The Effect of Multimedia Glosses on Online Computerized L2 Text Comprehension and Vocabulary Learning of Iranian EFL Learners

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of different types of multimedia glosses, namely text, picture, and text plus picture on online computerized L2 text comprehension and vocabulary learning of junior high school students. About 60 female Iranian junior high school students were selected from a population pool of 102 volunteers based on their performance on a standard English proficiency test (Nelson). Afterwards, they were randomly assigned to 4 groups of 15, three gloss groups, subsequently exposed to the research treatment and one control group. Taking advantage of the results of the pilot study, some words of the computerized written texts were glossed and hyperlinked by a computer software program. When the students clicked on hyperlinked words, a new page appeared and showed the word with a definition in English (textual gloss group), a picture (pictorial gloss group), or a combination of both definition and picture (textual plus pictorial gloss group). Participants in each experimental group read the texts under one of the three mentioned conditions. Statistical analyses of the results reveal that 1) all multimedia gloss groups comprehended computerized L2 texts significantly better than the control group, 2) A significant difference between the multimedia gloss groups and the control group in the production of the target vocabulary items was found. 3) The mix gloss group insignificantly outperformed the textual and pictorial gloss groups in computerized L2 text comprehension, and 4) regarding vocabulary learning, the mix gloss group significantly outperformed the other two gloss groups. Hence, the findings of this study indicate that utilizing computers and multimedia glosses can be influential in language teaching in general and online L2 text comprehension as well as incidental vocabulary learning in particular.