THE USE OF SUBTITLED ENGLISH MOVIES AND ITS EFFECTS ON EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVINH UNIVERSITY TRINH THI LOAN THE USE OF SUBTITLED ENGLISH MOVIES AND ITS EFFECTS ON EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY Field: Theory and Metho

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

TRINH THI LOAN

THE USE OF SUBTITLED ENGLISH MOVIES AND ITS EFFECTS ON

EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An, 2016

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

TRINH THI LOAN

THE USE OF SUBTITLED ENGLISH MOVIES AND ITS EFFECTS ON

EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ABILITY

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Dr Tran Thi Ngoc Yen

Nghệ An, 2016

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis entitled “The use of subtitled English movies and its effects

on EFL high school students’ speaking ability” is the result of my own work The

data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and havenot been submitted to any university or institution

Vinh, August 2017

Author’s signature

Trinh Thi Loan

The research findings indicated that the students’ speaking fluency andaccuracy are expectation of the course In addition, the results from the study alsorevealed the improvements of the application of English subtitled movies Fromdetailed findings, some implications for teaching speaking skill were proposed.Limitations of the study were pointed out and further research was suggested

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr Tran Thi Ngoc Yen, who directly supported and encouraged me during the preparation of this study I am truly grateful to her for her professional advice, invaluable support and guidance she offered to help me carry out the study.

I am also grateful to my colleagues and students of the two classes at Thieu Hoa high school who helped me to gather data for my study.

I would also like to thank my friends for their friendship and proofreading in the preparation of my thesis.

Last but not least, I owe special heartfelt appreciation to my family Without whose unceasing support, patience and understanding, I could not have been able

to complete my study.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT ii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale………… 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Method of the study 3

1.6 Organization of the thesis 3

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

2.1 The speaking skill 4

2.1.1 Nature of speaking 4

2.1.2 Speaking in foreign language learning 5

2.1.3 Assessing speaking ability 8

2.2.1 Indicators of speaking ability 10

2.2.2 Fluency, accuracy and complexity 11

2.2.3 Methods to assess speaking ability 13

2.3 Teaching the speaking skill 16

2.3.1 Factors affecting EFL learners’ speaking ability 16

2.3.2 Difficulties EFL learners have when learning speaking 18

2.3.3 Principles for teaching EFL speaking 19

2.3.4 Techniques for teaching EFL speaking 21

2.4 Multimedia and second language acquisition 23

2.4.1 Theories about multimedia 23

2.4.2 Influence of multimedia on second language acquisition 25

2.4.3 Krashen’s Input Hypothesis 27

2.4.4 Correlation between input and output 29

2.5 Subtitled English movies 32

2.5.1 Definition 32

2.5.3 The importance of using subtitled English movies 33

2.5.4 Principles for choosing subtitled English movies 37

2.5.5 The use of subtitled English movies in language teaching 41

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 48

3.1 Research questions 48

3.2 Participants 48

3.2.1 The Control Group 48

3.2.2 The experimental Group 49

3.3 Instruments 50

3.3.1 General English test 52

3.3.2 Pre-test and post-test 53

3.4 Procedure 53

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION……… ……….56

4.1 Results from the experiment 56

4.1.1 General English test 56

4.1.2 Pre-test results 59

4.1.3 Post-test results 62

4.1.4 The improvement that the two groups made 64

4.1.4.1 The improvement of fluency that the two groups made 64

4.1.4.2 The improvement of accuracy that the two groups made 64

4.2 Discussion of the main findings 73

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 78

5.1 Conclusion 78

5.2 Implications of the Study 79

5.3 Limitations 80

5.4 Suggestions for further research 80

REFERENCES 82

APPENDIX A 83

APPENDIX B 87

APPENDIX C 88

APPENDIX D 89

APPENDIX E 90

LISTS OF TABLES

Table 3.1: The control group’s background information 49

Table 3.2: The experimental group’s background information 49

Table 3.3: Topics of speaking in English 12 50

Table 4.1 The experimental and control group’s score in general English test 56

Table 4.2 The average total scores and standard deviations of general English test in the experimental group and the control group 59

Table 4.3 The experimental and control group’s score in pre- test 59

Table 4.4 The average total scores and standard deviations of pre- test in the experimental group and the control group 60

Table 4.5 The experimental and control group’s score in post- test 62

Table 4.6 The average total scores and standard deviations of post- test in the experimental group and the control group 63

Table 4.7The increase difference of fluency between the pre-test scores and the post test scores by all participants (p) in both groups 67

Table 4.8 Summary of the increase levels of all participants for both groups 68

Table 4.9 Means and standard deviations of speaking accuracy of the pre-test and the post-test of both groups 69

LISTS OF FIGURES

Figure1 Simplified version of Grass’s model of IIO, applied to multimedia Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 4.1a: The general test scores of the control group 57

Figure 4.1b: The general test scores of the experimental group 58

Figure 4.2a: The pre- test scores of the control group 60

Figure 4.2b: The pre- test scores of the experimental group 61

Figure 4.3a: The post test scores of the control group 64

Figure 4.3b: The post test scores of the experimental group 65

Figure 4.4 The pre-test and the post test mean's score of fluency for both groups.66 Figure 4.5 The pre-test and post-test mean’s score of accuracy for both groups 70

Figure 4 6: Control group’s score type distribution 71

Figure 4.7: Experimental group’s score type distribution 72

Regarding some factors that really influence the quality of the speakingskill, Shumin (2002:204) emphasizes that when people learn to speak a foreignlanguage, they require more than knowing its grammatical and semantic rules,and learners need to acquire the knowledge of how native speakers use thelanguage in context In short, understanding those factors really facilitate EFLlearners’ awareness of the speaking skill and improve its quality.

As a common problem was occurred in a speaking class is that teachersfrequently feel it difficult to involve students in the speaking activities In fact,English teachers should work hard to attract the students to speak a lot in theclass It occurs because many EFL learners face some problems in learningspeaking; many English learners are reluctant and unmotivated (Nunan, 1999),the students are reluctant, fearful of making mistakes, or lack of adequatevocabulary (Fauzan, 2014).These problems are still frequently experienced byteachers and become a challenge for them in teaching speaking in the class

In the practices of the teaching of EFL speaking in Vietnam, both English

teachers and students still have been encountering many problems Based onsome research, there have been at least four main issues that some researchersand teachers often investigate Widiati and Cahyono (2006:277) report that theteaching of EFL speaking for secondary- level students deal with teachingproblems, classroom activities, teaching materials, and assessment These thingsare related to the improvement of the teaching quality of EFL speaking thatwould point out obvious picture of the teachers’ position and what they arenecessary to do.

