Talk in EDUCON 2014. Istambul, Turkey

1. Vocabulary Notebook
w w w.vocab u lar y noteb ook.com
“A Process and a Tool to Assess
Vocabulary Learning for
Computer Science Engineers”
J o s e L u i s R o d a 1 , R o m é n R o d r í g u e z 2 , A l e j a n d r o F. L ó p e z d e Ve g a r a 1
1 U n i v e r s i t y o f L a L a g u n a , S p a i n
2 L a n g p r o v i n g , S p a i n
E D U C O N 2 0 1 4 – I s t a n b u l , T u r k e y
4 t h A p r i l , 2 0 1 4

2. WHERE DO I COME FROM

3. WHERE DO I COME FROM
Canary Islands, Spain

4. WHERE DO I COME FROM
TENERIFE, CANARY ISLANDS
Finalist Picture in NASA Tournament Earth 2014
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/TournamentEarth/

5. WHO WE ARE

6. WHO WE ARE

7. WHO WE ARE
THE TEAM
Alejandro F. López de Vegara
A. Professor: Technical English
Romén Rodríguez
CEO /Software Engineer
José Luis Roda
A. Professor: Project Management

8. THE PROJECT

9. Collaboration:
“A Process and a Tool to Assess
Vocabulary Learning for Computer
Science Engineers”
Langproving – University of La Laguna
THE PROJECT

10. INTRODUCTION

11. INTRODUCTION
THE PROBLEM
Vocabulary acquisition
A problem: either general or specific

12. CONTEXT

13. CONTEXT
Computer Science & Engineering
General & specific English vocabulary

14. MOTIVATION

15. MOTIVATION
Innovation in vocabulary acquisition
-Software / ICT Engineering is very closely related to
english (docs, programming languages, research, …)
-B1 now required to study Masters degrees at ULL
-Specialized vocabulary in the field was being taught
-Wide usage of ICT among students
-Previous collaborations among the authors and
desire to innovate

16. EFL/ESP EXPERIENCE FOR ICT
ENGINEERS.

17. EFL/ESP EXPERIENCE FOR ICT ENGINEERS
TECHNICAL ENGLISH

18. EFL/ESP EXPERIENCE FOR ICT ENGINEERS
TECHNICAL ENGLISH
…Using the old Vocabulary Notebooks

19. EFL/ESP EXPERIENCE FOR ICT ENGINEERS
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
...Now also including some agile
methodologies

20. THE TOOL:
VOCABULARY NOTEBOOK

21. Students
THE TOOL: VOCABULARY NOTEBOOK
FULL PLATFORM
Teachers

22. THE TOOL: VOCABULARY NOTEBOOK
MOBILE APPS FOR STUDENTS

23. THE TOOL: VOCABULARY NOTEBOOK
WEB APPLICATION FOR STUDENTS

24. THE TOOL: VOCABULARY NOTEBOOK
WEB APPLICATION FOR TEACHERS

25. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL

26. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
ADD VOCABULARY

27. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
FILTERING THE LIST

28. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
FILTERING THE LIST

29. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
REVIEW VOCABULARY

30. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
CATEGORIES

31. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
TESTS

32. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
TEST: DEFINITION MATCHING

33. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
TEST: MULTIPLE CHOICE

34. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
TEST: RESULT

35. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
SUGGESTIONS RECEIVED BY STUDENTS

36. MORE ABOUT THE TOOL
SUGGESTIONS

37. THE EXPERIMENT (USING THE TOOL)

38. THE EXPERIMENT
SUBJECTS
Technical English (2nd grade)
English for Special Purposes (ESP), geared
towards the use of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT)
Project Management (3rd grade)
Basics of Project Management, including the
development of a project in groups of 4
Both subjects are taught during 1 semester and
have 6 ECTS credit points (60 contact hours + 90
autonomous study hours)

39. THE EXPERIMENT (USING THE TOOL)
GENERAL
Groups
-20 students in Technical English
-89 students in IT Project Management
Sessions
-30 minutes of explanation (1st session)
-Teacher suggestions sent weekly
-2 hours in the lab weekly
-Work at home

40. THE EXPERIMENT (USING THE TOOL)
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
PM practices
-First 20 mins to add vocabulary
-Last 15 mins for self-assessment tests
-Teacher reviewed the dashboard, sent
suggestions and gave some general &
individual feedback

41. THE EXPERIMENT (USING THE TOOL)
TECHNICAL ENGLISH
TE practices
-First 20 mins to add vocabulary
-Read and discuss IT articles
-30-50 words per week
-300-500 words in total
-Switching to VN from Excel
-Teacher feedback used to adapt classes
(e.g. help with categories)

42. RESULTS

43. RESULTS
FEEDBACK ABOUT THE LEARNING PROCESS

44. RESULTS
FEEDBACK ABOUT THE LEARNING PROCESS

45. RESULTS
FEEDBACK ABOUT THE USABILITY

46. CONCLUSIONS

47. CONCLUSIONS
Several improvements in the
learning process
1. Teachers can save time in class
2. Student motivation increases
3. Boosts Autonomous learning
4. Facilitates formative assessment

48. FUTURE WORK

49. FUTURE WORK
Improvements
-Sharing words among students
-Sharing in social media
-Import / export
-New types of tests
Further studies
-Control / expermiental group
-Deeper analysis of the outcome

50. Vocabulary Notebook
w w w.vocab u lar y noteb ook.com
“A Process and a Tool to Assess
Vocabulary Learning for
Computer Science Engineers”
J o s e L u i s R o d a 1 , R o m é n R o d r í g u e z 2 , A l e j a n d r o F. L ó p e z d e Ve g a r a 1
U n i v e r s i t y o f L a L a g u n a , S p a i n
L a n g p r o v i n g , S p a i n
E D U C O N 2 0 1 4 – I s t a n b u l , T u r k e y
4 t h A p r i l , 2 0 1 4

51. Vocabulary Notebook
w w w.vocab u lar y noteb ook.com
“A Process and a Tool to Assess
Vocabulary Learning for
Computer Science Engineers”
E D U C O N 2 0 1 4 - I s t a n b u l
Romén Rodríguez
C E O @ L a n g p r o v i n g
r o m e n @ l a n g p r o v i n g . c o m
l i n k e d i n . c o m / i n / r o m e n r g
@ r o m e n r g