Furthermore, by actively engaging students in the multimedia development process, their critical thinking skills are put to good use, vocabulary retention is enhanced and students will likely enjoy the process far more than a traditional lecture format or simply reviewing what multimedia materials are provided by educators.
One of the overriding issues that emerged from this study was the fact that students were actively engaged in the educational material development process, but this did not mean that they were simply assigned a task and allowed the "muddle through" the process. Rather, this approach required extensive planning and preparation on the part of the second language educator to provide the framework that was needed for the students to succeed. This process is more challenging than might be expected, and involves far more than just placing existing course content online or on a CD/DVD format. Consideration must be given to how the course materials will be used, what supplementary materials should be included to augment the learning process and the time required to create and implement them, all of which require a comprehensive understanding on the part of the second language teacher.
In this regard, time, like other scarce resources, is of the absolute essence in most second language classrooms and teachers simply do not enjoy the luxury of...
Therefore, building on what has been proven to be effective in the past in promoting second language acquisition represents a viable and sensible approach to making the learning process more efficient and even more enjoyable for all of the stakeholders that are involved (e.g., both students and teachers alike). In the final analysis, multimedia resources represent a valuable addition to the repertoire of teaching tools in the second language acquisition classroom, and their value can be enhanced by enlisting the assistance of students in their creation and implementation.
References
Nikolva, O.R. (2002). Effects of students' participation in authoring of multimedia materials on student acquisition of vocabulary. Language, Learning & Technology, 6(1), 100.
Effects of Students' Participation in Authoring of Multimedia Materials on Student Acquisition of Vocabulary.
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the effects on vocabulary acquisition of student participation in authoring a multimedia instructional module. Sixty-two subjects were randomly assigned to two groups, and each group was randomly assigned to one of two treatments. The control subjects were asked to study a French text downloaded from the Internet and presented on a computer. In the text,
