EXPLORING E-RESOURCES FOR VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

Abstract
Vocabulary is central to English language teaching because without sufficient vocabulary
students cannot understand others or express their own ideas. Wilkins (1972) wrote that . . .
while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be
conveyed (pp. 111-112). Hence, teaching vocabulary helps the students to understand and
communicate well with others in English.
In such a context, it becomes crucial for the language teachers to bring in the innovative
ways of teaching vocabulary to the English classroom so as to enrich the word power of the
students. Hence, this paper highlights the importance of web tools in learning vocabulary. It also
explores some of the important websites for vocabulary acquisition.
Key words: vocabulary,
Introduction
For a majority of learners, the ultimate goal of studying is to be able to communicate in a
target language. Learning the vocabulary of that language is the first and foremost process that
needs to be carried out as suitably highlighted by Levis (1993) as lexis is the core of the
language (p.89).
Students were habituated to learn vocabulary from the textbooks, dramas, novels, articles,
newspapers, etc. in order to enrich their lexicon, as poor lexicon base affected their overall
linguistic performance. After globalization, due to the availability of technical devices such as
computer, laptop, mobile phone, i-pod, tablet, etc, vocabulary acquisition becomes easy and
more flexible for the 21st century students. Web tools also help them in learning vocabulary at
their own speed at large.
Learning vocabulary through web tools
Two or three decades ago, vocabulary was taught in the classroom with the help of the
textbooks, workbooks, etc. where the important words will be picked and placed at the end of the
lesson as Glossary. The students can find out the meaning of the words and phonetic
transcription of the words as well. Due to the arrival of Computers in the English classroom,
vocabulary learning and teaching has become easy.
Vocabulary.com
It is one of the easiest and intelligent ways to improve word power of an individual. It
mingles an adaptive learning system with the worlds fastest dictionary so that one can more
quickly and more efficiently acquire words. It has a collection of 100,000 vocabulary questions
that are prepared to evaluate and teach new words to the learners. The words provide helpful
hints for the learners to choose from the given options. And it is challenging too. If the learner
selects the wrong meaning, it explains the correct answer. Hence it is guaranteed that the learner
will at last learn the word.

Confusing words

It is an online portal which provides a huge list of confusing words. It is followed by an

explanation of confusing words with few examples. And the assessment part of it is amazing.
The learner can learn the difference between the confusing words by working with true/false
exercises. He has another option called drag & drop. If he knows the correct answer, he can drag
and drop it in the space provided. It is followed by the results page where the correct answer list
will be displayed with the comparison bar chart of other users as well. Hence the learner can
compare his vocabulary acquisition with that of others and can rank ahead of him.

English portal
This website is at the forefront of language training due to the introduction of the
Blended Learning program. This site is designed to enable students to work any time and at their
own pace as well. It believes by this flexibility that the learners will learn more number of words
from this website.
Varieties of resources are available in this website:
My English trainer
Progress Tracker
Grammar
Business English
General English
Word power
In-Company
Each one of the above is designed as a separate learning window where one has to fill in the
required details (email id, password, etc) in order to enter into the language learning portal.
Ultimately an individual with an email id can only access these resources. It provides humpty
number of e-resources for free of cost.

Lexipedia
Lexipedia is an online visual semantic network with dictionary and thesaurus reference
functionality built on Vantage Learnings Multilingual Concept Net. It presents words with their
semantic relationships displayed in an animated visual word web. It supports English, Dutch,
French, German, Italian, Spanish languages and also contains an expanded version of the English
Wordnet. In our world of 140 characters or less, understanding the connotation of words through
Lexipedias fuzzynyms offers a way for students to discover the importance of semantics and
the power of our words to express and grasp meaning.

Just the word

It is a completely new kind of website which helps the learners with writing English and
choosing just the word. In JTW, what a learner has to do is, type a word in the box and hit return

or show combinations. It will give a detailed description of the company which that word keeps
in modern-day English. If an individual wants to modify a noun into an adjective, he can click on
the ADJ mod <word> link which can be found in the right-hand frame of the website.
It is a useful site which helps an individual to frame a combined sentence with correct
combination. If one types several words into the box and hit return or suggest alternatives option,
it will give an idea of how well the typed words go together.

Wordnik
Wordnik has become a not-for-profit corporation with the mission of collecting and
sharing data for every word in the English language. More than hundred thousand wordniks have
made Wordnik.com their choice nor just for looking up words every day, but for creating a
community for leaving helpful comments, adding useful tags, and making over 40,000
educational, entertaining, and just plain amazing word lists.
It offers definitions, synonyms, etymology, antonyms, equivalents and hypernyms for a
word and pronunciation (audio version) for the same.

Lingro
It is an online environment for the language learners. Lingro remembers all the words and
help the learners learn the vocabulary most importantly easier and faster. If an individual needs a
powerful dictionary, he can use lingros instant search dictionary which shows the results
immediately. Using lingro web viewer, he can read a webpage or document and he can translate
any word or sentences using translation tooltip.
Lingro keeps a list of the websites in visit, so one can review each word in its original
context by looking at the sentence history. Each word that one translates will be saved in the
personal word history. So he can create list of words that he would like to learn from the word
history. And he can play games with the available words to review his vocabulary power.

