Vocabulary Learning through Audios, Images, and Videos: Linking Technologies with Memory

Abstract

This study investigates the effectiveness of three vocabulary-teaching methods on Saudi students’ acquisition of English word meanings in their L1 using technology. Ninety-nine EFL students tried each of the three methods: (a) associating the words’ meanings with relevant audios, (b) associating the words’ meanings with relevant images, (c) associating the words’ meanings with relevant videos, without sounds inside language leaning laboratories. The study used two instruments: a lesson treatment to examine the effectiveness of the three treatments and a questionnaire to understand students’ attitudes toward the three treatments. The results of the lesson treatment showed statistically significant improvement in memorizing words’ meanings that are associated with images but not for words’ meanings that are associated with audios or videos without sounds. The questionnaire results revealed that the students perceive the image associative method as the most helpful, followed by the audio associative method and the video associative method respectively. The results of the treatment lead to the conclusion that the students remember the foreign language words’ meanings in their L1 better when the words’ meanings are associated with images. This might be because (a) strong links between the nodes that contain words’ meanings and the nodes that contain images in human memory, (b) the image associative method draws the attention of the students more strongly, (c) stronger positive attitudes of participants toward the use of image associative methods in language classrooms than video or audio associative methods.