A Study Into the Effectiveness of WordEngine: Does it Help Learners Transfer Vocabulary to Long-Term Memory?

WordEngine is a software that provides a digital, gamified version of bilingual flashcards. The developers claim that through repeated meetings with level-appropriate vocabulary items at spaced intervals through online quizzes, learners can fully acquire L2 words over the long term. This study examines the extent to which learners developed the ability to recognise and recall the target L2 words they had studied via the software and its effects on overall proficiency. The subjects were college English majors and spent between 45 to 60 minutes using the software on their smartphones per week. Test instruments were administered five and eight months after the subjects had correctly selected each word six consecutive times on WordEngine and measured active recognition and active recall (Laufer and Goldstein, 2004). Results showed high scores on the proprietary tests of active recognition, but subjects scored only around 33% on tests of active recall. After discontinuing WordEngine usage, average TOEIC and VELC scores in the same department as the test subjects were not negatively affected. These results question the efficacy of WordEngine as a vocabulary learning tool that promotes the significant long-term acquisition of both the active recognition and active recall types of vocabulary knowledge.departmental bulletin pape