Researchers in the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) have been focusing on vocabulary - alongside grammar - more than other language areas and skills [22]. Vocabulary learning has attracted instructional designers and has led to the introduction of a wide range of technologies including courseware, dictionaries, online activities, corpora and concordancing, and computer-mediated communication technologies [38]. To investigate whether the design of these digital resources was theoretically grounded, this paper presents a review of experimental studies on vocabulary CALL for second language learners. In order to inform the future e-learning design, this review aims to explore the most striking SLA cognitive theories - if any - to which designers of multimedia vocabulary CALL drew their interventions. It has been found that most of the previous studies focused on employing multimedia technology on strengthening the link between the form of a word and its meaning with no emphasis on aspects of the word knowledge beyond that. Moreover, for the informants in this review, the design of the intentional language-focused vocabulary CALL software as well as the incidental meaning-focused ones has not been found to effectively operationalise SLA cognitive theories.

multimedia, computer-assisted language learning, vocabulary acquisition, cognitive theory of learning