Teaching Vocabulary Using Multimedia: The Case of U.S. International Students.

Abstract

The study examined the use of Multimedia in teaching of vocabulary. For the past decades, the use of technology in the language classrooms has been an important aspect of language instruction. Most research in language teaching has focused on the efficacy of teaching using computers. Sixty participants (40 females and 20 males), studying in the United States, participated in this study. Stratified sampling using nationality as a stratification variable was used to select participants. In this study, there were two independent variables, with each variable having two levels. The first independent variable was “use of pictures,†with two levels: still versus animation, and the second independent variable was “knowledge typeâ€, with two levels: receptive versus productive. The dependent variables were participants’ scores derived from vocabulary tests obtained from pre-test and post-test. Data were analyzed using dependent t–tests and Pearson r correlation efficient.  The results revealed that there was a positive correlation between the use of still and animated pictures in teaching vocabulary, while the dependent t-tests revealed that there was a significant difference between retention of still receptive knowledge and still productive knowledge, also between animated receptive knowledge and animated productive knowledge. The results have implications for teaching vocabulary using Multimedia.