Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition and Learning Strategies in ICALL Environments

Abstract

The research described in this paper investigates the role of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) in ICALL environments. Although VLS taxonomics do exist, they have been developed for traditional classfoom-type learning, and tend to be incomplete in terms of strategies or factors arguably important for vocabulary learning. Based on existing taxonomies, a VLS taxonomy for an ICALL environment will be developed that takes these issues into account. The final taxonomy, validated by factor analysis, will also be evaluated by experienced language teachers in terms of being able to serve as a basis for providing ICALL teaching materials. The usefulness of a broad range of VLS in this learning environment will be investigated, both in terms of perceived helpfulness and assessed growth of lexical knowledge. The taxonomy building is expected to be interleaved with an evaluation of vocabulary acquisition, which also requires that the question of how to measure and assess lexical knowledge be addressed. The design of the learning environment will not be considered in this paper.