What “seams” have been bridged in seamless vocabulary learning?- A review of the literature

ABSTRACT

Despite seamless vocabulary learning studies having been implemented for about 10 years, little is known about what seamless vocabulary learning studies are, how they were conducted, what the learning outcomes were, or the issues and trends of seamless vocabulary learning. This literature review aimed at addressing these questions. Adopting Webster and Watson’s (2002. Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: Writing a literature review. MIS Quarterly, xiii–xxiii) method of keyword searching and examination of refereed journals, 26 eligible articles were selected and analyzed under the framework of analyzing seamless vocabulary learning studies. The research findings show that the majority of reviewed studies focused more on the seamless features of “ubiquity and continuity” of artifact creation, situated and personalized learning, less on instructional designs on the features of “knowledge synthesis, activities that that apply multiple language skills in different combinations, and co-construction of linguistic knowledge” premised on vocabulary learning theories. In addition, more studies focused on vocabulary learning performance and perceptions of learners’ learning experience in a short term in primary or higher education for prescribed learning tasks. Future research is encouraged to focus on innovative seamless vocabulary instructional designs premised on sound theoretical underpinnings to improve underexplored seamless features from varied perspectives in a longitudinal study, especially at a secondary level.

KEYWORDS:

• Seamless learning
• vocabulary learning
• literature review
• mobile devices
• trends and issues

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by the Internal Research Fund (Ref. RG/2018-19R), The Education University of Hong Kong, and the General Research Fund (Ref. 18611019), Research Grants Council, University Grant Committee, Hong Kong.

Notes on contributors

Yanjie Song

Yanjie SONG is an assistant professor at the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology, The Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests focus on mobile and seamless learning, mobile-assisted vocabulary learning, and other innovative pedagogical design and practices.

Gwo-Jen Hwang

Dr. Gwo-Jen Hwang is a chair professor at the Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. His research interests include mobile learning, digital game-based learning, flipped classroom and AI in education.