My study is finally complete, which is exciting! I spent a lot of time reading over the research that is out there, which is not really significant, and trying to analyze it, but really no definite conclusions can be drawn. There have been few studies into my topic, and even less into the Quizlet app itself, although it does generally seem accepted that Quizlet is the app to use when learning new vocabulary. In my study I compared two pieces of data; a test that was taken after students had learned words using traditional teaching methods and a test that was taken once students had learned words using both the Quizlet app and traditional teaching methods. I feel as if it was just a dip in the ocean as far more studies need to be done to make this study bring more weight to the argument that Quizlet does in fact help students learn vocabulary better. What is evident though is that students really enjoy what Quizlet has to offer. They like the accessibility of online flashcards and the games that they can play on the app. This is clearly shown in other research that has been carried out, and was also apparent in the responses to the survey that I administered to my class.
When analyzing my data, it made me realize that there were more complexities to the analysis than I had thought. When students learned new vocabulary using the Quizlet app, I did not stipulate or record in any manner how much time they spent outside class reviewing using this app, so it was difficult to see if it made a difference. I know that in class we spent time playing the Quizlet game, but when we didn’t use Quizlet I spent about 5/10 mins with each pair of students before the test, quizzing them to help them prepare for the assessment, which I’m sure helped considerably. I had been absent the class before and felt that I wanted to spend a little time doing some serious review with them before the vocabulary test. Also, taking a test is neither cut or dried, there are so many variables that can affect the results besides just whether they used the Quizlet app or not. I think there are a couple of ways that this study could be extended; more test results could be obtained using the same methods as before (ie some vocabulary is taught with Quizlet and some without and the results are compared), or perhaps when students take a test they could provide information about how much they studied and what study methods they used. I could ask students to record the amount of time they spent using Quizlet as opposed to other learning strategies the day before the test and the day of the test and then use this data in a study. We could perhaps do this for tests over the course of a couple of months, to see what data we might come up with. It would be interesting to see the results.
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AuthorI am a French & Spanish teacher at Justin-Siena High School wanting to get new ideas to motivate my students. Archives
March 2019
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