Autonomous learning of vocabulary of English as a foreign language using multimedia resources

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of using multimedia resources on the English vocabulary learning as a foreign language in a sample of university students. Following a quantitative approach, a quasi-experimental, longitudinal-prospective study was conducted with 62 university students (42.6% women with mean age of 20.9 and 57.4% man with mean age of 20.6); previously divided into three different groups. For pre and post-training measurements, two instruments were used in their forms A and B, validated in previous studies. As a secondary goal, the influence of the cognates present in both tests on the score and the way of asking them was verified, in consequence an instrument of own design was applied. During the training, the use of lessons from a virtual platform made it possible to present multimedia resources and evaluate autonomous learning in formative manner. In the post-test, only one type of test was applied to each group, detecting significant improvement in three out of the four original instruments. However, the results should be treated with reservations due to the limitation represented by sample size and conduct of the study, in distance mode.

Keywords

• vocabulary learning
• english as a foreign language
• multimedia resources