Vocabulary Expansion Accelerator: Usage Analysis - First Year Study

This essay examines the usage of the Vocabulary Expansion Accelerator (VEA), a language learning tool, within a classroom setting, focusing on first-year students in computer science and statistics. The study investigates the impact of the VEA's Skill Builder and Language Challenge features on vocabulary improvement, aiming to determine whether these tools effectively enhance student performance in their respective subjects. The research considers vocabulary development as a crucial factor for language proficiency, particularly in academic environments. The essay highlights the VEA's design to aid students in understanding course readings and acquiring subject-specific vocabulary. The analysis references relevant research on vocabulary acquisition challenges for second language learners and the benefits of using vocabulary enhancement tools. The essay concludes that the VEA tool motivates students to engage with their learning and improves their self-assessment skills, ultimately enhancing their performance in computer science and statistics.

Running head: VOCABULARY EXPANSON ACCELERATOR: USAGE ANALYSIS
VOCABULARY EXPANSON ACCELERATOR: USAGE ANALYSIS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1VOCABULARY EXPANSON ACCELERATOR: USAGE ANALYSIS
The essay is focused towards deriving essential findings in regards to usage of the
language learning tool Vocabulary Expansion Accelerator in a classroom environment. The
essay essentially discusses the findings that have been generated through obtaining feedback and
observations of significant changes learning behaviors of first year students. The usage of the
VEA resource towards improving the performance of first year vocabulary improvers in the CS
and statistics class is examined for obtaining positive implications. The focus of the essay is on
finding if the students are able to improve their vocabulary concerning the subjects of computer
science and statistics though the usage of VEA Skill builder tool or taking part in the VEA
language challenge.
The thesis statement that the study is considering is whether or not students specifically
in first year computer science and statistics class should focus their language training based on
VEA Skill builder or VEA language challenge for improving their performance. The aim is to
find out the usefulness of Vocabulary Enhancement Accelerator concerning the first year
computer science and statistics students.
According to Roesssingh (2006) vocabulary development is the underlying factor that
helps people to develop language proficiency. The educational setting being considered for the
study is the first year Computer Science and Statistics class. The Vocabulary Enhancement
Accelerator is a specific online learning tool that is used by the university to help students
develop essential learning of the English language. Nation (2008) has opined that skilled usage
of vocabulary is useful in demonstrating the knowledge that has been gathered of a given subject.
The VEA is an online portal that is designed to help students keep up with the readings of their
courses. Through the system students can actually find the meanings of the new words that they
come across during their studies. The tool is implemented for helping students of computer

2VOCABULARY EXPANSON ACCELERATOR: USAGE ANALYSIS
science and statistics to improve their vocabulary. L2 peer review helps students to catch up
more easily with the learning that is being imparted in the classroom (Juffs & Harrington, 2011).
The classroom setup that is being considered is one in which students are learning
English to enhance their vocabulary to help in their Computer science and statistics learning.
Previously Snow and Kim (2007) had found that vocabulary acquisition for L2 students was a
significant challenge in academic environments. Students need to learn around 75000 words in
English to help them develop effective levels of language learning. The same is applicable in
case of the first year CS and stats students as also in this case vocabulary development is much
important. Various English language learning exercises that are provided through the systems
like VEA helps students to learn their areas of improvement and weaknesses. The passage that is
given to the students is usually a paragraph. Hence, students learn language over longer periods
of time which helps them to develop important self-analysis. This increases their chances for
further development. In this case the students in the stats and CS department can improve their
vocabulary in order to improve their presentation skills concerning analytics. Tools like the
VEA Skillbuilder and language challenge actually help students to engage in more effective
interactive learning sessions. Students can freely interact with the tool to find out for themselves
where they went wrong with regards to their vocabulary.
The VEA skillbuilder provides vocabulary enhancers with an important platform through
which they can self-train themselves. It is a system that helps people to learn the exact
vocabulary that is required for their respective courses. Peters & Pauwels (2015) found in their
research that the usage of vocabulary enhancement tools in formulaic sequences with regards to
the subject that students were learning actually helped them to develop better vocabulary
concerning the subject they were learning. Vocabulary improvers in the computer science and

3VOCABULARY EXPANSON ACCELERATOR: USAGE ANALYSIS
statistics classes are able to learn sequentially and effectively the specific vocabularies that are
required in their subjects. The VEA tool is effective as it actually focuses on the words that are
mostly used in the context of computer science and statistical learning. Computer science is a
subject in which students need to incorporate technical vocabulary within their learning. In
regards to statistics the same can be said as it also has many significant terms of reference that
are not used in general English. The Vocabulary enhancement accelerator is useful as it points
out the exact words that the students have to use. Students use words to write their online
exercises through the VEA tools. The tool considers all the words that are mostly used in CS and
stats learning. This is then used to point to the exact changes the student has to make Jovanović
(2016) opines that semantic web technology helps the user to drag one word over to other to
revel the relationship between the two words. In case of the CS/Stats students this is a factor that
is enhanced through the use of the VEA, which uses very much the same technology. Learning
tools that affect crucial psychological areas of learning are important to enhance the optimal
performances of the students. The students are able to interact with the tool to learn English that
are specifically aligned with their course material. The tool points out the mistakes, the
inappropriate words, the important sentence structures and the exact words that are required in
their study for computer science and statistics (Juffs & Harrington, 2011). The tool helps
improve the exact weakness areas in language development by helping the students identify their
mistakes themselves.
In conclusion, it can be said that vocabulary development oriented students are greatly
motivated by the usage of the VEA tool. The students in are able to identify more with their
learning. This causes them to assess their own growth and development concerning language
learning. It can be said that vocabulary development is an important aspects of gaining language

4VOCABULARY EXPANSON ACCELERATOR: USAGE ANALYSIS
efficiency. The Vocabulary Enhancement Accelerator combines this with the unique feature of
self-assessment. The students in the CS and stats classes are able to learn especially those words
that can help them in their CS and stats subjects. Hence, it can be said the usage of tools such as
skill builder and language challenge does help in enhancing the performances of students.

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Bibliography
Jovanović, M. (2016). Simple semantic enhancement of instructional hypertext. Computer
Applications in Engineering Education, 24(5), 799-812.
Juffs, A., & Harrington, M. (2011). Aspects of working memory in L2 learning. Language
Teaching, 44(02), 137-166. doi: 10.1017/s0261444810000509
Nation, I. S. (2008). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing. Routledge.
Peters, E., & Pauwels, P. (2015). Learning academic formulaic sequences. Journal of English for
academic purposes, 20, 28-39.
Roessingh, H. (2006). The teacher is the key: Building trust in ESL high school
programs. Canadian Modern Language Review, 62(4), 563-590.
Snow, C. E., & Kim, Y. S. (2007). Large problem spaces: The challenge of vocabulary for
English language learners.