Effects of Multimedia Vocabulary Annotations on Vocabulary Learning and Text Comprehension in ESP Classrooms

Abstract

For the past few decades, instructional materials enriched with multimedia elements have enjoyed increasing popularity. Multimedia-based instruction incorporating stimulating visuals, authentic audios, and interactive animated graphs of different kinds all provide additional and valuable opportunities for students to learn beyond what conventional instruction relying mainly on print material can afford and achieve. Cognitive load theory, Sweller, Van Merrienboer, & Paas (1998) and Mayer's (2001) theory of multimedia learning, have suggested that replacing visual text with spoken text (i.e., modality effect) result in better learning outcomes and that less mental efforts would be required to learn the multimedia lessons. The aim of this study was to test the generalizability of the modality effect in animation-based multimedia instruction GHYHORSHGIRUOHDUQLQJ� (QJOLVKIRUVSHF