Recent studies have shown that modern technology can be used to enhance the speed at which people learn new words, as well as their ability to remember the words and use them later. The combination of captions with video, as well as the interactive nature of electronic games and texting using mobile phones, seem to engage more of a person’s interest and attention, and more areas of their brain, leading to greater comprehension and retention.

The combination of video, audio, and captioned text are proving to be of great help to people who are learning new vocabulary, because they stimulate the creation of links between the form of the word and the word’s meaning. Being able to simultaneously see the demonstration of the word’s meaning in action, while hearing the correct pronunciation of the word and seeing the word spelled out on the screen, triggers multiple learning channels at once.¹

Interestingly, there is a difference between the vocabulary improvement of those people playing a video game and those who are only observing. When tests were done on gamers vs. observers, researchers found that people who were only watching correctly identified new vocabulary 57% of the time, while players could only remember 18% of the words. Tests done later on the same groups showed a decrease in their ability to remember the target words, but non-players still had the advantage (watchers 39%, players 13%).²

By engaging people in different ways at the same time – a system that has long been known to improve learning abilities – researchers are now able to show that the new avenues provided by modern technology can provide even more ways for people to learn and study vocabulary, some of which are not possible with pencil and paper only.³

But are pencil and paper on the way to extinction? Sometimes it seems as if that’s the case. Many magazines and newspapers now either have online versions or are only published on line. Even the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, that 20-volume authority on the English language, past and present, might soon exist only in the virtual world: a recent announcement by the OED that the upcoming third edition might not be printed in paper form is still causing comment and controversy among the word-lovers of the world.

¹ Modality of input and vocabulary acquisition. Tetyana Sydorenko, Michigan State University. Language Learning & Technology, June 2010, Volume 14, Number 2

² Schmitt, N. (2010). Researching vocabulary: A vocabulary research manual. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

³ Invited Commentary: Vocabulary. Ron Martinez and Norbert Schmitt, University of Nottingham. Language Learning & Technology, June 2010, Volume 14, Number 2