is close to the learner’s first language; college students benefited more from technology-assisted L2 vocabulary learning than K–12 students; and, finally, mobile-assisted L2 vocabulary learning was more effective than computer-assisted L2 vocabulary learning.

This paper presents IdiomsTube (https://www.idiomstube.com), the first-ever computer-assisted language learning tool for facilitating the learning of English idiomatic expressions from YouTube videos. The web-based tool is designed to automatically (1) assess the speech rate and lexical difficulty level of any learner-chosen English-captioned YouTube video; (2) generate a range of vocabulary-building and revision tasks (e.g. fill-in-the-blanks, the classic spelling game hangman, pronunciation, flashcards); and (3) recommend YouTube videos based on learners’ individual learning progress, class teachers’ instructions, and current trends. This paper describes the app’s current features in conjunction with the challenges endemic in the development of applications that automatically generate English language learning content out of internet video content. At the time of writing, the IdiomsTube app had over 8,000 registered users worldwide.

The present study explored whether emergent bilingual children showed enhanced abilities to learn L3 vocabulary including written, spoken and conceptual forms compared to monolinguals, and the impact of L2/L3 cross-language similarities on such an effect. To this end, we contrasted the English word learning performance of French fifth-graders attending either a monolingual school program or a classroom-immersion program with German as an L2. Half of the items to be learned were German/English (L2/L3) cognate words while the other half were monolingual English (L3) words. Learning was assessed with a forced-choice recognition task, a go/no-go auditive recognition task and an orthographic judgment task. Results yielded a generalized bilingual advantage, with classroom-immersion children outperforming monolinguals on all tasks, irrespective of cognateness, except for the orthographic task. These findings advocate for a bilingual advantage in children that is globally not driven by the specific language properties of cognates, except for the written modality.

Typically concrete words are learned better than abstract words (Kaushanskaya & Rechtzigel, 2012), and nouns are learned better than verbs (Kauschke & Stenneken, 2008). However, most studies on concreteness have not manipulated grammatical class (and vice versa), leaving the relationship between the two unclear. Therefore, in two experiments we examined the effects of grammatical class and concreteness simultaneously in foreign language vocabulary learning. In Experiment 1, English speakers learned ‘foreign language’ words (English pseudowords) mapped to concrete and abstract nouns and verbs. In Experiment 2, English speakers learned German words with the same procedure. Overall, the typical advantages for concrete words and nouns were observed. Hierarchical regression analyses provided evidence that the grammatical class effect is separable from the concreteness effect. This result challenges a strict concreteness-based source of noun/verb differences. The results also suggest that the influences of concreteness and grammatical class may vary across language measures and tasks.

We examined to what extent the variation in vocabulary learning outcomes (vocabulary knowledge, learning gain, and rate of forgetting) in English as a second language (L2) in context can be predicted from semantic contextual support, word characteristics (cognate status, Levenshtein distance, word frequency, and word length), and student characteristics (prior vocabulary knowledge, reading ability, and exposure to English) in 197 Dutch adolescents. Students were taught cognates, false friends, and control words through judging sentences with varying degrees of semantic contextual support using a pretest/posttest between subjects design. Participants were presented with an English target word and its Dutch translation, followed by an English sentence. They were instructed to judge the plausibility of the sentence. Mixed-efffects models indicated that learning gains were higher for sentences with more semantic contextual support and in students with stronger reading comprehension skills. We were the first to show that Levenshtein distance is an important predictor for L2 vocabulary learning outcomes. Furthermore, more accurate as well as faster learning task performance lead to higher learning outcomes. It can thus be concluded that L2 study materials containing semantically supportive contexts and that focus on words with little L1-L2 overlap are most effective for L2 vocabulary learning.

This study investigated three look-up conditions for language learners to learn unknown target words and comprehend a reading passage when their attention is transferred away to an on-line dictionary. The research questions focused on how each look-up condition impacted the recall and recognition of word forms, word meanings, and passage comprehension. The participants were 84 first-year Japanese medical university students. The recall and recognition of word forms and word meanings, and passage comprehension data were analysed using the Rasch model. Probabilities of p<.05 were considered measurably different for the sample population used in this study, and probabilities of p<.003 were considered statistically significant and generalizable to a larger population. Overall, the results suggest three findings with regard to the on-line dictionary study. First, if only the results that were statistically significant are considered, there might be two conditions to learn words and comprehend reading passages: the spell condition seems to be best for learning the forms and meanings of words, and the control condition for promoting passage comprehension. Second, if the results that were both statistically significant and measurably different are considered, the spell, click, and control conditions might promote the learning of word forms, word meanings, and passage comprehension, respectively. Third, however, the click condition might promote both the learning of word meanings and passage comprehension because its effects were measurably higher to the spell condition on these measures. The results are consistent with the type of processing-resource allocation model for learning the forms and meanings of words and cognitive load theory for comprehending reading passages.

Receptive standardized vocabulary scores have been found to be much higher than expressive standardized vocabulary scores in children with Spanish as L1, learning L2 (English) in school (Gibson et al., 2012). Here we present evidence suggesting the receptive-expressive gap may be harder to evaluate than previously thought. We compared the performance of 116 six-year-old Spanish–English bilingual children in the US to 30 monolingual Spanish-speaking peers in Mexico across two Spanish-language standardized picture naming tests and one standardized picture pointing test. The performance of 134 monolingual English-speaking peers was compared using similar English-language tests. Results revealed the presence and magnitude of a receptive-expressive gap was largely dependent on the tests used. These discrepant results likely exist because widely-used standardized tests do not offer comparable normed scores. We review possible test norming practices that may have contributed to these results and suggest guidelines to determine a meaningful receptive-expressive gap for bilingual children.

