Abstract:

This article discusses a project to design and implement a small French vocabulary tutor for the World Wide Web. The tutor includes words, pictures, and sounds to help students learn new words and their pronunciation. The article highlights salient features and design of the tutor and then focuses on two variants of a module on technology-related vocabulary that were created using very straightforward html code and JavaScript. It also demonstrates the increased complexity and control made possible with Java applets. Finally, it explores strategies for including various features, for example, hot spots that can be used on the Web. Preliminary assessment reveals that Web-based multimedia programs have some advantages over more traditional methods of vocabulary learning.

Author: Gilles Labrie