As stated above the importance, the factors, and the problems of thespeaking skill discussed above, subtitled English movies play good impact ondeveloping speaking ability as Kelly’s (1985) idea that the subtitled Englishmovies have obviously given the contribution to language learning in many ways

In other words, the movie is potentially fruitful to provide fun and interestinglearning experience to encourage the student s’ motivation, self confidence, and

of course improve their speaking skill, in terms of their grammar, vocabulary,fluency and pronunciation Moreover, it also would offer the students acomprehensible input of English that helped them to recognize how the targetlanguage is used, and uttered in the real context

For the above-mentioned reasons the researcher has decided to conduct the

study entitled “The use of subtitled English movies and its effects on EFL high school students’ speaking ability” at her work place- Thieu Hoa high school There

are two benefits expected from this study Theoretically, it gives out usefulreferences for further research on using subtitled English movies to develop highschool students’ speaking skills Practically, the result of this research will suggestnew directions for exploiting the effects of subtitled English movies to improve thequality of teaching English, especially the quality of teaching speaking skill

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aimed to examine the effect of subtitled English movies on EFLhigh school student’s speaking competence The writer mainly assess two aspects ofspeaking, they are speaking fluency and speaking accuracy

1.3 Research questions

The study was set to answer the following research questions:

- How do subtitled English movies affect EFL learners’ speaking accuracy?

- How do subtitled English movies affect EFL learners’ speaking fluency?

1.4 Scope of the study

There are many strategies to improve speaking skill for EFL learners, andusing subtitled English movies is one of the most effective strategies This studywas set to investigate the effects of subtitled English movies on helping students todeveloping their speaking skill Only two aspects were examined: accuracy andfluency

1.5 Method of the study

The method employed in this study is experimental All comments, remarks,recommendations and conclusion were based on the data analysis The combination

of different instruments used in this research helped to gain reliable data, thus theresearcher had a close investigation into how subtitled English movies affect onstudents’ speaking competence

1.6 Organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters Chapter I, The Introduction, includesrationale for the study, the aims, methods, scope, and design of the study Chapter IIcomes the second, in which a theoretical background was presented Chapter IIIpresents the methodology of the study Chapter IV also consists of findings anddiscussion, in which the data is described and discussed Chapter V comes last Aconclusion of the study, the limitations of the study, and suggestion for furtherresearch are also mentioned in the last chapter

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter focuses on the literature review and theoretical background ofthe study It presents a brief review of the literature on the topics that are generallyrelated to the research in this thesis Previous studies on the speaking skill, theteaching speaking skill, the principles of using subtitled English movies in EFLspeaking instruction will be mentioned

2.1 The speaking skill

Speaking skills is the ability to communicate in a new language - targetlanguage - based on its grammatical, contextual, social, and cultural rules There aremany factors affecting the students’ learning speaking We can name some of majorfactors: voice, accent, intonation, stress, pronunciation, speed, etc The studentsoften feel difficult to have the correct stress and intonation as the native speakers.They also feel it not easy to keep up with the speed of speech by native speakers.The teacher at class can partly help the students solve these problems However, infact, many teachers also face the same difficulties Each language has its ownphonetic characteristics, which not many language learners can imitate In this case,sound and image from audio-visual materials can help much when the studentscan hear the direct pronunciation and see the operation of articulator organs.The students’ leaning speaking can be fostered by the effective sound and imagefrom audio-visual materials

2.1.1 Nature of speaking

There are many definitions of speaking that have been proposed by someexperts in language learning Speaking is one of the four language skills taught inthe teaching of English People speak in order to express their idea, their feeling orrespond to the other’s talk When the others can understand what has been talked,

it means that the speaker gets the meaning across Thornbury (2005: 20) mentionsthat speaking is an interactive real time activity to express meaning to interact withothers that unplanned and just continues based on situations However, the teachermust notice that in EFL context the students seldom try to produce their foreignlanguage because they aware about the gaps in their knowledge A speakerrequires attention to precise details of the language She/he needs to find the mostappropriate words and the correct grammar to convey meaning accurately andprecisely and also need to organize the discourse, so that a listener will understand.

In addition, Brown (2001) writes that when someone can speak a language itmeans that he/she can carry on a conversation reasonably competently According

to Thornbury (2005), speaking is an interactive skill that requires the ability tohave cooperation with the other aspects of language Speaking skill needs to bedeveloped and practiced independently from the other aspects of language, such asgrammar and listening In that case, the teaching and learning process will be asinteresting as possible to be conducted in each classroom in order to make thestudents become more interested in learning the other aspects of language

2.1.2 Speaking in foreign language learning

Learning and Teaching English as a foreign language requires learner‘sinteraction, production and communication to what is called the speaking skill.The aim of producing this skill is to achieve a higher development of abilities ofreceiving and producing the second language either in oral form Speaking isregarded as the main skill to be developed because it is necessary for displayingthe language proficiency, the importance is mainly on speaking because learnersare going to be put in situations where communication in English is needed

2.1.2.1 Definition

There is no much difference between speaking in the first language andspeaking in the second language Second language speakers also produce speechthrough a process of conceptualizing, formulating, and then articulating, duringwhich there is a process of self-monitoring (Thornburry, 2005: 28)

Thornburry (2005) states that the difference is on the language itself Theknowledge of second language speakers is not as extensive and as established astheir knowledge of the first language Second language speakers tend to formulateutterances in the first language and, then, translate it into the second language.

