Research has been carried out for over the last 20 years or so into whether digital flashcards are more effective at helping students learn a foreign language as opposed to just using regular paper flashcards. Back in April 2010 Ferit Kiliçkaya & Jarolslaw Krajka wrote a research paper about a study they carried out where some students used wordchamp (online vocabulary program) to learn new vocabulary words whilst others used paper flashcards and traditional methods instead. The vocabulary activities in wordchamp helped students develop better memory connections with the vocabulary words that they learned and when tested they scored significantly better than those who had used paper flashcards. Even 5 months later when tested again they still scored better than those who had used the traditional methods & paper flashcards to learn the new vocabulary. In that same year Emrah Baki Bascoglu & Omür Akdemir carried out another study whereby 30 students used ECTACO (an online flashcard program) on their mobile phone to help them learn new vocabulary. Another 30 students just used paper flashcards and traditional methods to learn that same new vocabulary. Again when tested the students who had used the online flashcards did significantly better, as opposed to those who had just used the paper flashcards as a study aid. In 2014 Robert Stroud carried out a study entitled "Student engagement in learning vocabulary with CALL". This was a study to evaluate peoples feelings towards using Quizlet as a study aid. They were Japanese students who studied English as a second language and were of mixed gender. They all used Quizlet instead of a traditional textbook to learn new vocabulary. At the end of each class students were given 10 minutes to enter new words from the class content and then another 20 mins to play games of their choice on Quizlet. This study lasted for 14 weeks. At the end of it the students were surveyed and asked if Quizlet was more fun to use than a textbook, if it made them try harder to remember vocabulary, and they were asked what types of games they played on Quizlet. 91% said that it was more fun to use than a textbook & 87% said that it made them try harder. Overall this study showed that Quizlet motivated students to learn.
In 2015 Neil Davie and Tobias Hilber carried out another study looking at student attitudes to using smartphones to learn English vocabulary. When surveyed students said that they found the use of flashcards to be "very efficient, convenient and enjoyable learning method." However, at that time "it did not lead to an immediate improvement in exam performance." In that same year Chin-Wen- Chien carried out another study with Taiwanese college Freshman students where he evaluated the effectiveness of three online vocabulary flashcard websites. Participants were very favorable towards the use of online flashcards as opposed to traditional methods. There were no pre-test or post-test vocabulary quizzes and the students only demonstrated their knowledge via the websites. Statistically on this occasion improvement in vocabulary learning could not be shown. In 2017 Gilbert Dizon and Daniel Tang compared the efficacy of digital flashcards versus paper flashcards to improve receptive and productive L2 vocabulary. Japanese students took part in a 12 week study and they were tested before and after the study had ended to see if the students who used Quizlet got better test scores. The authors stated that while " both groups made significant improvements in receptive and productive vocabulary the difference between the gains was not significant." When surveyed the students thought the games within Quizlet made a positive impact on their learning and higher levels of students favored the use of digital flashcards. I will be studying the use of Quizlet in my classroom and from the studies I have seen it seems that there is still a lot of research to be done to see if they really do make a difference. Students seem to be very motivated to use digital flashcards as opposed to paper ones and in some studies test scores have shown to have been higher when digital flashcards have been used. In other studies when surveyed, students have said that they feel more motivated to learn when using digital flashcards but their test results have not been significantly better. I know that when I use Quizlet in the classroom my students are certainly more engaged and seem to be motivated, but it remains to be seen if it does make a difference with vocabulary retention in the end.
1 Comment
Jennifer Perkins
10/16/2018 08:09:04 pm
Hi Natasha! It was very interesting to read your research about using traditional flashcards vs. an online vocabulary program. My students study vocabulary words from their language arts program each week, and I am interested to hear your results with these programs with both academics and motivation. I am looking forward to hearing more about the use of Quizlet as well. Great post!
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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
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