Abstract—Past research indicates that learners underutilize
second language vocabulary acquisition strategies. This paper
presents four different methods of learning English vocabulary
from the Academic Word List (AWL), with emphasis on
comparing the benefits of print materials versus online Moodle
materials. The participants in the project were first year
English majors at a private university in Japan. One set of
students used print materials: vocabulary cards and in class
assessment in the first semester and a vocabulary workbook for
out of class practice combined with in class assessment in the
second semester. The second set of students used Moodle
materials: out of class online Moodle activities in the first
semester and a workbook combined with out of class Moodle
assessment in the second semester. A pretest and posttest were
administered to determine how well students learned the
material. Students using the print materials slightly
outperformed students using the online materials. A survey was
given to assess student attitudes toward the different types of
materials and toward the method and style of the activities. This
paper will discuss the results of the posttests and learner
attitudes survey.
Index Terms—Vocabulary acquisition, assessment, online
materials, student attitudes.
J. Howrey is with the Nanzan English Education Center (NEEC) at
Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan (e-mail: jhowrey@nanzan-u.ac.jp).
K. Quinn is with the Center for Engineering Education at Nagoya Institute
of Technology, Nagoya, Japan (e-mail: quinn@nitech.ac.jp).
Cite: John Howrey and Kelly Quinn, "Assessing Student Attitudes to Moodle versus Print Materials for L2 Vocabulary Acquisition," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 11-16, 2016.