THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WORDS: A COMPUTER-BASED LEARNING EXPERIENCE ISABEL DE LA CRUZ CABANILLAS* CRISTINA TEJEDOR MARTÍNEZ Universidad de Alcalá ABSTRACT. This article reports on an action research project that took place as part of two regular and compulsory courses in the 3 rd year of English Studies at Alcalá University, developed in the Blackboard learning system, that is, a computer-mediated format. The steps of the project were the following: Firstly, the integration of computerized tools in the curriculum of the two university subjects. Secondly, the implementation of this learning experience was based on a corpus of selected texts which were annotated to help and guide students in their work (the World of Texts); and a database used by students to deal with lexical analysis and to record their findings and their knowledge about lexical items from the texts compiled (the Web of Words). By integrating ICT in the teaching process, we expected to foster students’ autonomy and motivation as well as to improve their lexical and semantic competence. The research results suggest that, in the first place, the computer-mediated format increased students’ motivation and encouraged autonomy in the learning process; in addition, it contributed to a better understanding of both subjects. KEY WORDS. English language, Lexicology and Semantics, blended learning, tutorials, computer-based learning, autonomous learning. RESUMEN. Este artículo da cuenta de una investigación que tuvo lugar como parte de dos asignaturas obligatorias del tercer curso de Estudios Ingleses en la Universidad de Alcalá y que se desarrolló en el sistema de aprendizaje Blackboard; es decir, un for- mato de aprendizaje a través del ordenador. Los pasos que se siguieron para el proyecto fueron los siguientes: En primer lugar, la integración de las herramientas informáticas en el currículo de dos asignaturas universitarias. A continuación, la implementación de esta experiencia de aprendizaje se basó en un corpus de textos que se compiló y anotó para ayudar y guiar al alumnado en su trabajo. El corpus se llamó the World of Texts; una base de datos que los estudiantes usaron para el análisis y almacenamiento de los hallazagos y los conocimientos sobre las unidades léxicas extraídas de los textos sele- cionados. Dicha base se denominó the Web of Words. Mediante la integración de las tec- 159 RESLA 26 (2013), 159-176