Improving EFL Secondary Learners' Pronunciation through Multimodal Teaching

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study investigated the effect of multimodal teaching on EFL secondary learners’ pronunciation. Moreover, their perception regarding the implementation of multimodal teaching was also explored. Selected from an intact class, the participants were 20 eight graders receiving a teaching method based on the analytic-linguistic approach through audiovisual media combined with hand gestures. The English pronunciation pretest and posttest were administered to collect the data before and after the treatment, which lasted 6 weeks. In addition, a perception questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were used to collect data pertaining to the participants’ perception regarding the multimodal teaching method. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including means, standard deviations, dependent and independent sample t-tests. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results demonstrated that multimodal teaching utilizing audiovisual media combined with hand gestures significantly improved the participants’ pronunciation. Moreover, the participants showed their perceptions about multimodal teaching at very high level. They perceived the benefits of multimodal teaching with regard to positive learning environment, emotional and functional benefits, and instructional advantages. In conclusion, this study suggests the positive outcomes of implementing multimodal teaching in improving EFL secondary learners’ pronunciation. Finally, pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research are provided.

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