Short movie materials based on tessellation for foreign vocabulary learning

Mobile learning is suitable for vocabulary learning in foreign language acquirement. We have verified the effectiveness of short movie materials of about 5-second movies for foreign vocabulary learning. In a preliminary experiment, we observed a problem that for the foreign words corresponding to concrete concepts, (e.g. an apple), learners were able to estimate the meanings of the words without concentrating the word spellings if the materials provides still images representing the concepts themselves (e.g. a picture of an apple). Therefore, in this study, we proposed learning materials where concrete images are transformed into mosaic patterns and displayed for the beginning of materials by using the tessellation technique. In addition, we have implemented a system, WeeChe, by which users are able to generate such learning materials easily from still images or movies. We also conducted an evaluation experiment for its usability. As a result of an evaluation experiment with some subjects, many of the subjects reported more affirmative opinions for our new learning materials based on tessellation technique than those materials based on the original still images or movies.