Using eye-tracking as an educational tool
This project investigated the effects of interactive eye-tracking on second language vocabulary knowledge.
The project ran from February 2023 to January 2025 and was funded by the Spencer Foundation.
Background
To date, eye-tracking methodology has predominantly been used in L2 research to capture cognitive processes. However, it is also possible to design visual displays that can react to and interact with eye movements.
This capacity opens up the possibility of using eye-tracking as an interactive technology-mediated educational tool. This tool can provide tailor-made support to learners when they experience difficulty or fail to attend to target stimuli.
In this project, we aimed to explore interactive, gaze-contingent highlighting. We examined its effects on the acquisition of second language vocabulary in the context of reading.
Methodology
The project formed a multi-site experiment (Hungary, Netherlands). It involved 180 secondary school children learning English as a foreign language.
The participating children were at CEFR A2–B1 levels. As part of the treatment, they completed two reading tasks under one of three conditions. When children viewed the words while reading, target words were:
- always highlighted
- never highlighted, or
- highlighted interactively.
The video below demonstrates how interactive eye-tracking worked in our project. The pink circles indicate participants' eye-fixations. Our target words are in red rectangles. These red rectangles were not visible to participants. The video shows how highlighting was realised when participants viewed the target words.
We measured participants’ attention to the target words through:
- eye fixation duration, and
- count measures.
We assessed children’ learning of the target vocabulary through three types of pre-tests and post-tests:
- Form recognition.
- Meaning recognition.
- Meaning recall.
Our results were contrary to our expectations. Our participants did not pay greater visual attention to novel words when these were highlighted in response to their eye-gaze.
Interestingly, however, Dutch and Hungarian students showed different patterns in their vocabulary gains. Interactive highlighting did not benefit Hungarian children. Meanwhile, Dutch learners showed greater vocabulary development when they received interactive highlighting as compared to no highlighting.
Nevertheless, in both educational contexts, children showed the greatest vocabulary development when new words were highlighted during the whole reading period, not only when they looked at them.
Team
Project leader
Team members
- Dr Matt Stainer (Griffith University)
- Dr Ana Pellicer Sánchez (IOE UCL)
- Professor Marije Michel (University of Groningen)
Research assistants
- Dr Yoojin Chung (IOE UCL)
- Marybeth Martin (IOE UCL)
- Emma Buursema (University of Groningen)
- Sanne van Eijsden (University of Groningen)
Related links
Get in touch
Please contact us if you have any questions about our research.
