چکیده:
This article reports an experiment conducted to investigate the
comparative effect on remembering of two approaches to
teaching/learning narrative texts: reading with the help of only verbal
tasks and reading with the help of verbal tasks plus picture production
tasks. The experiment involved two groups of students in the English
Literature and Language Department of Semnan University, Iran, The
control group was asked to read a story carefully and produce a detailed
outline for the story while the students in the experimental group were
asked to do the same but they were additionally asked to illustrate the
outlines without skipping any illustration subtask. After doing an
activity not related to the story, the participants were asked to write a
retelling of the story in very simple language, mentioning whatever they
remembered. The comparison of the number of relevant details (ideas or
propositions subjectively determined) mentioned by the students in the
two groups showed that the experimental group did significantly better
than the control group in reporting the content details of the story. Three
and half months later, the same evaluating tasks were given to the two
groups, with the control group showing a greater rate of idea loss. The
overall findings suggest that learners’ picture generation deserves
significant attention in the theory and practice of English Language
Teaching.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Farjami Semnan University This article reports an experiment conducted to investigate the comparative effect on remembering of two approaches to teaching/learning narrative texts: reading with the help of only verbal tasks and reading with the help of verbal tasks plus picture production tasks.
g. , Al-Seghayer, 2001; Chun and Plass, 1996; Kost, Foss, and Lenzini, 1999).
The Purpose of the Study Although studies on induced imagery and those on self-generated verbal cues were conducted with different participants, they were interesting enough to encourage the researcher to examine whether actual generation of pictures as well as verbal generation based on a short narrative passage, has any significant superiority over purely verbal generation in terms of recall of details.
(View the image of this page) Discussion These findings confirm the hypothesis that in comparison with verbal-production practice alone, involving students in providing pictures and images based on a narrative passage can have a significantly greater positive effect on the amount of information they remember shortly after their reading that passage.
It is true that efficient reading automatically produces mental images, but setting picture-production tasks out front is a mental managerial tool The better retention of story details by the experimental group is in line with the tenets of the theory of multiple intelligences (MI) proposed by Howard Gardner (e.
The likely adverse motivational consequences for some students can be offset by retaining some pictures and/or adding color and this activity may be the mental habits that it helps language learners form in processing verbal information, an effect not explored in this study.