Learning Spanish Vocabulary Beyond Classroom through MicroLearning(Conference paper)

Abstract

Micro-Learning (ML) has been repeatedly touted as a successful learning approach in different learning phenomena. To provide more insight from the foreign language perspective, an 11-week quasi-experiment was conducted to investigate whether ML could increase Spanish vocabulary knowledge (VK) among Malaysian technical students. Students (N = 67) attending the Spanish course were divided into three groups: the experimental group received a four-week ML explicit vocabulary instruction; the comparison group received a comparable one-off online explicit vocabulary instruction, and the control group received no treatment. The target language items involved 140 Spanish words and the VK was measured using multicomponent vocabulary tests. Results indicated that ML led to significant acquisition (d = 0.95) and retention (d = 1.05) in overall VK if compared to the control group. However, no significant difference was found between the comparison and the experimental groups. This suggests that ML can be as effective as the conventional explicit instruction in facilitating multicomponent vocabulary acquisition and retention among the Malaysian learners of Spanish. Consequently, pertinent practitioners and teachers may consider the potential of ML in complementing the classroom vocabulary learning not only for Spanish but also across different languages and settings.