The Role of Visuals in ESL Instruction

A study was conducted to find out the effect of visuals on the comprehension ability of a group of Junior College students in Japan. The investigation was conducted in two stages. First, a section of a reading passage was read in class by both teacher and students, after which Test 1 was administered. Questions were given in printed form. Then, a video segment of the material was shown, after which Test 2 was administered. In the second testing, the questions were read out by the teacher. A 15 item test of recall and comprehension was used for both tests; each group of questions controlled for both difficulty level. A mean analysis and a t-test were conducted on the scores obtained. The findings reveal that there is a slight increase in the mean scores after viewing the material, but further analysis does not indicate highly significant statistical gains after treatment, presumably because the second testing was administered aurally. The study points out further the need to develop aural comprehension skills in ESL instruction, as a prerequisite to improving productive oral communication