He also states that the pressure to be accurate – to avoid making humiliatingerrors may mean that the self monitoring process is overused and over-prolonged,again with a negative effect in terms of fluency In order to be understood, secondlanguage speakers apply, at least, two strategies in speaking, namely communicativestrategy and discourse strategy

Thornburry (2005: 40) proposes the terms of the basic knowledge that enablespeech in a second language, as follows:

- A core grammar

- A core vocabulary of at least 1000 high-frequency items

- Some common discourse markers

- A core -phrase book of multi-word units (chunks)

- Formulaic ways of performing common speech acts, such as requesting orinviting

- Mastery of those features of pronunciation that inhibit intelligibility

2.1.2.2 Speaking competence

Speaking competences consist of four elements They are grammaticalcompetence (linguistic competence), sociolinguistic competence (pragmaticcompetence), discourse competence, and strategies competence (Scarcely &Rebecca, 1992)

Grammatical or linguistic competence enables speakers to use andunderstand grammatical structures, sentence structures accurately and

unhesitatingly, and thus, it contributes to the speaker’s fluency (Scarcella &

Rebecca, 1992) Grammatical competence is concerned with mastery of thelinguistic code (verbal or non-verbal) which includes vocabulary knowledge aswell as knowledge of morphological, syntactic, semantic, phonetic and orthographic

rules This competence allows the speaker to use data and abilities required forcomprehending and expressing the factual meaning of utterances (Canale & Swain,

1980, cited in Bagarić & Djigunović, 2007)

Sociolinguistic or pragmatic competence is generally considered to involvetwo kinds of ability First, it is the ability of knowing how to use language in order

to achieve certain communicative goals or intentions (Hedge, 2000) Second, theability to use language appropriate in social context Thus, learners need to knowthe appropriate social conventions It can be seen, then, that social knowledge isnecessary to select the language forms to use in different settings, and with people

in different roles and with different status In other words, as Hymes (1972)explained speakers should know “when to speak, when not, what to talk about withwhom, when, where and in what manner”

Discourse competence is the knowledge of discourse rules such as cohesiveand coherence to present then produce unified written or spoken language Asdescribed by Celce-Murcia (2007) that discourse competence refers to the selection,sequencing, and arrangement of words, structures, and utterances to achieve aunified spoken message This is where the top-down communicative intent andsocio cultural knowledge intersect with the lexical and grammatical resources toexpress messages and attitudes and to create coherent texts

Strategic competence is collected of facts of verbal and non-verbalcommunication strategies that are reminded to compensate for crashes incommunication due to deficient competence in one or more components ofcommunicative competence These strategies include paraphrasing, circumlocution,repetition, reluctance, avoidance of words, structures or themes, guessing, changes

of register and style, modifications of messages etc( Celce- Murcia, 2007)

Strategic competence consists of using communication strategies which

come into play when the learners are unable to express what they want to saybecause they lack the recourses to do so successfully They compensate for this

either by changing their original intention or by searching for other means ofexpression.

The learners can use achievement strategies to explain what they are trying

to say and find the ways of compensating for their insecure or inadequateknowledge of English; as a result, they keep the conversation going and mayencourage the listener to provide the necessary language

Moreover, learners can use reduction strategies to avoid the forms of which

they are uncertain and select the perhaps structure which they know The questionarising is whether strategic competence can be trained Certainly teachers can helpstudents early in a language program by teaching them appropriate questions forrequesting help (eg: what does it mean? How do you say?), and the language to askfor vocabulary items (eg: what do you call the person who? What do you call thething that?) The teacher can also act as listener in classroom interaction andrespond to students’ appeals for help, providing language at the point of need

2.1.3 Assessing speaking ability

According to Porter and Roberts in O’Malley (1996), assessment of orallanguage should focus on a student’s ability to interpret and convey meaning forauthentic purposes in interactive contexts It should include both fluency andaccuracy Cooperative learning activities that present students with opportunities touse oral language to interact with others whether for social or academic purposesare optimal for assessing oral language

Brown and Yule (1983:120) state that the oral component of Englishlanguage assessment may be based on a very general impression of how wellstudents speak This normally takes the form of an oral interview in which theexaminer asks students questions, or prompts students to talk on certain, sometimespre-arranged topics

Furthermore, every opportunity for speaking in the classroom should betaken It is by asking students to do communication that realizes their need oflanguage and doing conversation with them to increase their fluency and

confidence For example, students may be reluctant to speak in front of manypeople However, there are ways of providing a safer, less public environment inwhich they can begin to practice speaking The ways are by repetition work and pairwork activities Besides, teachers also pay attention to aspects such as accuracy andfluency in students' speech According to Gower et al (1995: 99), the accuracyinvolves the correct use of the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation Incontrolling and guiding activities, teachers usually focus on the accuracy and it isimportant for teachers to give feedback to students Fluency can be defined as anability to keep going when students speak spontaneously When students speakfluently, they should be able to get the message across with whatever resources andthe abilities they have got regardless grammatical structures and other mistakes

Moreover, Thornbury (2005) states that there are two ways to assessstudents’ speaking ability The first is known as a holistic scoring In the holisticscoring, the teacher only gives a single score on the basis on an overall impression.This holistic way has advantages of being quick and is perhaps suitable for informaltesting of progress Then, the second way is through an analytic scoring which givesseparate scores for different aspects of the task This scoring takes longer, butrequires the teacher to take the variety of factors into account and it is probablyfairer and more reliable However, one disadvantage is that the score may bedistracted by all categories and lose sight of the overall situation performed by thestudents Therefore, four or five categories are probably to be the maximum criteria Meanwhile, Blaz (2000) argues that speaking is a complex skill requiringthe simultaneous use of different ability which often develops at different rates Shestates that there are five components that are generally recognized in analyses of thespeech process They are pronunciation, task completion, vocabulary, fluency, andcomprehensibility Each element characteristics are then defined into four shortindicators This helps to make the test reliable, since it avoids subjectivity because itprovides clear, precise and mutually exclusive indicator statements for each point ofthe scale

Regarding the way in assessing the students’ speaking ability proposed byThornbury (2005) and Blaz (2000), the researcher proposes to incorporate theanalytic scoring with the rating scale By combining the analytic scoring and ratingscale techniques, the process of assessing the students’ speaking ability will be moreprecise and easier.

