Abstract
This autoethnographic study involved the author in the dual role of researcher and subject in a self-study language learning episode. The paper describes a foreign language learning experience of using a mobile phone (Apple iPhone) word card application to learn Italian vocabulary. Data from diary entries were analysed and categorised, and the findings show that learning strategies, content, motivation and interface design are prominent themes. The significance of these themes is addressed in the discussion, and suggestions for further research are made. The findings are of value in order to inform the design, development and deployment of mobile device-based vocabulary learning resources for language learners, and are therefore of interest to language educators, mobile device materials designers, developers and publishers, as well as researchers.
Highlights
There has been a resurgence, over the last two decades, in the appreciation of the centrality of vocabulary learning within any language learning scheme (Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2000; Schmitt, 2010)
There has been a concomitant level of research activity, fuelled by developments in computational linguistics (Schmitt, 2010) into how foreign language vocabulary can best be learned and what aspects of (English) vocabulary should be included in any learning scheme (Folse, 2004; Nation, 2001)
Vocabulary learning can be placed into two complementary categories: incidental and intentional (Nation, 2001)
Summary
There has been a resurgence, over the last two decades, in the appreciation of the centrality of vocabulary learning within any language learning scheme (Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2000; Schmitt, 2010). There has been a concomitant level of research activity, fuelled by developments in computational linguistics (Schmitt, 2010) into how foreign language vocabulary can best be learned and what aspects of (English) vocabulary should be included in any learning scheme (Folse, 2004; Nation, 2001). Intentional learning from word cards, using first language (L1) translations of second/additional language (L2/L3/.../Ln) target items on opposite sides of cards as prompts for recall, has been shown to result in learning that is both fast and secure (Nation, 2001; Folse, 2004)
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