This longitudinal study examines the factors influencing L2 vocabulary achievement and proficiency, focusing on student engagement, self-efficacy, and the use of pairwork activities designed to simulate authentic crosscultural communication, such as mutual explanations or teaching of cultural aspects. Significant gains in course-specific vocabulary achievement were observed, highlighting the effectiveness of face-toface collaborative pairwork activities. While improvement in overall vocabulary proficiency was noted, it did not reach statistical significance, likely due to the short intervention period. Student engagement, assessed through data collected from the learning management system (LMS), and self-efficacy in learning and using a foreign language were both correlated with better vocabulary proficiency outcomes. Overall, these findings underscore the importance of face-to-face interactive pairwork in the classroom, complemented by self-paced learning through the LMS. This blended approach, combining face-to-face interactions with self-paced online learning, enables learners to engage deeply with course materials in class and reinforce or extend their learning online at their own pace.
Toyama et al. (Sat,) studied this question.