2.2.1 Indicators of speaking ability

The following are indicators stated by Brown (2000: 271-274) indicating thatone can be called having a speaking ability They are as follows:

- Imitative He/she is able to imitate a word or phrase or possibly a sentence

- Intensive He/she is able to produce short stretches of oral language designed todemonstrate ability in a narrow band of grammatical, phrasal, lexical, orphonological relationship (such as prosodic elements – intonation, stress, rhythm,juncture)

- Responsive He/she is able to respond a very short conversation, standardgreetings and small talk, simple requests and comments

- Transactional (dialogue) He/she is able to take the two forms of eithertransactional language which has the purpose of exchanging specific information

- Interpersonal It has the purpose of maintaining social relationships with thetransmission of facts and information

- Extensive (monologue) He/she is able to develop (monologue) oral productionincluding speeches, oral presentation, and story telling, during which theopportunity for oral interaction from listeners is either highly limited or ruled outtogether

Meanwhile, Ur (1999: 120) says that the characteristics of a successfulspeaking activity are as follows:

First, learners talk a lot As much as possible of the period of time allotted tothe activity is in fact occupied by learners’ talk This may seem obvious, but oftenmost time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses

Second, participation is even Classroom discussion is not determined by aminority of talkative participants; all get chance to speak, and contributions arefairly evenly distributed

Third, motivation is high, learners are eager to speak; because they areinterested in the topic and have something new to say about it or because they want

to contribute to achieving a task objective

Last, language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves inutterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of anacceptable level of language accuracy

From the statement above, it can be concluded that someone owns a certainlanguage speaking competence if he/she can produce oral language to participate inany kind of activity He/she can also respond the other ones’ speaking to maintainhis/her social relationship Besides, his/her language is acceptable and easilycomprehensible at the level of language accuracy

2.2.2 Fluency, accuracy and complexity

Many researchers and language practitioners believe that the constructs ofsecond language performance and second language proficiency are multi-componential in nature and that their principle dimensions can be adequately,comprehensively and captured by the notions of complexity, accuracy and fluency(Shehan 1998)

Accuracy (or correctness) is probably the oldest, most transparent and mostconsistent construct of the triad, referring to the degree of deviancy from aparticular norm (Hammerly 1991; Wolfe-Quintero et al 1998) Deviations from thenorm are usually characterized as errors Straightforward though thischaracterization may seem, it raises the thorny issue of criteria for evaluatingaccuracy and identifying errors, including whether these criteria should be tuned toprescriptive standard norms (as embodied by an ideal native speaker of the targetlanguage) or to non-standard and even nonnative usages acceptable in some socialcontexts or in some communities (Ellis 2008; James 1998; Polio 1997) There is not

the same amount of (relative) denotative congruence in the applied linguisticscommunity with regard to fluency and complexity as there is with regard toaccuracy.

Historically, and in lay usage, fluency typically refers to a person's generallanguage proficiency, particularly as characterized by perceptions of ease,eloquence and ‘smoothness’ of speech or writing (Chambers 1997; Freed 2000).Language researchers for their part have mainly analyzed oral production data todetermine exactly which quantifiable linguistic phenomena contribute to fluency inL2 speech (e.g Lennon 1990; Kormos and Dénes 2004) This research suggests thatspeech fluency is a multi-componential construct in which different sub-dimensionscan be distinguished, such as speed fluency (rate and density of delivery),breakdown fluency (number, length and distribution of pauses in speech) and repairfluency (number of false starts and repetitions) (Tavakoli and Skehan 2005)

As befits the term, complexity is the most complex, ambiguous and leastunderstood dimension of the CAF triad For a start, the term is used in the SLAliterature to refer both to properties of language task (task complexity) and toproperties of L2 performance and proficiency (L2 complexity) (e.g., Robinson2001; Skehan 2001) L2 complexity in turn has been interpreted in at least twodifferent ways: as cognitive complexity and as linguistic complexity (DeKeyser2008; Williams and Evans 1998) Both types of complexity in essence refer toproperties of language features (items, patterns, structures, rules) or (sub) systems(phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical) thereof However, whereascognitive complexity is defined from the perspective of the L2 learner-user,linguistic complexity is defined from the perspective of the L2 system or the L2features Cognitive complexity (or 4 difficulties) refers to the relative difficulty withwhich language features are processed in L2 performance and acquisition Thecognitive complexity of an L2 feature is a variable property which is determinedboth by subjective, learner-dependent factors (e.g aptitude, memory span,motivation, L1 background) as well as by more objective factors, such as its input

saliency or its inherent linguistic complexity Thus, cognitive complexity is abroader notion than linguistic complexity, which is one of the (many) factors thatmay (but need not) contribute to learning or processing difficulty

Another point of discussion concerns the question to what extent these threedimensions are in(ter)dependent in L2 performance and L2 development (Ellis

1994, 2008; Skehan 1998) For instance, according to Ellis, increase in fluency inL2 acquisition may occur at the expense of development of accuracy andcomplexity due to the differential development of knowledge analysis andknowledge automatization in L2 acquisition and the ways in which different forms

of implicit and explicit knowledge influence the acquisition process Thedifferential evolution of fluency, accuracy and complexity would furthermore becaused by the fact that ‘the psycholinguistic processes involved in using L2knowledge are distinct from acquiring new knowledge To acquire the learner mustattend consciously to the input and, perhaps also, make efforts to monitor output,but doing so may interfere with fluent reception and production’ (Ellis 1994: 107).Researchers who subscribe to the view that the human attention mechanism andprocessing capacity are limited (e.g Bygate 1999; Skehan 1998; Skehan and Foster1999) also see fluency as an aspect of L2 production which competes for attentionresources with accuracy, while accuracy in turn competes with complexity.Learners may focus (consciously or subconsciously) on one of the three dimensions

to the detriment of the other two A different view is proposed by Robinson (2001,2003) who claims that learners can simultaneously access multiple and non-competitional attention pools; as a result manipulating task complexity byincreasing the cognitive demands of a task can lead to simultaneous improvement ofcomplexity and accuracy

2.2.3 Methods to assess speaking ability

Regarding to assessing speaking ability, the teachers should give outobjective grades in speaking class, and they can use the following criteria forevaluating students’ speaking abilities

First is to create a rubric Most teachers will be familiar with the concept ofgrading with a rubric, a table with different criteria and a grading scale Thecolumns in the table will represent potential skill levels of the students For eachcriterion, define what level of the ability a student at each of the levels wouldexhibit Take the average level among the criteria and we have an objective gradewith suggestions for areas in which our students can improve.

