Analyzing the Impact of Using Multimedia Visual Aids on Iranian EFL Learners’ Oral skill
Subject Areas : Journal of Teaching English Language StudiesFatemeh Mohammadi Sadegh 1 , Mahla Rafsanjani Feizabad 2
1 - MA in TEFL, Khorasan Razavi Ministry of Education, Seventh District of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2 - MA in TEFL, Khorasan Razavi Ministry of Education, Mashhad, Iran
Keywords: Multimedia visual aids, Oral skill, EFL context,
Abstract :
Using multimedia audio-visual aids stimulates thinking and improves learning environment in a classroom and they can be a helpful tool in the language classroom (Mannan, 2005). The present study made an effort to investigate the effect of using multimedia visual aids on the learners’ oral (speaking) skill. This study is an experimental research and two groups of learners in a language institute were chosen to participate in the experiment. The participants of the study were made up of 68 advanced EFL learners in a language institute in Mashhad. To homogenize the study subjects to select an appropriate sample, a placement test was administered, and 60 students were selected. Then, they were randomly classified into two groups, i.e., control and experimental groups (30 Ss in each group). The participants of the experimental group were exposed to the multimedia visual aids in their classes, while the EFL students of the control group were instructed through the conventional teaching method and using ordinary material. The results indicated that the use of multi-media visual aids could positively impact the Iranian EFL learner's' speaking ability. Findings of this study have numerous implications for language teachers, practitioners and administrators.
Research Paper | Volume 8, Issue 3 Summer, 2023 |
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Research Article |
Analyzing the Impact of Using Multimedia Visual Aids on Iranian EFL Learners’ Oral skill
Fatemeh Mohammadi Sadegh1 (Corresponding Author) MA in TEFL, Khorasan Razavi Ministry of Education, Seventh District of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Mahla Rafsanjani Feizabad2 MA in TEFL, Khorasan Razavi Ministry of Education, Mashhad, Iran
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ABSTRACT Using multimedia audio-visual aids stimulates thinking and improves learning environment in a classroom and they can be a helpful tool in the language classroom (Mannan, 2005). The present study made an effort to investigate the effect of using multimedia visual aids on the learners’ oral (speaking) skill. This study is an experimental research and two groups of learners in a language institute were chosen to participate in the experiment. The participants of the study were made up of 68 advanced EFL learners in a language institute in Mashhad. To homogenize the study subjects to select an appropriate sample, a placement test was administered, and 60 students were selected. Then, they were randomly classified into two groups, i.e., control and experimental groups (30 Ss in each group). The participants of the experimental group were exposed to the multimedia visual aids in their classes, while the EFL students of the control group were instructed through the conventional teaching method and using ordinary material. The results indicated that the use of multi-media visual aids could positively impact the Iranian EFL learner's' speaking ability. Findings of this study have numerous implications for language teachers, practitioners and administrators.
Keywords: Multimedia Visual Aids, Oral Skill, EFL Context
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1. INTRODUCTION
Learners have certain characteristics which lead to more or less successful language learning. The characteristics may include the socio-culture specifications which have recently been considered as determining factors in interpreting the crucial role of the learner in a teaching situation (Hiep, 2007; Tudor, 2006; Jin, 2004). Believing that any learner normally and quite naturally is deeply influenced by his socio-cultural factors, we can learn how essential it is for teachers to obtain some sort of information and awareness about these essential characteristics of their learners. In other words, it can be assumed that the more successful teachers are the ones who know more about their learners in terms of their intelligence, aptitude, attitude, level of motivation, learning styles, learning preferences, etc. Knowing about the learners’ preferences may assist the teachers and other practitioners to select the best and the most useful methods, materials and teaching strategies that my suit their learners. The more they know about these specifications, the more they succeed in their job as a teacher.
