Effective Vocabulary Learning in Multimedia CALL Environments: Psychological Evidence

A wide range of technologies are now applied in the field of second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Nevertheless, intentional language-focused vocabulary CALL software has not been proven to effectively operationalise working memory. The research presented in this thesis contributes to the existing literature by identifying coding features from cutting-edge multimedia technologies that relate to L2 learning and memory research. The study participants were fifty undergraduate students from the University of York, UK. Their individual differences and memory abilities were assessed using the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA). Initially, the participants were exposed to L2 novel words via the Computer-Assisted Vocabulary Acquisition software (CAVA) via three interactive interfaces: a verbal-based menu driven interface (L2-L1: MDI), a visual-based graphical user interface (L2-Picture: GUI) and a visuospatial-based zoomable user interface (L2-Context: ZUI), and immediate and delayed post-tests conducted. The first study results revealed that ZUI correlated significantly with AWMA, tending to be the most effective multimedia learning method in the immediate post-test, compared with GUI and MDI. However, in the delayed post-test, ZUI’s effect experienced a dramatic decline, while GUI tended to be the most effective. In the second study, the participants were exposed to a second version of CAVA. Their accuracy and response times during the translation recognition task were measured and analysed, as were their pupillary responses. The findings revealed the participants were significantly more accurate and faster when judging the No translation pairs than the Yes ones. Of the multimedia representations, responses to MDI words were achieved significantly faster and more accurately than to GUI and ZUI words. Moreover, those participants with high verbal short-term memories were significantly faster and more accurate, experiencing a relatively reduced pupil size.