A Study on the Effectiveness of Using Multimedia to Teach English as a Second Language

Abstract

With the development of the Science and Technology, new teaching methods were explored by second language facilitators using access to computers, internet, electronic mail, audio cassettes, power point, videos and even social networks. While teaching English as a second language, the researcher herself uses technology to improve English proficiency of the students. She makes use of multimedia: audio, video, animation and images, as an aid to facilitate learning English. In this context, this study aims at examining the effectiveness of using multimedia as a method of teaching grammar in ESL classroom. Research shows that the use of computer based grammar instruction can complement individualised structural syllabi in communicative classrooms and more effectively enable students to use the newly acquired structures to negotiate meaning. Thus this study aims at analysing the effectiveness of using multimedia to teach grammar for undergraduates. To collect data, 100 undergraduates from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology will be selected. The target groups will be from the same proficiency in terms of their L2 which will be determined from a pre-test. This sample will be divided into two groups as group A and group B. Grammar lessons will be selected carefully to be taught with and without multimedia. First a grammar lesson will be taught using multimedia to group A. The same lesson will be taught to group B without multimedia. The next lesson will be taught vice versa. At the end of each lesson a test will be given to evaluate the effect of multimedia as a method to teach grammar. A questionnaire will determine the response of the undergraduates towards the effectiveness of using multimedia to teach grammar. The results of the study are expected to help develop more effective teaching methods by considering the role played by multimedia in an ESL classroom.