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

The study examined the use of multimedia in teaching of vocabulary. For the past decades, the use of technology in thelanguage classrooms has been an important aspect of language instruction. Sixty participants (40 females and 20 males),studying in the United States, participated in this study. Stratified sampling using nationality as a stratification variable wasused to select participants. The first independent variable used was ‘use of pictures’, with two levels: still versus animation,and the second independent variable was ‘knowledge type’, with two levels: receptive versus productive. The dependentvariables were participants’ scores derived from vocabulary tests obtained from pre-test and post-test. The results revealedthat there was a positive correlation between the use of still and animated pictures in teaching vocabulary, while thedependent t-tests revealed that there was a significant difference between retention of still receptive knowledge and stillproductive knowledge, also between animated receptive knowledge and animated productive knowledge. Keywords: Multimedia, vocabulary, receptive, productive, still, animation.