English language plays a vital role in the globe as a number of English language learners are growing up. Different teaching methods have been tested to view the effectiveness of English language teaching and learning. Pun (2013) analyzed usage of technology in learning English language among teachers and learners. He emphasized that rapid development of science and technology such as multimedia which refers to computer-based interactive applications, allow people to share their ideas and information. It is a combination of text, graphics, animation, video and sound. This usage of multimedia technology has created a favorable condition in improving the Interest in English language learning. One of the major skills to be investigated in English teaching for foreign speakers is speaking skills. Studies have proven that English speaking skills are fundamental for students to be active, yet the most difficult skills to be applied in a class participation (Kavaliauskienė, 2013; Kayi, 2012; Nombre, Segura Alonso, & de Junio, 2012). Obviously, teaching method is a crucial matter for active learning. Hence, teachers need to be smart to find suitable methods that meet students’ interest. The developments in broadcast and multimedia technology especially in audio-visual such as movie clips have generated a readily available for using in second and foreign language context. (Cakir, 2006, p. 2) states that using movie in language teaching practice “makes meaning clear by illustrating relationships in a way that is not possible with words, which proves a well-known saying that a picture is worth thousand words”.
The traditional method does not allow students to participate since they are only making sentences with the vocabulary that they learn during the class, following the teacher’s instructions who only use as teaching materials: a book, a marker, the board, and sometimes a CD player with some audios of the book with the pronunciation of the sentences or vocabulary. For a language learning process, it is also necessary to use some extra materials besides the text books; this material can be created or authentic. Created material are the ones designed for the classroom and authentic material are print, video and audio materials such as magazine articles, movies and podcasts. It is important to use all kind of material, but always taking into consideration the level and age of students (Rahimpour, 2008; Tavakoli, & Foster, 2010).
Traditional teaching methods to teach English in schools are grammar-based and they focus on structure more than other skills and sub-skills; this is not enough to the learning process of English since the other two macro-skills which are listening and speaking are important as well (Rahimpour, 2008). Most of the time, when learning a language, speaking is not emphasized as it should be; for this reason, students are afraid to make mistakes in their oral presentations, or the simple fact to provide an opinion in front of the whole class, they have many difficulties when trying to speak in English. Considering the mentioned problems, the present study tried to investigate the effect of using multi-media devices such as photos, slides, and videos on the speaking of the EFL learners. in order to meet the research objectives, the following question and null hypothesis have been raised:
1. Does using multimedia visual aids have any statistically significant effect on the oral (speaking) skill of advanced EFL learners?
H01. Using multi-media visual aids has no effect on the oral (speaking) skill of the advanced EFL learners?
2. LITRATURE REVIEW
Visual aids can be a helpful tool in the language classroom as Mannan (2005) points out they help the teacher to clarify, establish, correlate and coordinate accurate concepts, interpretations and appreciations, and enable him to make learning more concrete, effective, interesting, inspirational, meaningful and vivid. Visual material or anything use to help the student see an immediate meaning in the language may benefit the student and the teacher by clarifying the message, if the visuals enhance or supplement the language point, indicates in her work. These advantages suggest that visuals can help make a task or situation more authentic (Canning-Wilson, 2006). Moreover, Carney and Levin (2007) reported that pictures improved the reading-to-learn process, but they also pointed out that these pictures must be well-selected or well-constructed ones. The beneficial effects of the visuals and the reasons why pictures facilitate comprehension and learning are explained by Levin and Mayer. According to their words pictures make the text more concentrated, compact/concise, coherent, comprehensible, correspondent and codable.
Using multimedia audio-visual aids stimulates thinking and improves learning environment in a classroom (Mathew & Alidmat, 2013). Gilakjani (2012) conducted a study to understand the impact of multimedia tools on the teaching process and expressed that it is easy for English instructors to incorporate multimedia into their teaching and there are different multimedia tools such as visual, auditory in which students take information for their better learning. All students use all senses to take needed information. Instructors and teachers should incorporate these multimedia tools in their curriculum activities so that students are able to succeed in their classes (Gilakjani, 2012). A year later, Kausar (2013) presented on importance of audio-visual aids for learning English and declared that the students are facing many problems in learning English language and feel it is difficult to learn English language without the use of any audio or visual aids. The study endorses that audio visual aids should be used in an English language classroom to facilitate maximum learning.
