Why electronic Vocabulary Trainers ?
The programs in use - a few striking points
Premises for criticising Vocabulary Trainers
Conclusion
Task involves little teacher feedback No complex student's input to analyse Multimedia applications great variation of exercises possible increased students' motivation + improved mnemotechniques weak points of CALL can to some extend be avoided and its strong aspects can be fully exploited. Vocabulary acquisitions seems therefore an ideal CALL - application. Importance of vocabulary training varies with the changing approaches to language learning.
Increase of the number of lexical items known to the learner Rehearsing already known words Teaching new lexical items Enable the language learner to use their words Teach the semantic context of words Analyse student input semantically to check word use
Provide anonymity
prevent inhibitions that might appear in presence of teacher motivate for inherently tedious work take the student's level into account give feedback on learning success
as little as possible knowledge requirements for software installation and use Technical problems should be non-apparent to the user focus on language, not the program as such or its functioning
The ideal Vocabulary Trainer should be able to teach new material as well as motivate the student to practice already acquired knowledge. It is able to analyse student input in order to be able to correct the students' mistakes by explaining the nature of their mistakes. And it should motivate the students to keep on learning.
practising and learning
vocabulary
Choice of vocabulary to practise / learn
How to practisepre-arranged semantic fields or "stratification" of different levels self-made vocabulary lists
practising = learning ?electronic card-file managers programs with varied kinds of exercises sometimes integrated into games : dictation / drag n' drop / multiple choice /pronunciation / translation
Which of the following is not
a vegetable ?
| turnip | leek | parson | swede |
swede : 1. Schwede m., Schwedin f. 2. Br. für Swedish turnip
Premises for criticising Vocabulary Trainers
Constraints on Vocabulary Trainers
How does vocabulary acquisition happen ?
McCreesh, Bernardine (1998), 'Integrating CALL into the Vocabulary Classroom', in Jager, Sake; Nerbonne, John A. & van Essen, Arthur J. (eds.), Language Teaching and Language Technology, Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger., p. 36-42.
Nesselhauf, Nadja & Tschichold,
Cornelia (2001), 'Collocations in CALL: An investigation of vocabulary-building
software for EFL', ms. University of Basel & University of Neuchâtel.