The Use of Audio and Audio-visual Materials for Teaching Process Descriptions and Identification of Errors: A Study with Tertiary Level Students

Abstract

The use of multimedia as a teaching aid could motivate students in learning and improve their writing skills. The objectives of the study are to assess the impact of audio-visual and audio materials in the lesson on second language learners’ writing skills and to analyse errors in the writings. Forty Engineering undergraduates in their first term at CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) B1 level in proficiency were randomly divided into two comparison groups: Audio-visual Group and Audio Group; to teach them to write a brief description of an industrial process using Audio-visual and Audio materials. The marks of the immediate and post-tests were analysed using independent sample t-test whereas errors in their writings were categorized based on Surface Strategy Taxonomy. The findings depicted that both Audio-visual and Audio materials have contributed to writing effective process descriptions. While the mean of the Audio group was numerically higher than that of the Audio-visual group in both immediate and posttests, the independent sample t-test confirmed that the difference was not statistically significant. Neither of the modes has been demonstrated superior to the other. Moreover, error analysis based on Surface Structure Taxonomy depicted that over 50% of errors committed by students in both groups were errors of Misformation. Further, second, 29 third and the fourth frequent number of errors were found in the Omission category, Misordering Category, and Addition category respectively for both groups. Therefore, a mixture of Audio-visual and Audio materials could be recommended in writing tasks pertaining to process descriptions.