Daniel (2014) talked about the advantages of using audio-visual aids in teaching English among learners. It creates interest for learning in the students, it is time saving because it explains the idea easily and precisely, burden of teacher is reduced, teacher can improve his/her own English knowledge, new varieties of experience for students, it makes learning English easy, it helps in concentrating the attention of pupils in the lesson. In addition, Yunus, Salehi and John (2015) investigated about the teachers’ views on the use of visual aids as a motivational tool in enhancing students’ interest in learning English language. The study indicated that the majority of the teachers had positive views and attitudes towards the usage of audio-visual aids.
In the same vein, Anil (2016) emphasized that visual aids used to develop the thinking skills of students. Pronunciation, accent, vocabulary, reading, writing, listening and speaking skills can be taught using multimedia. Students’ creative, analytical and productive skills can be improved by showing colorful pictures, inspiring speeches by great people. These methods help students to improve their communicative skills in English language. Halwani (2017) also explored that reading and writing improved when teachers used audio-visual aids and multimedia helps the students to grip the content and become interactive in the classroom with no fear, of having trouble because of shyness.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Design
The dependent variable of the study was examining the EFL leaners’ speaking skill, and the independent variable was using multimedia visual aids. As the nature of experimental studies indicates, two groups of students, the pre and posttests as well as the treatment were the most important qualities for the present study.
3.2. Participants
The participants of the study were made up of 68 advanced EFL learners in a language institute in Mashhad. To homogenize the study subjects to select an appropriate sample, Nelson Placement Test was administered, as a result 60 students whose score fell one standard deviation above and below the mean were selected. Then, they were randomly classified into two groups, i.e., control and experimental groups (30 students in each group). The reason for selecting these learners is based on the idea that they had already received the required instruction to learn speaking as one essential and necessary skill in their language courses. Learning how to converse is an essential part of their educational need and they had to do their best to speak with others in the language class. Therefore, they were motivated enough to take part in the activities and build up the subjects of the study whose part of their needs was developing their speaking skill.
3.3. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures
To identify the initial speaking ability of the participants in the study, a pre speaking test was taken. The researchers asked the students (both groups) some questions about the two topics of their textbook (Speak out). As the subjects were answering the questions, the three examiners scored them and the total means score of the given scores by three raters build up the total mean for each student’s pretest. For the posttest, the same steps as the pretest were followed and the participants’ level was estimated as they were evaluated by the two independent scorers. The speaking post-test was done to evaluate the participants’ speaking progress and compare it with the pretest scores.
After conducting the pre-test, the treatment started and both groups received the treatment by the researchers. The treatment of both groups was done in ten sessions. In the experimental group, one of the researchers followed certain a set of procedures to undertake the research. In fact, the main activity to follow in this study was using a moderate amount of graphis devices, slides, photographs, video clips and any other visual aids that were considered to be useful for the learners. In fact, these facilities were used so as to establish a situation where the learners were encouraged to converse and exchange ideas orally. To undertake these procedures and help the learners follow these activities, the teacher followed the classroom activities as usual and at the same time asked the learners in the experimental group to use the visual materials to discuss ideas. In fact, the teacher followed three steps for any slide or video clips: pre-activity, during-activity and post-activity. In the first step, the teacher prepared the learner for the clip to watch by explaining the new words or describing the situation. In the second step, the students got ready to start the activity. They watched the clip and tried to understand what it was about. In the third step, the whole class started discussing the clip, the character and what they had watched and was interesting to them. In this step, the teacher from time to time checked the learners’ comprehension by asking them some questions. These activities were followed using any graphic devices such as photographs, pictures, and any other visual devices. The teaching hours and the instructors for both groups were same. The main difference lied in the teaching materials. The participants of the experimental group were exposed to the mentioned multimedia visual aids in their classes, while the EFL students of the control group were instructed through the conventional teaching method and using ordinary material.
