The Future of Education

It can be argued that the majority of teachers and instructors are (or are at least expected) to be creative and innovative in their work on a daily basis. This is especially true for foreign language instructors as not only do they have to find ways to motivate their students, but they also have to employ a variety of different strategies and tools in order to increase their students’ learning outcome. The traditional techniques are not sufficient any more. Numerous studies report on how instructors develop innovative tools and devices or adapt already existing apps, platforms, and materials to support their students’ acquisition of the necessary productive and receptive language skills. Such use of devices and digitalized materials is referred to as technology-enhanced language teaching / learning. Nowadays, this type of instruction is especially used for teaching and learning vocabulary, the knowledge of which is one of the prerequisites for being considered fluent in any given foreign language. Therefore, the proposed paper focuses on studies that investigate foreign language vocabulary acquisition. It provides an overview of the most recent studies by analyzing research papers published throughout 2017. Content analysis is employed to reveal the most prevalent tendencies in regards to (a) target language, (b) sample, (c) students’ language proficiency, (d) type of educational institution, (e) specific tools used, (f) research methodology, (g) key findings, and (h) directions for future studies. The overview presents findings that can be useful for foreign language instructors, learners, and developers of materials for foreign language teaching / learning.

Keywords: Technology-enhanced language learning, foreign language, vocabulary acquisition, innovation in education, state-of-the-art.

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