Week 10

Enhancing Vocabulary through Technology

After reading this week’s articles, Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension by Andrea I. Constantinescu, and Online English-English Learner Dictionaries Boost Word Learning by Ulugbek Nurmukhamedov, I have acquired significant knowledge about how CALL and technological resources can help second language learners to improve and expand their vocabulary.

In the first article, we can find a description about the relationship between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. Something I learned from this article is that one of the main advantages that CALL has to enhance those areas of the language is multimedia. The author states a few examples of studies that have been developed about how technological resources have been part of the process of boosting vocabulary and reading, and its results. Finally, we are presented with a variety of teaching principles proposed by the author in which the expanding of students’ vocabulary is perceived as the main way to improve their reading skill, and it is done using technology.

The second article was very helpful and interesting, thanks to it I realized that there are dictionaries that are designed specifically for learners of English. Before reading this article I was not aware of the many options that learners have to clarify doubts, besides the regular dictionaries designed for native speakers of English. The author provides specific examples of this type of dictionaries, the way we can all access to them, and the best way to use them. 

In conclusion, among many other things, this week’s articles allowed me to learn that vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension are closely related, and that CALL can help to enhance both of them. Additionally, I learned that there are technological tools that have been designed to help learners of English to improve their knowledge of the language, like online English-English learner dictionaries.