Second criterion is based on pronunciation Pronunciation is a basis quality

of language learning Though most second language learners will never have thepronunciation of a native speaker, poor pronunciation can obscure communicationand prevent an ESL student from making his meaning known When evaluating thepronunciation of our students, listen for clearly articulated words, appropriatepronunciations of unusual spellings, and assimilation and contractions in suitableplaces Also, listen for intonation Are students using the correct inflection for thetypes of sentences they are saying? Do they know that the inflection of a question isdifferent from that of a statement? Listen for these pronunciation skills anddetermine into which level the students fall

Vocabulary should also be taken into consideration After noting students’

pronunciation levels, move to vocabulary Vocabulary comprehension andvocabulary production are always two separate banks of words in the mind of aspeaker, native as well as second language We should encourage students to have alarge production vocabulary and a larger recognition vocabulary For this reason it

is helpful to evaluate our students on the level of vocabulary they are able toproduce Are they using the specific vocabulary we have instructed them in thesemester? Are they using vocabulary appropriate to the contexts in which they arespeaking? Listen for the level of vocabulary our students are able too producewithout prompting and then decide how well they are performing in this area

The next criterion relates to accuracy Grammar has always been and foreverwill be an important issue in foreign language study Writing sentences correctly on

a test, though, is not the same as accurate spoken grammar As students speak, listen

for the grammatical structures and tools we have taught them Are they able to usemultiple tenses? Do they have agreement? Is word order correct in the sentence? Allthese and more are important grammatical issues, and an effective speaker willsuccessfully include them in his or her language.

A student may also struggle with grammar and pronunciation, but howcreative is she when communicating with the language she knows? Assessingcommunication in our students means looking at their creative use of the languagethey do know to make their points understood A student with a low level ofvocabulary and grammar may have excellent communication skills if she is able tomake you understand her, whereas an advanced student who is tied to manufactureddialogues may not be able to be expressive with language and would therefore havelow communication skills Don’t let a lack of language skill keep your studentsfrom expressing themselves

Being able to say what you mean with a foreign language is one thing, beingable to interact with others is another Ask your students questions Observe howthey speak to one another Are they able to understand and answer questions? Canthey answer you when you ask them questions? Do they give appropriate responses

in a conversation? All these are elements of interaction and are necessary for clearand effective communication in English A student with effective interaction skillswill be able to answer questions and follow along with a conversation happeningaround him Great oratory skills will not get anyone very far if he or she cannotlisten to other people and respond appropriately Encourage our students to listen asthey speak and have appropriate responses to others in the conversation

Fluency may be the easiest quality to judge in our students’ speaking Howcomfortable are they when they speak? How easily do the words come out? Arethere great pauses and gaps in the student’s speaking? If there are then your student

is struggling with fluency Fluency does not improve at the same rate as otherlanguage skills You can have excellent grammar and still fail to be fluent Youwant your students to be at ease when they speak to you or other English speakers

Fluency is a judgment of this ease of communication and is an important criterionwhen evaluating speaking.

2.3 Teaching the speaking skill

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use ofverbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p 13).Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Despite itsimportance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and Englishlanguage teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills ormemorization of dialogues However, today's world requires that the goal ofteaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only inthat way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social andcultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance

Now many linguistics and EFL teachers agree on that students learn to speak

in the second language by "interacting" Communicative language teaching andcollaborative learning serve best for this aim Communicative language teaching isbased on real-life situations that require communication By using this method inESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other

in the target language In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroomenvironment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, andmeaningful tasks that promote oral language This can occur when studentscollaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task

2.3.1 Factors affecting EFL learners’ speaking ability

There are some influential factors in developing the speaking skill Thefactors that influence the speaking skills of the students are interest, motivation andenvironment The students’ interest to study and practice the speaking skill is animportant factor By having strong interest, the learners will try to give a greatattention to improve their speaking They will manage some activities that enable toincrease skill

Dealing with the above opinion, it is necessary to know that one of thecauses of the failure in teaching English at school is that the teacher still teacheswith the routine activities without considering that it will make the students bored,and lost their attention to the teaching and learning process As the result, thestudents will not be able to catch the lesson easily because of their lost interest andparticipation

In other words, the technique used by the teacher in teaching English to thestudents, especially speaking skill, should be able to create an interestingatmosphere, so that the students will be comfortable, enthusiastic, excited, andinterested in joining the lesson in the teaching learning activity It also can be saidthat: support, sacrifice, and diligence are the result of interest If someone hasinterest in something he will join and follow the activity, even in a long time

Motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning.Motivation is a way of how individuals get interested, react to events that get theirattention and engage in certain specified behaviors particularly in the learningprocess Motivated individuals will involve whole heartedly in the teaching learningprocess and they will have an intention to learn more and more Students can bemotivated to perform well because of factors such as interest curiosity, the need toobtain information or solve a problem, or the desire to understand Learnermotivation makes teaching and learning immeasurably easier and more pleasant, aswell as more productive Motivation has relationship with the power to move It canraise effort, power, and energy to do something

Environment is an important factor in gaining the speaking skill One of thereasons for the students’ failure to learn or maintain their second language is there is

no contact between learners and the community in which the language is spoken.The components of this factor can be home environment, school environment,community environment, etc The environment that encourages the greatest amount

of use of the language is beneficial Based on the statements above, the writer canconclude that the successful students depend on their interest, motivation, and

environment surrounding them It means that the students motivate themselves toachieve English, although there are extrinsic factors influencing their study.However, the intrinsic interest and motivation has a stronger influence than theextrinsic one

2.3.2 Difficulties EFL learners have when learning speaking

Ur (1996: 121) suggests fundamental problems that appear in the speakingclass, as follows:

The first problem students often encounter is inhibition Speaking requiressome degree of real-time exposure to an audience It is quite different from the otherthree skills, reading, listening and writing Learners are often inhibited about trying

to say things in a foreign language in the classroom They are usually worried inmaking mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attentionthat their speech attracts

“Nothing to say” is another problem Even if the learners are not inhibited,they often complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no motive

to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should speak

In speaking lessons, students seem to struggle with low or unevenparticipation Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard Inlarge group this means that each one will have only very little time to talk Theproblem is compounded by the tendency that some learners are dominant, whileothers speak very little or not at all

