چكيده
Foreign language acquisition depends crucially on the development of a strong vocabulary. Without vocabulary it is not possible to communicate in a language, although the language includes grammar and fixed rules. Because the awareness of words importance in the process of teaching a foreign language has increased, nowadays it is assumed that the acquisition of vocabulary is just as important as the acquisition of grammar. One of the best techniques in teaching vocabulary is CALL that provides opportunity for learners to learn new words via multimedia. In this way learning styles specially auditory and visual, engage in learning process and improve it. The focus of the present study was to explore the effect of multimedia vocabulary annotations and visual/auditory learning styles on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary. To carry out the study, 120 homogeneous male and female participants from intermediate level were selected and based on the responses of learners to Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire, were assigned into four groups; the control group and three experimental groups consisted of Visual group, Auditory group and Visual/Auditory group. The experimental groups experienced 10 sessions of instruction using the Multimedia CALL that benefit from texts, pictures and sounds to present new words in the reading passages. The control group received the same hours of instruction and materials but on paper with no audio-visual features. The result of the study revealed the effect of multimedia vocabulary annotations and learning styles on vocabulary. It was found that the students of the experimental group, who were visual learners and experienced written annotations plus pictures, performed better than those of control group on the post-test. It was also concluded that audio learning style and sound annotations was not a determining factor in Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary skill. The findings of this study indicate that utilizing computers and multimedia glosses can be beneficial in incidental vocabulary learning on one hand. On the other hand, learning styles allow the students become more focused on attentive learners. Based on the findings of the present study, Iranian EFL learners show a strong preference for visual stimuli. Therefore, pictorial annotations are suggested for vocabulary learning.
Key Words: Annotations, CALL, Learning, Learning Styles, Multimedia, Perceptual Learning Styles, Vocabulary
