A study of the effects of digital interactivity on L2 vocabulary acquisition

After presenting an overview of problems involved in the shifting usage of the popular term interactive, this paper reports results from an experiment designed to investigate whether or not digitizing second language vocabulary leaning exercises leads to improvements in acquisition. Specifically, the study looked at whether the type of interactivity inherent in digital exercises created with Hot Potatoes software yielded better results than similar exercises provided in print format. Results indicate that the digital exercises did not facilitate greater acquisition than their print-based counterparts. Possible implications of this finding, as well as a discussion of some of the intriguing issues that emerged from the study, are offered.