Exploring the Effect of Google Docs on Learning Specialized Vocabulary; A Case Study on Nursing Learners

Regarding the fact that most of the submitted official documents are written or translated in English, all ESP learners not only are required to learn professional knowledge but also need to know English technical vocabularies in their field of study. Therefore, expanding specialized vocabulary is one of theobjectives defined by ESP learners. In this new digital era, various techniques facilitate vocabulary learning via using ICT. Due to the modern trends of learning and the vast advance of technology, learners are provided with the opportunity of using online and mobile applications in a very wide rangeto develop their English vocabulary knowledge. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using Google Docs on the vocabulary development of ESP nursing learners. In other words, ICT was used as a means of learning ESP vocabulary. To this end, a quasi-experimental researchdesign was employed for gathering quantitative data. In this regard, ۴۰ Iranian ESP learners who were studying in the department of medicine at a university in Golestan province participated in this study. Then, they were randomly allocated as control and experimental groups each comprising of ۲۰participants. The control group participants were asked to use their personal traditional techniques for learning ESP vocabulary, while the experimental group was assigned to use Google Docs for vocabulary learning. Three data gathering instruments were utilized; first, an Oxford Placement Test(OPT) was employed for homogenizing the participants. Second, each group underwent a pretest and a posttest to assess their learning of the assigned vocabulary lessons that were extracted from their syllabus. Independent samples T-Test and content analysis were applied to analyze quantitative data.The obtained data revealed that both experimental and control groups were able to improve their vocabulary learning successfully. However, comparing two groups showed that the experimental group performed significantly better than their counterparts in the control group who used their practicaltraditional techniques for learning ESP vocabulary. From the pedagogical point of view, this study carries considerable implications for ESP learners and instructors who would like to teach or learn vocabulary effectively. However, there is a limited number of specific studies on ESP vocabularylearning via Google Docs. So, this research is an endeavor to provide insights to literature in this context.

کلیدواژه ها:

ESP ، Google Docs ، specialized vocabulary learning ، ICT.