Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners often adopt various strategies to memorize vocabulary words in the second language (L2) such as word lists or paired associates, in which new words are presented with their translations. These strategies often require learners to memorize pair associations directly. L2 vocabulary learning studies in South Korea have often focused on learning based on visual text alone in printed materials. A study was conducted at Myungin Middle School (MMS) in South Korea to explore the use of multimedia components in a Web-based self-instruction to increase the achievement of students on an English vocabulary test. The primary objective of this research was to study the effects of six methods of multimedia instruction in a Web-based self-instruction program. The six methods of Web-based self-instruction program were based on: (a) visual text, (b) visual text and adding spoken text, (c) visual text and adding graphics, (d) visual text, adding spoken text, and adding graphics, (e) reducing visual text and adding spoken text, and (f) reducing visual text, adding spoken text, and adding graphics. A total of 172 tenth-grade students in five classes participated in the study. Each group consisted of 22-43 students in non-English-teacher classes. Students were randomly assigned to one of the six study groups. Each student was required to complete several testing instruments such as a pretest, posttest, retention test, and student attitude inventory for the study. The mixed factorial design (the split-plot analysis of variance) on data obtained from the scores of students who were taught under the six methods of multimedia instruction conditions as measured by student's raw scores and Shuford Admissible Probability Scores on the posttest and the retention test showed differences between the six methods of multimedia instruction at the .05 level of significance. The results indicate that students, in general, earned a higher score when they received "visual text and adding graphics" or "visual text, adding spoken text, and adding graphics" in their multimedia instruction than did students who received other types of instructions ("visual text", "visual text and adding spoken text", "reduced text and adding spoken text", or "reduced text, adding spoken text, and adding graphics"). In other words, when visual text was presented with graphics, students may be motivated to success and achievement in L2 vocabulary learning on the current vocabulary test. In addition, the data from students' degree of certainty estimates show that students, in general, earned a higher score indicating that their degrees of belief probabilities increased when they received multimedia instruction. Results of analyses of variance (ANOVA) on data obtained from the students who were taught under the six methods of multimedia instruction conditions as measured by time required to complete instruction and the student's attitude inventory showed that there were no differences between the six methods of multimedia instruction at the .05 level of significance. Thus, this result demonstrates that there were no significant differences among the six methods of multimedia instruction with respect to time to complete instruction and attitude toward multimedia instruction.

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