Smart Whiteboards as the Teacher’s Aide: On the Comparison of the Effects of Teaching L2 Vocabulary Through the Smart Whiteboard and Human Teacher on the evelopment of English Vocabulary Among Male and Female Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

The literature lacks any study indicating the quality of learning vocabulary that takes place in EFL classrooms when Smart Whiteboards are being used. Therefore, this research aimed to fill the gap by comparing the effectiveness of vocabulary instruction through smart whiteboards and teacher fronted instruction on the development of English vocabulary among male and female Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To this end, five classes consisting of 100 EFL learners were examined in terms of their level of language proficiency and were then selected and assigned randomly into five groups, namely EX1 (Smart Whiteboard, male learners), EX2 (Smart Whiteboard, female learners), EX3 (Teacher Fronted Instruction, male learners) and EX4 (Teacher Fronted Instruction, female learners), and a group that participated in the pilot study. While EX1 and EX2 groups were trained learning L2 vocabulary with the help of the smart whiteboard, EX3 and EX4 groups received treatment on the same English words through teacher fronted instruction that did not involve the use of the smart board. The results of a two-way ANOVA revealed that EX1 and EX2 groups that had learned the L2 vocabulary items with the help of the smart whiteboard performed significantly better that those who received instruction the conventional way. In addition, it was found that instruction was more beneficial to the male learners, and that there was a significant interaction effect between the modality of instruction and the gender of the participants. Based on the results of the present study, some implications were suggested for teachers,teacher trainers, policy makers, and material developers.

Keywords:

Computer-assisted language learning , Interactive Whiteboard , Smart Whiteboard , Vocabulary knowledge , Vocabulary retention