Comparing Digital Flashcards and Contextual Instruction for L2 Vocabulary Retention

This quasi-experimental study compared the effects of digital flashcards and traditional contextual instruction on the retention of L2 vocabulary. The setting was a preparatory program at a Turkish university where English is taught as a foreign language. At the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic year, the students in this institution were grouped according to their proficiency levels, and two of these groups at the A2 proficiency level were assigned as the experimental and control groups for the current study (total n=30). During the eight-week intervention, the experimental group studied 110 target words using digital flashcards on Quizlet, a web-based learning platform, and the control group studied the same target words in contextual settings through reading activities. ANCOVA calculations for the posttest and delayed posttest (4 weeks later) indicated that both groups made notable progress during the intervention, and the short-term effects of digital flashcard learning and contextual instruction were similar. However, it was clear that the long-term impacts of contextual instruction on retention were significantly better. These findings suggest that learning vocabulary through digital flashcards is as effective as contextual instruction in the short term, both in basic recognition and contextual application of the target words; however, contextual instruction is significantly more effective in the long term in both aspects.