Using VLE and CMC to enhance the lexical competence of pre-service English teachers in the European Higher Education Area

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental investigation with a pre-test/post-test control group design carried out in the second semester of the academic year 2006-2007 with Spanish pre-service English teachers at the University of Jaén in Spain. Its aim was to determine whether the use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) could improve the teacher trainees’ lexical competence. The investigation was motivated, on the one hand, by the extremely poor results ascertained in the vocabulary acquisition of preservice teachers at the University of Jaén in the past four academic years (cf. Pérez Cañado et al., in press) and, on the other, by the new methodological options advocated within the EHEA.