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Research has shown that technology helps considerably in teaching vocabulary. Methods using more and more advanced technology are likely to be more effective than traditional methods of improving your vocabulary. Computer vocabulary software and resources that help you improve vocabulary online form the most advanced of technologies that can be implemented, and consequently yield the highest results among all techniques used. ‘Computer technology can be used effectively to help teach vocabulary,’ (Hiebert, E H & Kamil, M L 2005, p. 7).

One of the significant advantages online resources have over traditional methods in teaching vocabulary is the utilization of visual tools and media. These range from simple images, audio, and video, to visual games, and semantic maps. In fact, using online resources, children as young as kindergarten students, can generate and work with semantic maps and semantic webs easily. ‘Students find such programs motivating and attractive when they incorporate rich graphics and animation,’ (Cohen, V L & Cowen, J E 2008, p. 275).

Another significant advantage of using resources that build your vocabulary online is the use of the Internet, which provides access to virtually unlimited information, right at your desktop. With the Internet, you can navigate to any vocabulary site, search and find more information about any word, use any of the vast resources available for free, and any of the commercial products, if you don’t mind paying for them. Compare this to the traditional methods of vocabulary development, where you have to refer to several books to improve vocabulary, and often have to go to bookstores and libraries, time and again; and even then, your access to resources are much more limited compared to the sheer voluminous amount of resources on the Internet.

Hypertext navigation is another important advantage that comes with the use of online resources. With hypertext navigation, users can move from document to document, and resource to resource, by just clicking a link. Once again, compare this to traditional vocabulary learning methods, where users have to sift through pages and pages of a book, and often, pages and pages of several books and periodicals, just to get a little more information about a word. This kind of fast and easy access can greatly increase the speed and extent of learning.

Computer software forms the most advanced products for vocabulary instruction, as compared to traditional tools such as books, vocabulary flash cards, images, and so on. Of course, the software can incorporate any or all of these traditional methods, and a variety of other resources, such as high quality pictures, audio, and video data, and well as more visualised fun and games, more interactive exercises and tests, just to name a few. Even better, all these resources can be integrated into one single package, rather than scattered among several products as with older methods. This greatly enhances the ease and extent of instruction in vocabulary development.

REFERENCES

Cohen, V L & Cowen, J E 2008, Literacy for Children in an Information Age, Thomson Higher Education, Belmont, CA.

Hiebert, E H & Kamil, M L 2005, Teaching and Learning Vocabulary, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ.