Many studies have stressed the importance of technical vocabulary in specialised texts [1][2][3] and the difficulty students face when learning the technical terms in order to acquire the subject knowledge [4][5][6].

Learning strategies suggested by researchers include looking up common collocations and paying attention to the use of the words whenever possible [3]. This paper presents the design and evaluation of the Wikcab system that aims to help students learn technical vocabulary productively and effectively. Wikcab takes domain specific texts, automatically identified and highlighted terms that have an article in Wikipedia so that students can see the Wikipedia definition of the terms, review related terms and expand their knowledge by reading the Wikipedia articles.

To help students build up collocation knowledge, Wikcab provides access to a massive collocation database that is also extracted from the Wikipedia.

Using the identified terms, definitions, collocations and the texts, teachers can also create a wide variety of learning activities to increase the opportunity for students to encounter and practice the domain-specific technical words.