Mother-tongue use is considered as one of the most common difficulties inspeaking foreign language In a class where the learners speak the same mothertongue, there is a tendency for them to use it because it is easier, more natural, andsafe These problems are often found in the writer‘s class It can be seen from thefollowing indicators First, students could not answer teacher‘s questions When theteacher asked questions, they just smiled and kept silent Second, students could notexpress their ideas using appropriate vocabulary and grammatical forms Studentsdid not know the English words and how to apply them in various grammatical

forms Third, students often produced mispronounced words Fourth, most studentsused mother tongue in speaking class Instead of using various expressions inEnglish, students expressed their ideas in the mother tongue Fifth, students couldnot pronounce the English words well

2.3.3 Principles for teaching EFL speaking

In the speaking activity, it is very important for the teacher to acquire theability to teach appropriately Consequently, some principles of teaching speakingstates in Nunan (2003:54-56) should be mastered by the teacher of language Thoseprinciples are as follows:

Be aware of the differences between second language and foreign languagelearning contexts Learning speaking skills in the foreign language context is verychallenging, because the students only have little opportunities to practice in theirenvironment Most of the people around them use their mother tongue rather thanthe foreign language Meanwhile, in the second language context, English is used tocommunicate in the society like English in UK and Singapore

Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy Fluency and accuracyare important in speaking skills Teachers need to develop their students’ fluencyand accuracy by giving a lot of practice of speaking Some mistakes that thestudents made are a natural side when they learn a new language

Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work,and limiting teacher talk A language teacher should not talk all the time and shouldgive their students to talk in the classroom Group work and pair work can be theinteresting activities that provide the students to practice speaking

Plan speaking tasks that involve the negotiation for meaning Speaking tasksmean activities to communicating appropriately and acceptably with others in thetarget language The negotiation for meaning happens when other students try tounderstand what their friend said by asking clarification, confirmation, orexplanation

Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in bothtransactional and interactional speaking There are two purposes in speaking Theyare transactional and interactional purposes Transactional purposes meancommunicating to get something done such as expression of asking for information,asking for complains, responding for complains and etc

On the contrary, interactional purposes mean a social interaction between thespeakers in order to maintain the interaction such as expressions of greeting,empathy, interest and social harmony In line with Nunan (2003:54-56) that definesfive principles of teaching speaking, Brown (2001: 275-276) also states that thereare seven principles of teaching speaking

First, use techniques that cover the spectrum of learner needs, fromlanguage-based focus on accuracy to message-based focus on interaction, meaning,and fluency In speaking activities, the students need to be a good speaker in order

to transfer the message to the others with appropriately and communicatively To becommunicatively, they need to make their conversation meaningful, keep theinteraction, and fluent in deliver it in order to make others understood about whatthey are saying

Second, provide intrinsically motivating techniques An English teacherneeds to motivate the students to do the activities in the teaching-learning process

By explaining the benefit of the activities and materials to their future live well,they will be willing to do the activities

Third, encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts AnEnglish teacher needs to use the authentic language in meaningful contexts in theteaching-learning process It is not easy to do that; it takes the teachers’ energy andcreativity to make an authentic context But, with the resource materials the teachercan make the authentic and meaningful context

Four, provide appropriate feedback and correction in most EFL students,they still make some mistakes in learning a language The teachers’ role in givingfeedback and correction is needed for the students to diagnose, improve, and

develop their skills The teachers can give the feedback and correction in the end ofthe lesson

Next, capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening Speakingand listening are two skills that integrated When the teachers teach speaking, theycannot lose the listening section So, when they need to teach speaking and to reachthe goal of speaking section, the listening goals are also coincide naturally

Then, give students opportunities to initiate oral communication Speaking is

an activity that forces the students to speak In this case, the teachers should give alot of interactive activities and interesting techniques to support the students towilling to speak The teachers should give a lot of opportunities to the studentsduring the teaching-learning process

Last, encourage the development of speaking strategies Students sometimescannot develop their own personal strategies to make a good and meaningfulcommunication The teachers need to give some practices like asking forclarification, asking someone to repeat something, using conversation maintenancecues, getting someone’s attention, and etc

In conclusion, there are some principles in teaching speaking that should bemastered in order to be a good English teacher For example, one of the challengesfor foreign language teachers is that they should motivate their students to speak inthe target language, and so on By keeping the principle in teaching speaking, theproblems that usually happen in the teaching-learning process of speaking can beminimize For example, the students can be more confident by giving moreopportunity through interactive activities They will always participate in theclassroom so the classroom atmosphere can be more enjoyable

2.3.4 Techniques for teaching EFL speaking

The Advanced Learner Dictionary of Current English (Oxford, 1987: 887)stated that in general, technique is method of doing something expertly WhileBrown (2001: 16) defines that technique is any of a wide variety of exercises,activities, or tasks used in the language classroom for realizing lesson objectives

It can be inferred that techniques are the method of doing something throughthe activities or tasks Thus, technique is really important and is needed to doeverything to acquire a good result Furthermore, the technique may also helpteachers to facilitate the students to get the target language

Some other supporting techniques that should be carried out in the classroomare descriptions of object, pair work, role play, oral presentation, question andanswer (model dialogue), etc

Description of an object is a speech activity done by the students to describe

a certain object or event surrounding the students, probably a picture or somethingelse (http://tefl.org/teach/speak/) This is also to train the students to express theirideas spontaneously in foreign language In this case, the teacher should avoidcorrecting the grammatical mistakes Just let them speak out

Pair work is a part of open pairs where the students talk to one another acrossthe class under the teacher’s control (Byrne (1987: 31) The learners get a chance towork independently; pair work is good motivation and also good preparation forgroup work when they have to take a lot the responsibility for what they do Theyalso can face and talk directly to one another, so it is much closer to the way we usethe language outside classroom

Oral presentation is a short talk on a topic which the student has either beenasked to prepare beforehand or has been informed of shortly before the test (Cross,1991: 59)

Dialogue is a short conversation between two persons It can be presented asthe language model in the manipulative phase of language learning The learners inthis case are grouped into pairs The teacher‘s role is to prepare the studentslinguistically for what they have to say and to provide props which serve as stimulifor conversation In this case the learner is given a task to fill in a form whichcontains the information about his partner In order to do this, each learner in turnmust ask questions and supply answers As a final activity, random learners areasked to tell the form in a narrative form

