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DOI 10.1007/s40299-012-0012-6
C.-H. Li (&)
National Penghu University of Science and Technology,
No.300 Liu-He Rd., Makung, Penghu 88046, Taiwan
e-mail: chenhong813@gmail.com
Introduction
As technology continues to evolve, the DVD option has
now been widely used in the L2 classrooms since numerous researchers (Cakir 2006; Feak and Salehzadeh 2001;
Ginther 2002; Sueyoshi and Hardison 2005; Wagner 2010)
have argued that multimedia technology not just offers a
more authentic input for L2 listeners, but the non-verbal
component in the video technology can also help viewers
pay full attention to the authentic language input and
comprehend the spoken text better than an audio-only
narration. DVD technology also offers multilingual
soundtracks and multilingual captions, and the value of the
reading input provided by captions has been established in
previous research (Chang et al. 2011; Hayati and Mohmedi
2011; Huang and Eskey 2000; Latifi et al. 2011; Markham
2003; Markham et al. 2001; Winke et al. 2010) to enhance
L2 learners comprehension. However, the positive value
of this pedagogical tool should be taken into consideration in light of how the human mind works because only
when multimedia messages are presented based on how
humans process information are they likely to result in
meaningful learning.
A cognitive theory of multimedia learning, proposed by
Mayer (2001) as portrayed in Fig. 1, assumes that the
human information processing system includes dual channels for visual/pictorial and auditory/verbal processing, and
that each channel has limited capacity for processing
information. When pictures and words are both presented
visually as animation and on-screen text to learners, the
visual channel can become overloaded in a way that pictures and on-screen text compete for limited cognitive
resources in the visual channel because both enter the
information processing through the eyes, and the competition reduces the amount of processing that people can
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1.
2.
3.
Method
Participants
The sophomores in a national university of education were
sampled in the current study. They were enrolled in 12
independent sections of a required English course, Practice
of English Listening and Speaking. A separate listening
comprehension section (50 questions with a score ranging
from 31 to 68) taken from the paper-based Test of English
as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is used as a placement test
by this institute. This institute is one of the few universities
in Taiwan that uses a standardized placement test to assist
in the placement process before the sophomores can formally register for the required course. The results of the
placement test are useful for research and teaching purposes since the length of English study may not correlate
with students level of proficiency. Thus, the researcher
Instruments
Advance Organizers
The basic concept underlying the development of the
advance organizers in the study was a combination of
pictorial images and verbal text so as to arrive at the dual
coding of information in the learners cognitive structure.
One of the two advance organizer conditions was a 5-min
film preview with English captions (a 2-min film presentation of the beginning part, another 2-min presentation of
the middle part, and a 1-min presentation near the end).
After the 5-min film previewing, the participants were
divided into small groups. Each group discussed what
might be included in the video through brainstorming and
reported the predictions to the class (this advance organizer
condition was referred to as previewing and brainstorming for short hereafter). The other advance organizer
condition included 10 episodic photos (printed on cards)
important to the main idea of the DVD episode and another
10 cards, each showing an English caption in the form of a
line from the film. With a set of 20 cards (10 photos and
10 captions) for each group, the students in subgroups
matched each photo with its corresponding caption and
then rearranged the 10 pairs of cards in chronological order
of the film plot based on their initial guesses or previously
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Table 1 Means and standard deviations for the written summary and
multiple-choice listening comprehension test
Advance organizer treatment
SD
42
15.07
2.08
46
17.20
1.31
Control group
48
9.71
2.53
42
7.93
1.05
46
48
8.15
5.02
1.17
1.36
Written summary
Results
Listening Comprehension Tests
A MANOVA test was used to determine the effect of advance
organizers on the two dependent listening measures at once.
Table 1 summarizes the means of the written protocol and the
multiple-choice listening comprehension test divided by the
advance organizer condition. Regarding the written summaries generated by the students, the group of matching and
rearranging (M = 17.20, SD = 1.31) scored the highest,
followed by the group of previewing and brainstorming
(M = 15.07, SD = 2.08); the control group (M = 9.71,
SD = 2.53) scored the lowest. For the multiple-choice listening comprehension test, a similar pattern was observed.
Dependent variable SS
Advance
Written summary
1400.62
organizer Multiple-choice test 285.23
Error
df
MS
2 700.31 168.14***
2 142.62 97.93***
Written summary
553.94 133
4.17
Multiple-choice test
193.70 133
1.46
*** p \ .001
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C.-H. Li
Advance organizer
condition
Multiple-choice
listening test
Written
summary
Item # of strongly
agree ratings
Agree No
Disagree Strongly
opinion
disagree
Mean
7.93a
15.07a
74
10
3.86
8.15a
17.20b
75
4.05
Control condition
5.02b
9.71c
3
4
3
4
52
64
27
13
5
6
1
1
3.58
3.73
Note. Means in the same row that do not share subscripts differ at
p \ .001 in the Tukey honestly significant difference (HSD)
comparison
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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59
21
3.56
6-1a 1
20
17
3.40
6-2b 3
28
13
3.70
Discussion
In light of the information emerging from this research, it
seems safe to confirm the advantages of using advance
organizers for improving the students DVD video comprehension. The significant results indicate that both
advance organizer treatment groups performed at a considerably higher level than the control group on the multiple listening measures. These findings show that the
introduction of a comprehension activity prior to a listening
task would help L2 listeners activate or build up their
background knowledge, and the knowledge would thus be
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Conclusion
The study concludes that students listening comprehension
of a foreign language DVD video is facilitated by the use of
effective advance organizers. With more and more multimedia-based instructional programs entering the L2 curricula and the importance of listening competence in second
language acquisition and communication, the findings will
provide insight into teaching listening to L2 learners who are
learning most of their L2 in a more reading-dependent
classroom setting and typically have better L2 literacy skills.
Acknowledgments Grants from the National Science Council
(NSC) of Taiwan under the number of NSC 100-2410-H-346-005
funded the collection of data for this research project. The author
would like to thank the editor(s) and the anonymous reviewers for
their insightful comments and suggestions that helped improve the
quality of this research paper.
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