The researchers asked the other raters to follow an analytic approach to score the participants tests. In this study holistic scoring procedures was recommended to be used to rate overall speaking. Although the method suffers from some pitfalls, if applied correctly and cautiously, it can prove valid and reliable indication of the scoring procedure. For analyzing data, SPSS software version 24 was used. That is to say, the researcher used two types of data: descriptive and inferential. They applied t-test as a parameter to discover any difference between the performances of the two groups from pre to posttest so as to make clear if any of the groups had outperformed the other.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Table 1 presents the basic information about the means and standard deviation of the three raters on the pretest of the control group. As it can be seen, the mean score given by the first rater is 12.54 and the mean given by the next rater to the same group is 12.38, and finally the mean given by the third rater is 12.29, and the last row shows the total mean score of the three raters which is 12.37. The total mean shows the mean of the control group on the pretest.
Table 1:
Pretest Data for the Control Group
Raters | N | Mean | Std. Deviation |
Pretest for CG: scorer 1 | 30 | 12.45 | 2.05213 |
Pretest for CG: scorer 2 | 30 | 12.38 | 2.13247 |
Pretest for CG: scorer 3 | 30 | 12.29 | 2.03985 |
Total mean | * | 12.37 | * |
Moreover, table 2 provides the statistical information about the means and standard deviation of the three raters on the pretest for the EG. As it can be seen, the mean score given by the first rater is 12.82 and the mean given by the next rater to the same group is 12.45, and finally the mean given by the third rater is 14.05. The last row shows the total mean score of the three raters which is 13.05. The total mean shows the mean of the experimental group on the pretest. The difference between the means and the raise in the mean can reveal the progress of the learners in the EG in their speaking ability. In fact, by comparing the pre and post speaking scores for the EG, it can be concluded that the use of multi-media aids had positive impact on the speaking skill of these learners.
Table 2:
Pretest Data for the Experimental Group
Raters | N | Mean | Std. Deviation |
Pretest for EG: scorer 1 | 30 | 12.82 | 1.31215 |
Pretest for EG: scorer 2 | 30 | 12.45 | 1.30472 |
Pretest for EG: scorer 3 | 30 | 13.05 | 1.32689 |
Total mean | * | 12.77 | * |
In table 3, the information about the posttest for the control group is presented. As the table reveals, the mean score given by the first scorer is 14.25 and it changes to 14.65 for the second scorer and finally it remains almost unchanged by the third scorer: 14.80. On the other hand, the total mean score for the posttest of the control group is estimated to be 14.56. The low standard deviations reveal the close homogeneity of the scorers.
Table 3:
Posttest Data for the Control Group
Raters | N | Mean | Std. Deviation |
Posttest for CG: scorer 1 | 30 | 14.25 | 1.2874 |
Posttest for CG: scorer 2 | 30 | 14.65 | 0.7542 |
Posttest for CG: scorer 3 | 30 | 14.80 | 1.02387 |
Total mean | * | 14.56 | * |
Table 4 displays the data of the posttest for experimental group. As we can see, the mean score given by the first scorer is 16.10 and it changes to 15.85 for the second scorer and finally the third scorer provides a scorer of 16.50. On the other hand, the total mean score for post EG is estimated to be 16.15. The low standard deviations reveal that the three scorers provided scores that were homogeneous.