2.4 Multimedia and second language acquisition

Technology has become an integral part of our life in the past half decade.Machines have social origins, and they emerge from the needs of society Teachersneed technologies relevant to the teaching-learning situation (Cakir, 2006).According to Wright (1976) many media and many styles of visual presentation areuseful to the language learner That is to say those multimedia materials are useful

to language learning and teaching when they are presented at the right time andplace

River (1981) explains that multimedia clearly contributes to theunderstanding of another culture by providing vicarious contacts with speakers ofthe language, though both audio and visual means Multimedia material brings “reallife” into the classroom Multimedia materials show students how people behave inthe culture whose language they are learning by bringing into the classroom a widerange of communicative situations Fries (1945) proposed that the most effectivematerials are those that are “based upon a scientific description of the language to

be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language ofthe learner” It’s clear that multimedia materials provide an effective way forstudents to easily and clearly compare their own culture with that of the targetculture, by actually seeing it This is useful for both advanced language learners andnovices

2.4.1 Theories about multimedia

Several cognitive theories are used to explain the value and effect ofmultimedia presentations in language learning environments The most prominent isthe generative theory of multimedia learning proposed by Mayer (1997), whichdraws on Wittrock’s generative theory and Paivio’s dual-coding theory, is also used

to explain the relationship between of multimedia and language learning

2.4.1.1 Dual-coding theory

Dual-coding theory (Paivio, 1969, 1971) is the foundation for latermultimedia learning and multimedia language learning theories Paivio and Begg

(1981) assumed that memory and cognition are related to the sensory modality Ithypothe- sizes that the two systems are served by two independent butinterconnected coding systems: one specialized in dealing with verbal informationand the other with nonverbal information The verbal system, deals with non-visualcodes such as words, speech, language, or semantic codes; the other system, thevisual system primarily deals with visual codes, such as images, pictures, concreteobjects, or events In the learning process, the human mind creates separate verbaland visual mental representations (“encoding”) for incoming information using each

of the systems Although the two systems work independently, they areinterconnected: representations in one system can activate those in the other Forinstance, objects can be named, and words can evoke the images of the objects inmind The relationship of the two systems has been shown to have positive effects

on recall

The dual-coding theory holds that when learners use both systems to encodeinformation, they will learn and retain the information better than when they useonly one system Generally, each of the systems functions independently, but mostinformation processing requires connections and reinforcement verbal and visualsystems, and hence the probability that they are retained in working memory andretrieved later from long-term memory is higher than when the presentationcontains verbal information alone (Kobayashi, 1986)

The dual-coding theory has recently received supporting evidence fromresearch in neural sciences By examining the scanned brain images of learners whowere studying German vocabulary items, Fliessbach, Weis, Klaver, Elger, andWeber (2006) found that an anterior region in the precuneus - a bilateral region ofthe brain responsible for processing visual contents - was more strongly activatedduring the intentional encoding of concrete, more imageable words as compared toabstract, less imageable words Such a finding implies that the visuospatial systems

in the brain are involved in processing vocabulary, thus lending support to the coding theory

dual-2.4.1.2 The generative theory and second language acquisition

The application of the generative theory of multimedia learning to secondlanguage is based upon the dual-coding theory, the assumption that learners of asecond/foreign language have two separate verbal systems (L1 and L2) and acommon imagery system There is a suggestion that translations of words viasimultaneous verbal and visual presentations would not only link the two verbalsystems, but that this storage in the second verbal system would also have anadditive effect on learning (Paivio & Desrochers, 1980) Mayer’s (1997, 2001,2002) cognitive (generative) theory of multimedia learning is probably the mostinfluential theory for L2 learning via multimedia in the past ten years, and has beenreferred to as a theoretical basis by many studies (e.g Al-Seghayer, 2001; Jones &Plass, 2002; Jones, 2003; Chun & Payne, 2004) The theory takes a step beyonddual-coding theory in modeling the detailed learning process in a multimediaenvironment

According to the theory, such a process contain three subcomponents: (a)selecting relevant verbal and visual information from the multimodal input, (b)organizing the selected information into the verbal and visual mentalrepresentations, and (c) integrating the resulting verbal and visual representationswith each other (Mayer, 1997, 2001) Learning is therefore more likely to occurwhen learners can build meaningful connections between the verbal and visualmental representations Many design principles for effective multimedia learninghave been proposed on the basis of this theory, such as presenting relevant verbaland visual information simultaneously (a principle that is applied in the design ofmany multimedia Computer Aided Assessment (CAA) materials), reducingcognitive load (e.g Mayer & Moreno, 2003; Moreno, 2004), and taking learnerdifferences into consideration (e.g Moreno & Duran, 2004)

2.4.2 Influence of multimedia on second language acquisition

With constant popularization and development at full speed of multimediatechnology that the computer used, the computer second language teaching of the

multimedia has already become a kind of inevitable trend, and influenced all aspects

of the second language teaching The numerous scholars and teachers have alreadybegun to explore it in this aspect It gets to outstanding achievements The keycharacteristic of the multimedia technology includes the diversification ofinformation carrier, interaction, controlling and integrating aspects The multimediacomputers indeed create a significant influence in English language teaching andlearning as an effective kind of teaching way and a useful supplementary means

Nowadays, the prevailing traditional teaching methods and situations areunpopular while multimedia technology featuring audio, visual, animation effectsnaturally and humanly make us more access to information In addition to this suchcharacteristics as abundant-information and crossing time and space, multimediatechnology provides a sense of reality and functions very well, which greatlymotivates students’ interest in study and their involvement in class activities.Students can experience the subject which strengthen him a knowledgeable one

Traditional teaching has less importance in the students’ capacity tounderstand certain a language and hampers their understanding to structure,meaning and function of the language, and makes the students passive recipients ofknowledge So it is difficult to achieve the target of communication With teachers’instructions leading students’ thought patterns motivating students’ emotions, themultimedia technology classes set in new-type internet classroom seek combination

of teaching and learning and provide the students greater knowledge The modernEnglish teaching method can activate students’ thinking; the visual and vivid courseware transforms English learning into capacity cultivation And such in-classactivities as group discussion, subject discussion, and debate can also provide moreopportunities for communication among students and between teacher and students

So multimedia technology teaching has separate inspired students’ positive thinkingand communication skills in various social practices

