Integrating Technology into Vocabulary Instruction: EFL Left and Right Hemispheric Dominant Learners

This article describes the effect of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) software (Super Memo UX Software) on learning vocabulary among EFL left and right hemispheric dominant learners. For this purpose, 40 pre-intermediate Iranian EFL learners who were familiar with the use of computer and internet participated in the study. A Cambridge Placement Test (CPT) was used to have almost homogenous groups. To determine students’ dominant hemisphere, the hemisphere dominance questionnaire was used. The hemisphere dominance questionnaire survey was developed by McCrone (2002) to determine left vs. right hemisphere dominant learners. In the next procedure, after administrating the CPT and the hemisphere dominance questionnaire, 40 students who were between one standard deviation above the mean and one below the mean were selected as the main participants and were randomly and equally assigned in two groups; The experimental and control groups (20 students in each group, 10 left and 10 right hemisphere dominant) were selected as the sample of this study. The experimental group treatment was computer software (Super Memo UX Software) and control group had the same materials on the printed texts. To collect the data, a vocabulary test was used as pretest and posttest to find out the effectiveness of the method. Finally, the results of t-tests supported out hypothesis that there was a significant difference between experimental and control group. The results revealed that using computer assisted language learning (CALL) software increased the EFL learners vocabulary learning and another interesting finding of this study is related to the interaction between hemispheric dominance and learning vocabulary through CALL software. The result of this study indicated that CALL software was more effective in terms of right brained learners.