Table 4:
Posttest Data for the Experimental Group
Raters | N | Mean | Std. Deviation |
Posttest for EG: scorer 1 | 30 | 16.10 | 1.5231 |
Posttest for EG: scorer 2 | 30 | 15.85 | 0.8952 |
Posttest for EG: scorer 3 | 30 | 16.50 | 1.2389 |
Total mean | * | 16.15 | * |
Based on the data in table 5, the t value test is -6.55. the p value was estimated to be .000<.05. It means with a hundred percent of certainty we can claim that there is meaningful relationship between the pre and posttest for the control group.
Table 5:
Paired Samples Test for pre and posttest Control Group
| Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference | t | df | Sig. (2-tailed)
|
Upper | ||||
Pair 1 Pre and Posttest CG | -1.5748 | -6.55 | 29 | .000 |
On the other hand, table 6 also offers the data of t-test for the pre and posttest of the experimental group. As it can be seen, there meaningful relationship between the two tests: sig=.000<.05. The data indicates that the use of visual devices had impact on the speaking development of the experimental group who were exposed to visual aids.
Table 6: Paired Samples Test for pre and posttest Experimental Group
| Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference | t | df | Sig. (2-tailed)
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Upper | ||||
Pair 1 Pre and Posttest EG | -1.8265 | -7.23 | 29 | .000 |
The previous part presented the data of the study based on the marks of the pre and posttests for the two control and experimental groups. The analysis of the marks revealed how the two groups of learners and the treatment affected their performance. In other words, we could understand any kind of relationship between the treatment exercised by the researchers and the achieved results. Besides, we knew how and to what extent the research hypothesis could be verified. To this purpose, a few statistical parameters were used, all of which were brought into consideration in the given tables. Analyzing and discussing the data of the study that were achieved through the pre and posttests speaking tests of the students on the use of multi-media. The achieved data were analyzed and using some statistical parameters, their scores were interpreted using t test and correlational analysis. It was finally proved that the use of multi-media visual aids could positively impact both the speaking ability. In fact, the learners who worked on their language using some devices that offered authentic language within a context that was different from their classrooms and used other sources rather than their teacher could improve more and feel more independent. In addition, more efforts were put on developing the speaking skills since they used extra and additional sources of data and information that were accessible as a result of using multi-media aids.
5. CONCLUSION
Most of the language teachers seem to agree that the use of visuals can enhance language teaching. As they help teachers to bring the real world into the classroom, they make learning more meaningful and more exciting. As Bradshaw (2010) stated, it must be taken in to account that visual literacy is the key to obtain information, construct knowledge and build successful educational outcomes. He asserts that this is due to the increase of the number of images in the world. This study also together with other studies supported the use of multi-media in the speaking class. In effect, using multimedia audio-visual aids stimulates thinking and improves learning environment in a classroom (Mathew & Alidmat, 2013). Gilakjani (2012) conducted a study to understand the impact of multimedia tools on the teaching process and expressed that it is easy for English instructors to incorporate multimedia into their teaching and there are different multimedia tools such as visual, auditory in which students take information for their better learning. Furthermore, Kausar (2013) presented on importance of audio-visual aids for learning English and declared that the students are facing many problems in learning English language and feel it is difficult to learn English language without the use of any audio or visual aids. The study endorses that audio visual aids should be used in an English language classroom to facilitate maximum learning. Besides, Anil (2016) emphasized that visual aids used to develop the thinking skills of students. Students’ creative, analytical and productive skills can be improved by showing colorful pictures, inspiring speeches by great people. These methods help students to improve their communicative skills in English language.
The study achievements can be outstanding since they will help teachers, learners, textbook designers, test makers and finally practitioners who are concerned with teaching methods. The learners will benefit from this study since it will help them to learn speaking in a practical manner using technology. The required context is provided for them to learn more naturally. The second group who will benefit from the study achievements are teachers who can become familiar with teaching methods that are up-to-date and motivating. In fact, the use of multimedia can help teachers to be establish almost real context for teaching speaking to the learners. Finally, language institutes and organizations can use the achievements to use the methods that are demanding for both teachers and learners.
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