The multimedia teaching can offer the students abundant information; theoutput of multimedia comprehensive English far more plentiful than textbooks, and

it displays vivid cultural background, rich content and true-to-life languagematerials whish are much natural and closer to life Not only could learners improvetheir listening capacity or ability, but also learn the western culture Acquiringinformation through various channels can equip the students with knowledge andbring about information-sharing among students and make them participate actively

in class discussion and communication The combination of human-machinecommunication and interpersonal communication leads to overall development ofstudents’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills

Multimedia teaching enriches teaching content and makes the best of classtime It breaks the “teacher- centered” teaching pattern and eventually improvesclass efficiency It is very common that the school and university students have theirleaning effectively

Always English classes are very large crowded more in classroom Duringsuch circumstances, it is highly difficult for the students to have speakingcommunication The utilization of multi-media sound lab materializesindividualized and co-operative teaching

The traditional teaching model predominantly gives prominence on teachers’instruction, and the information given was limited On the contrary, multimediatechnology goes beyond time and space, creates more vivid, visual, authenticatmosphere for English learning, induces the students’ initiatives and economizesclass time meanwhile increases class information

2.4.3 Krashen’s Input Hypothesis

The comprehensible Input Hypothesis, proposed by Krashen, is a part of histheory of second language acquisition He noted the idea that language learnersacquire language when they understand messages or receive “comprehensibleinput” The input can be in the form of oral and written language The inputhypothesis answers the question of how a language acquirer develops competencyover time

It states that a language acquirer who is at "level i" must receive

comprehensible input that is at "level i+1." In other words, the input materialsmust be slightly higher than the learners’ current level Krashen stressed that thestructures “i + 1” (above the existing level of competence) are understood byusing context, knowledge of the world together with the existing competence “i”.The comprehensible input is done with the help of context and extra-linguisticinformation.

Adding subtitles to films would appear to increase the chances to help thelearners to comprehend the content of the films Newman and Koskinen (1992)suggested that subtitled television is a valid form of comprehensible input, thusmaking subtitled films a source of comprehensible input, and leading to foreignlanguage acquisition Moreover, subtitled films provide learners with theopportunity to experience the target language in a rich, more natural context(William, 1960)

The use of visual images, as a video-based instruction, has been claimed bymany researchers to be effective in making listening input more comprehensible(Terrell, 1993; Mac William, 1986; Stempleski, 1990, 1991, 1992; Katchen,1996; Raphan,1996) Authentic listening materials are also recommended as ameans of providing students with more realistic contexts and comprehensibleinput (as cited in Lin, 2002) Hwang and Huang (2011) claimed that multimediahave beneficial effects on language learning because of abundant and authenticcomprehensible input

Krashen’s Affective Filter hypothesis captured the relationship betweenaffective variables and the process of second language acquisition by assumingthat learners fluctuate with respect to the strength and level of the Affective Filter

A student with high motivation, high self-esteem and low anxiety will have a lowaffective filter, and will be able to take full advantage of the input On the otherhand, a student with low motivation, low self-esteem and high anxiety will have ahigh affective filter, and will not be able to effectively process the input, even if it

is “comprehensible.”

To sum up, Krashen suggested that language learners might be distracted byemotional factors in language learning process Negative emotions are formedthrough passive moods, including low motivation, low self-esteem, and anxiety.

In order to reduce learners’ pessimistic mood and improve their learningmotivation, Krashen implied that language teachers should create a comfortable,lower affective filter and motivation stimulating study environment, in whichlearners can develop higher self- esteem and a greater sense of confidence andfulfillment King (2002) stated, “Films provide more pedagogical options and are

a rich resource of intrinsically motivating materials for learners”

2.4.4 Correlation between input and output

Among SLA theories, “The best under peer scrutiny and actual pedagogicalapplication is the Input-Interaction-Output (IIO) theory” (Block, 2003) And amongthe several extant versions of this model, Gass’s (1988, 1997) version is the mostdeveloped The researcher is going to discuss why multimedia material can beeffective in language learning and teaching in the process of SLA by exploring thecore concepts in Gass’s IIO model: Input, Comprehension Input, Noticing, Intake,Integration and Output (see Table 1)

“Input, the target language available to the learner, is considered the mostimportant factor in SLA” (Gass 1997) Language learners only will produce

“output” when they got enough “input”; so obviously, rich “input” is the basiccriterion of SLA

Much work has been done in identifying the characteristics that good inputmaterial should have (Krashen, 1982) These characteristics do not describe thematerial per se but the kind of criteria that should apply when selecting material foruse in class Materials which allow “input” are likely to be strong on affectiveappeal; they are chosen because of their interest value to the learners rather than thetype of structure or vocabulary they contain; they are not grammatically sequenced;

at the same time, they are not likely to be much beyond the level of the pupils;finally 8 they provide a lot of contextual support to facilitate comprehension

Carefully selected multimedia materials can satisfy all these requirements, andshould be used as a rich and valuable resource

Krashen (1985) emphasizes the importance of “comprehensible input”, thelanguage that the learner is able to comprehend He contends that students learn instages that require the more capable speaker of the target language to provide inputjust beyond the learner’s current level (Ellis, 1994) It is “comprehensible output,the learner’s attempt to make himself/herself understood, which leads to languagegrowth” (Swain, 1985) We know that deficiencies in vocabulary can make even asimple task very difficult to understand for students Multimedia material makesmeaning clearer by illustrating relationships in a way that is not possible with wordsalone Also, students are different, so the same input resource will not becomprehensible to all the students in the same way Teachers should satisfy thesediverse needs by providing a diverse range of resources Multimedia material is one

of the perfect ways to do this; multimedia material can be comprehensible to avariety of students because of the rich context it provides and its visual featureswhich can help students’ comprehension in a way that other resources can’t

Furthermore, it’s important to remember that it is the learner who determineswhat the input is after all Comprehensible input alone does not guarantee learning;

as learners exhibit “input preferences”, choosing to pay attention, or not payattention, to input based on perceived value or need (Beebe, 1985) When teachersmake the lesson more interesting and enjoyable, this helps promote comprehension.Multimedia presentations are attractive, challenging, and stimulating as long as theyare chosen carefully and used properly

The next stage is Noticing and Intake Noticing is very important in languagelearning process The tradition way to teach a second language is to correctlearners’ errors; however, recent research has found that language learners need tocorrect their errors by “noticing” them themselves, otherwise no matter how manytimes you correct them, they will make the mistake again and won’t be ready for