While researchers have examined the effectiveness of various online gloss types on incidental L2 vocabulary learning, little research on online gloss languages has been conducted. Previous attempts which compared the effects of L1 and L2 glosses have reported mixed results. To fill the gaps, this study examined the effectiveness of Chinese and English e-glosses on incidental English vocabulary learning on a less-researched student group in CALL – junior high-school English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students. Seventy-eight students with Chinese as their first language read two online passages with either Chinese (L1) or English (L2) glosses. They were divided into four treatment groups: (1) high-proficiency students receiving L1 gloss before L2 gloss (n = 19), (2) high-proficiency students receiving L2 gloss before L1 gloss (n = 19), (3) low-proficiency students receiving L1 gloss before L2 gloss (n = 20), and (4) low-proficiency students receiving L2 gloss before L1 gloss (n = 20). After reading, the students were assessed with a vocabulary test which contained a definition-supply part and a cloze part serving as both post-tests and delayed post-tests. Repeated-measures analyses of variance were utilized to analyze the score data. Significant differences were found not only among the four groups but also between the two post-tests. Overall the high proficiency groups performed better in the post-tests, but the high proficiency group who received English glosses remembered more words in the delayed post-test than the high proficiency group who received Chinese glosses. The results show that as learners’ proficiency increases, they may be able to make better use of the L2 conceptual links for word retention and learning. The conclusions support the usefulness of both Chinese and English e-glosses which should be selected based on learners’ proficiency level.

Our study aims to optimize a multimedia application for vocabulary learning for English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Our study is based on the concept that difficulty in reading a text in a second language is due to the need for more working memory for word decoding skills, although the working memory must also be used for text comprehension skills. This implies that the automatization of word decoding to free the working memory is indispensable. Therefore, developing a multimedia application for vocabulary learning with a time-control function, our study hypothesizes that vocabulary learning with this function brings about the automatization of word decoding or faster recall of the meanings, and, as a result of freeing more working memory, better comprehension of text. According to our research, multimedia application users not only retained more words and recalled their meanings more quickly but also obtained higher scores on reading comprehension tests that contained the words learned through the application. From this result, we conclude that multimedia vocabulary learning with a time-control function can automatize word decoding skills and therefore free more working memory, thereby leading to better comprehension of the text.

Adults and children learning a second language show difficulty accessing expressive vocabulary that appears accessible receptively in their first language (L1). We call this discrepancy the receptive–expressive gap. Kindergarten Spanish (L1) – English (L2) sequential bilinguals were given standardized tests of receptive and expressive vocabulary in both Spanish and English. We found a small receptive–expressive gap in English but a large receptive–expressive gap in Spanish. We categorized children as having had high or low levels of English exposure based on demographic variables and found that the receptive–expressive gap persisted across both levels of English exposure. Regression analyses revealed that variables predicting both receptive and expressive vocabulary scores failed to predict the receptive–expressive gap. The results suggest that the onset of the receptive–expressive gap in L1 may have been abrupt. We discuss possible mechanisms underlying the phenomenon.

This article reviews the literature of multimedia glosses in computer assisted language learning (CALL) and their effects on L2 vocabulary acquisition during the past seventeen years. Several studies have touched on this area to examine the potential of multimedia in a CALL environment in aiding L2 vocabulary acquisition. In this review, the researchers investigate the studies that deal with different modes of multimedia annotations in a CALL environment. This article reviews the empirical studies of multimedia glosses in reading as well as in listening comprehension activities and discusses the factors under which these studies have been conducted and their impact on L2 vocabulary acquisition. The study aims to understand how multimedia glosses have been used in the past to support second language vocabulary acquisition and also to explore any evidence regarding how multimedia glosses in a CALL environment can enhance the acquisition of L2 vocabulary. Only empirical studies (18 studies published in international refereed journals and conference) have been reviewed exclusively. The article discusses the findings of the reviewed studies and recommends future research.

The spacing effect is known to be one of the most robust phenomena in experimental psychology, and many attempts have been made to realize effective spaced learning for L2 vocabulary learning. This study compares vocabulary learning with word lists, word cards, and computers in order to identify which material leads to the most superior spaced learning. In the experiment, 226 Japanese high school students studied ten English words with one of the three learning materials: lists, cards, and computers. One-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that although no significant difference existed between the Card group and the other two, the PC group significantly outperformed the List group on the delayed post-test. Item analysis using Chi-squares demonstrated that on the delayed post-test, the List group's successful recall rates for four of the ten items were significantly lower than those of the Card or PC group. Correlational analysis indicated that the time invested in learning and the subsequent post-test scores did not correlate significantly for the List and Card groups. Paradoxically, a negative correlation was observed between the PC group's study time and their post-test scores. The lack of meaningful relationships between the study time and subsequent retention may be partially due to the limited ability of certain learners to learn effectively while using certain materials. A questionnaire given to the participants found that, in general, computers were evaluated more favorably than lists or cards. At the same time, however, learners exhibited large variations in their evaluation of computers, implying the importance of considering individual differences when introducing CALL to learners. In summary, the study has demonstrated the superiority of computers over lists, the limited advantage of word cards over lists, and no statistically significant difference between computers and cards. The findings are significant because although the advantages of cards or computers have been advocated, no study has ever tested such claims empirically.