CALL Replication Studies: Getting to Grips with Complexity

Calls for replication studies are becoming more frequent, and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has now reached sufficient maturity to offer numerous studies that lend themselves to replication. Realistic and successful replications rely on transparency in terms of data, results, and methodology. Two published studies in the area of vocabulary CALL will be discussed from the perspective of their suitability for replication: Franciosi, Yagi, Tomoshige, and Ye (2016) and Kim and Kim (2012). Alzahrani (2017) is a replication of Franciosi et al. (2016), confirming the findings with a markedly different learner group. The replication used the same methodology, a slightly modified list of target words, and Saudi participants. Kim and Kim (2012) compared vocabulary learning across three different screen sizes. The flashcard software is not specified any further, nor are the target words. While such an underspecified methodology is less likely to lead to a successful replication that can strengthen the validity and reliability of research results in our field, it can still provide a good training opportunity for students to learn about methodology in CALL. [For the complete volume of short papers, see ED600837.]