On the Comparison of the Effects of Conventional and Agent-Based Multimedia Instruction on the Learning of English Speech Acts Among Iranian EFL Learners

Abstract

This research sought to compare the effects, if any, of a conventional method with those of agent-based multimedia instruction on the learning of English speech acts among Iranian EFL students. One hundred and twenty learners, chosen as the prospective participants of the study, were randomly assigned to two equivalent groups of experimental and control, each comprising a mix of male and female students. The two groups then received treatment on four major types of speech acts (i.e., making/responding to requests, expressing/responding to apologies, paying/responding to compliments, and issuing/responding to invitations). The experimental group received treatment through a multimedia application called Speech Act Tutorial (SAT) featuring animated pedagogical agents, and the control group received treatment through teacher fronted instruction. At the end of the experiment, the participants’ mean scores on post- intervention measures of L2 pragmatic ability were computed and subjected to a test of statistical significance. The results revealed that the mean difference was statistically significant in favor of the experimental group. Among the explanations is the idea that the presence of the persona effect and stronger modality effect in the multimedia learning environment capitalizing on the great potential of pedagogical agents had privileged the participants of the experimental group.