Interactive Puzzles in Vocabulary Instruction: Teachers and Learners as Designers

Crosswords and other word puzzles are commonly enjoyed by a great majority of people in our daily lives, and they are also used in books and other instructional materials. in language teaching and learning, paper-based and interactive puzzles have been used to add flavour to vocabulary acquisition processes in terms of teaching spelling rules, internalising lexical meaning, recognising synonyms and word collocations and so on. the introduction of web 2.0 technologies has added further dimensions to their preparation and use, such as user-friendliness, flexibility and ability to share, making them easier to access for both instructors and teachers. however, some foreign language teachers may not be familiar with how to prepare interactive puzzles and how to utilize puzzles that are produced using web 2.0 tools in vocabulary instruction. therefore, this study aims to give an overview of interactive puzzles generated using web 2.0 tools and other software and how to utilize them in vocabulary acquisition. to this end, this paper elaborates on the use of puzzles in vocabulary acquisition within the framework of emerging web 2.0 technologies. the researchers describe simple design procedures involving web 2.0 tools and other educational software to do away with the misconception that it is the job of an expert to build up interactive puzzles. moreover, they also make some practical recommendations to materials designers, teachers and learners to help them harness the power of puzzles in vocabulary instruction.