Vocab grabber
VocabGrabber analyses any text that are entered, generating lists of the most useful words
and showing how those words are used in context. Just copy text from a document and paste it
into the box, and then click on the Grab vocabulary! button. VocabGrabber will automatically
create a list of vocabulary from the entered text, which can then be sorted, filtered and saved as
well.
How to use vocabgrabber
- Copy text from any document
- Paste the copied text into the box
- Grab your vocabulary!
The wordlists can be saved in the collection of Visual Thesaurus Word Colletion.

Snappy words
It is an online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps to find the meanings
of words and draw connections to associated words. One can easily see the meaning of each
simply placing the mouse cursor over the word. Using this, one can get ideas to help write
content for blog, article, thesis or simply play with words. It requires an internet connection and
a browser and no software installation is needed.
One has to place the mouse cursor over a word to view its meaning. If he scrolls the
mouse wheel over words in order to zoom in or out. This helps to see more associated words and
meanings more clearly.

Graphwords
Graph words is a free English online thesaurus which helps to find the meanings of words
and show connections among associated words. Underneath Graph words lays the wordnet a
large lexical database of English. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of
cognitive synonyms, each expressing a distinct concept.
An individual has to type the word in the search box at the top of the window and press
the draw button if he wants to search for associate words. The enter key can also be pressed after
typing the word in the box. After that, the main display will populate with thesaurus. The word
that is searched for will appear in the center of the display, and will be surrounded with words
and meanings that are related to it. If he wants to save the displayed graph words, he can press
save as image button on the toolbar.

Word spy
Through word spy, one can understand the culture of the new words by examining it. It
tries to accomplish this by looking for fresh words and phrases that are not mere stunt words or
sniglets that were coined once and then never used again. Instead, Word spy features new
terms that have some traction in the language, meaning that they have appeared at least three
times in print or online, ideally in significant sources such as newspapers, magazines, and books.
It has a collection of strange words that are rarely found in the conversation of educated.

VocabGenii
VocabGenii is an interesting and easy online tool that lets an individual expand
vocabulary by playing different word games. One can choose from a multitude of game modes

and difficulty levels. Each game tests the vocabulary and teachers new words by challenging the
learner.
After the game, one can review the words that are missed and see their definitions. One
can continuously track the progress and see how many words one is getting right against how
many are being skipped. The scores of the games can be shared with friends on Facebook and
can compete with them which will make it more challenging and interesting too.

Wordthink
For more than a decade, Workthink has been delivering insightful and persuasive words
for everyday use. While there are many dictionary sites that provide a Word of the Day listing,
they often include obscure words that would never be used in a typical conversation, email, or
letter. The employees of wordthink routinely examines hundreds of daily news media stories to
find words that are compelling and persuasive in getting viewers point across without wasting
time on cryptic words that would never be spoken or sound too pretentious.
It also provides with a daily reminder to use many of the words that are already known,
and add many new words to the list of ones vocabulary can actually be used every day.

Vocabulary.co.i
It is a leading vocabulary website worldwide with the best flash online word games. The
vocabulary games include an online word search, an online crossword puzzle, and hangman
online. One can choose the vocabulary list that the online word game will use in the word game.
The vocabulary games are popular for use on smart boards for word games to build vocabulary
skills in classrooms. The fun of English vocabulary games can help both native and foreign
speakers of English build their English language vocabulary skills. There are vocabulary word
games for all levels of English.
Vocabulary.co.il is a fun educational website dedicated to helping you build reading,
phonics, or English language skills. It can be used as part of a home school curriculum, after
school enrichment or summer academic skills program. Vocabulary.co.il can also help build
vocabulary skills for other high-stakes, vocabulary-rich exams such as the GRE, the SAT, and
PSAT.

Conclusion
Thus, technology without any doubt helps the learners to empower their vocabulary and it
is providing such a place where the learners not only learn but also test their achievement as
well. Globalisation has paved the way for technological innovations to play major role in
language learning and teaching. Students who are in the age of i-pod, tablet, touch pad, etc, are
ready to make use of these web tools for vocabulary acquisition and they are provided Android
mobiles loaded with lots of applications (games, entertainment, books, vocabulary learning apps,

grammar apps, etc). Hence, the roles of teachers become much competitive and challenging in
order to face brilliant students. The teacher should be an updated and upgraded version of the
students. Otherwise, the tasks that are ahead of teachers to be completed will remain a burden.
The teacher can create a virtual classroom where the physical presence of the students is
not required at all. The student can learn at his own speed and convenience as well. Only thing
that is expected from the students is to be proficient with the computer operations and internet
usage.
References
http://graphwords.com
http://lingro.com/
http://www.confusing-words.com/
http://www.english-portal.com/
http://www.just-the-word.com/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/vocabgenii-expand-vocabulary-games/
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/
http://www.vocabulary.co.il/
https://www.wordnik.com/
Lewis, M. (1993). The Lexical approach: The state of ELT and a way forward. Hove, England:
Language Teaching Publications.
www.lexipedia.com
www.snappywords.com
www.vocabulary.com
www.wordspy.com
www.wordthink.com