Abstract:

Vocabulary acquisition is key to progress in foreign language learning. If this statement probably needs no further argumentation, there are multiple questions as to how vocabulary should be taught and (hence hopefully) learned, and to the extent to which the efforts teachers and learners put in vocabulary teaching, learning, practice and testing prove successful in subsequent language production by the student. The gap between learning vocabulary and using it productively is not easy to bridge and assessing vocabulary in open or semi-open student production is a daunting task.

Interest in vocabulary learning in foreign teaching is not new, and a lot of work already has been done on among others description, acquisition and pedagogy [1], assessing vocabulary [2] and maybe more recently on the mental lexicon [3], all of which, and many more, paved the way to better understanding of what vocabulary is and how it could be taught, learned and tested.

On the other hand, the development of online learning possibilities, in this case the MOODLE learning platform, offers new opportunities in exercising vocabulary, with a wide variety of question types, immediate correction, and feedback possibilities.

The aim of this paper is to report on an experiment, covering four years, with students in the last year of a bachelor in foreign trade, in which traditional in-class tests were replaced by distance online testing of vocabulary, and to measure the extent to which this change in testing method affected the use of vocabulary in students' productions, as well as the students' reactions to the change in method and the impact this new method had on their feeling of proficiency. Attention will be given to detailed analysis of the use of various types of vocabulary, lexical density in students' production, and other relevant aspects.

References:
[1] Schmitt, Mc Carthy (1997): Vocabulary. Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy. Cambridge University Press.
[2] Read (2000): Assessing Vocabulary. Cambridge University Press
[3] Aitchinson (2012): Words in the Mind. An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon. Wiley-Blackwell

Keywords:

Vocabulary, online testing, foreign language, distance learning, neurosciences in education.