The effect of storyboard visuals on ESL reading recall

Visuals have been used extensively in second language testing and reading settings for various functions and purposes. There are a number of studies on how visuals could improve reading recall of L1 learners. However, few studies to date have examined whether learners can improve their reading recall performance with the help of visuals in a second language. To the best knowledge, no studies so far have investigated whether storytelling storyboard visuals can help second language learners improve reading recall performance. This dissertation addresses above question by examining the reading recall performance of 80 freshman ESL students who participated in the reading recall task in four randomly divided treatment groups: elaborate story with storyboard visuals, elaborate story without storyboard visuals, non-elaborate story with storyboard visuals, and non-elaborate story without storyboard visuals. Three separate two-way ANOVAs were used to measure and compare the students’ recall results based on three different scoring approaches. The study found that the scores of subjects in the non-elaborate story group with storyboard visuals were significantly higher than the scores of subjects in the non-elaborate story group without storyboard visuals. Scores of subjects between two other groups were not significant. The author discussed the findings in association with Paivio’s Dual Code Theory (1971) and Kanfer and Ackerman’s Attentional Resources Theory (1989). He argued that storytelling storyboard visuals can improve reading recall performance