Investigating the Effect of Using Multiple Sensory Modes of Glossing Vocabulary Items in a Reading Text with Multimedia Annotations

Abbas Ali Rezaee,Neda Sharbaf Shoar

doi:10.5539/elt.v4n2p25

Abstract

In recent years, improvements in technology have enhanced the possibilities of teaching and learning various subjects. This is specially the case in foreign language instruction. The use of technology and multimedia brings new opportunities for learning different areas of language. In this regard, the present study attempts to find out if the use of multimedia, images and movies, helps learners in learning vocabulary items included in a reading comprehension text. For this purpose, 70 students studying English at pre-intermediate level have been selected. These participants are then divided into three groups, each of which receives a different kind of instruction. The members of the first group were required to read some texts in which certain vocabulary items were included as the target of teaching. Those in the second group received the same texts with some pictures added so that the grasp of the unknown words would become facilitated. The students in the third group were exposed to the same material along with some movie strips. The strips were selected in a way to include the specific vocabulary items. The course duration was about 45 days. At the end of the course, all the students in the three aforementioned groups were sat for taking a vocabulary test. The test format was multiple-choice. The results of the ANOVA indicated that annotating reading comprehension passages with movie clips contributes to better learning and recall of vocabulary through reading texts.

Highlights

The studies on the procedures of learning indicate that information is cognitively processed through visual or verbal channels (Mayer, 1997)
The result of the study indicated that the combination of video clips with text is more effective in learning vocabulary from a reading comprehension text in comparison to the combination of picture with text
Participants who were exposed to video clips and pictures learned and recalled words better than those who were provided with only a reading comprehension text without annotation

Summary

Introduction

The studies on the procedures of learning indicate that information is cognitively processed through visual or verbal channels (Mayer, 1997). For many years researchers have been interested in investigating the effects of pictorial and verbal indicators on learning the vocabulary of a second/foreign language (L2) This has led them to the assumption that processing supportive information, e.g. pictures or annotations, can facilitate language learning. Studies of other researchers propose that foreign words associated with aural or written translations and images are learned more than those accompanied by pictures www.ccsenet.org/elt or text alone (Oxford & Crookall, 1990). They suggest that the combination of pictures and text provides the grounds for accessing more parts of the brain thereby it leads to greater depth of processing than when text is processed alone. She found out that students learned significantly more vocabulary items when they viewed the audio-visual material with both French subtitles and French audio than in the reversed format where they viewed the video with English audio and French subtitles

Methods

Results

Conclusion