Multimedia-enhanced English learning

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The noticing hypothesis

•Richard Schmidt stated that learners cannot learn the grammatical features of a language unless they notice them.

Gloss/ annotation

•A gloss is a brief notation, especially a marginal one or an interlinear one, of the meaning of a word or wording in a text.

•It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different.

Types of annotations

1.Textual annotations

2.Pictorial annotations

3.GIF annotations

Drink [v.] to take liquid into your mouth and swallow it

4.Audio annotations

5.Video annotations

3 word-focused tasks

1.Reading comprehension

2.Reading and fill-in-blanks exercise

3.Sentence writing

Pedagogical implications

1: Appropriate pedagogies to be used with multimedia instructional materials for vocabulary acquisition

1. Textual and pictorial annotations may be more suitable for tasks that involve generative use of target words.

2. Text plus GIF or video annotations may be more suitable for reading based tasks.

2: Methods for material writers and teachers in developing multimedia annotations and integrating them into instructional materials

1. Material writers are advised to develop annotations of different types (i.e., textual annotations and annotations that involve both text and images/GIFs/videos) and provide learners with personalized learning environments where they can freely decide and select with what types of annotations they want to learn.

2. It is also suggested that material writers and teachers provide learners with diverse learning tasks so that they can select appropriate approaches to learning that best meet their needs and preferences. The effectiveness of multimedia annotations and personalized learning has been widely acknowledged in the literature (Zou, Xie, & Wang, 2018).

3. The content of the annotations and associated learning materials ought to be accurate. Textual annotations should be developed with reference to the standardized dictionaries; and images/GIFs/videos should be able to precisely depict and express the meanings of the target words. Imprecise information will lead to misunderstanding and should be avoided.

4. The annotations and associated learning materials should present the target words in context, as de-contextualization tends to lead to ineffective learning (Chen, Wang, Zou, Lin, & Xie, 2019).

5. The videos should be within several seconds. Our data indicated that learners feel long videos time-consuming and useless, and it is important to present the key messages in a precise and concise way.

3: Methods for language learners in selecting appropriate materials and activities

1. Learners are advised to select annotations that involve both text and images/GIFs/videos, if they are provided with such personalized learning opportunities, as multimedia annotations are significantly more effective than single annotations that involve only text. The literature also supports this suggestion (e.g., Chun & Plass, 1996; Boers et al., 2017; Jones & Plass, 2002; Lin & Chen, 2007; Turk & Ercetin, 2014, etc.).

2. Learners of verbal learning style tend to learn better with textual annotations, those of aural learning style tend to learn better with video annotations, those of visual learning style tend to learn better with image/GIF annotations; and it is suggested that learners select the annotations based on their learning styles if they are provided with such personalized learning opportunities.

3. Learners of lower language proficiency are likely benefit more from learning with annotations that involve dynamic animations and/or sound, as such annotations can help them better understand the meanings; while learners of higher language proficiency may not need the additional animations and can understand the meanings well without them, so they may find annotations that involve static pictures more conducive to efficiency.

4. Learners are advised to select learning activities that induce higher involvement load (i.e., writing and close exercises), rather than activities with low involvement load (i.e., reading comprehension), as they promote more effective learning. This is also supported by Laufer and Hulstijn’s involvement load hypothesis (2001).

5. Learners are advised to consider their cognitive capacities while selecting annotations and learning activities, as cognitive overload leads to ineffective learning although higher involvement load induces more effective learning. That is, it is suggested that learners select simpler annotations and learning activities with lower involvement load, if they feel that they have difficulty processing too much information (i.e., the dynamic animations, the sound, etc.). Our data generally indicated that learners with greater cognitive capacities tended to benefit more from writing exercises with GIF annotations; and reading comprehension and cloze exercises with image/text annotations are more beneficial for learners with smaller cognitive capacities.