the effect of using digital vocabulary flashcards in a blended module on iraqi medical students’ vocabulary learning

This study was intended to investigate the effect of digital vocabulary flashcards in a blended module on iraqi medical students’ vocabulary learning in comparison with using wordlists in the self-study and conventional learning approaches. to ensure the participants’ homogeneity in terms of l2 medical vocabulary knowledge, a researcher-made vocabulary level test was generated by submitting the teaching resource to text fixer software for frequency analysis. the participants including 90 male medical students at university of thi-qar in nasiriyah, iraq took a vocabulary pre-test followed by twelve sessions of treatment under the blended, conventional and self-study learning approaches. in the non-classroom-based round of the blended learning approach, the participants were required to use anki as a free and open-source flashcard mobile application using spaced repetition for learning the vocabulary items. afterwards, they completed the post-test and delayed post-test so as to measure their possible learning gains as the results of receiving the treatment in each respective group. the participants in the blended learning approach were also asked to fill in the information and communication technology (ict) questionnaire and take part in a focus-group interview in order to triangulate the test results. the findings showed that the blended learning approach, as compared to two other approaches, contributed to learning more l2 medical vocabulary. however, no significant differences exited among the three approaches to vocabulary learning regarding the delayed post-test. the results also revealed that the participants in the blended learning approach favored the multimodal platform of vocabulary learning via digital flashcards as it provided them with more personalized and spaced learning opportunities.