Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014

ISSN 2345-2633

The Role of Audio visual Aids on Speaking Rate

of Iranian EFL Learners
Fatemeh Baradaran Torabi, Ali Poordaryaie Nejad
Abstract In recent years, emphasis on the use of technology and the integration of it in the curriculum has obtained a great importance.
Particularly, because of the increasing emphasis on communicative techniques, the use of video as an audio-visual material in foreign
language teaching classrooms has grown rapidly. This study investigated the role of audiovisual aids on university students' improvement
in speaking English as a foreign language (EFL). Sixty students in Bandarlengeh University were selected. A sample test was administered
to sixty English language learners in Bandarlenge University. Then, forty participants who scored one standard deviation above and below
the mean were selected as homogenous language learners and based on random judgment sampling 40 participants who divided into
experimental and control groups (20 and 20 respectively) were selected. During the experiment, experimental group had exposure to
audiovisual aids while the control group was exposed to traditional aids (textbooks). Results of T- test analysis show a significant
difference between audiovisual aids users and traditional users.
Index Terms Efl Learners, Meaningful Learning, Technique, Method, Multimedia.

1 INTRODUCTION

ANGUAGE learning is an unintelligible process: in this

process, language teachers cannot be separated from the
technology, which is the application of scientific
knowledge to practical tasks by organizations that involve
people and machines. It is a well-known fact that audio-visual
materials are a great help in stimulating and facilitating the
learning of a foreign language. Wright (1976) believes that if
audiovisual materials are used at the right time, in the right
place, they have positive contributions and effects to language
learning. That is to say, many styles of visual presentation are
effective and profitable to the language learner. In the process
of language learning and teaching, the student use both his
eyes and ears, but his eyes has the more impact in learning.
According to River(1981) perceiving of another culture
through successor contact with speakers of the language, by
both audio and visual means clearly contribute to. Based on
Canning- Wilson (2000) the students like learning language
through the use of video, which is often quite different things
in language teaching. It is a fact that most students who have
taken English courses formally remain insufficient in the ability to use the language and to understand its use, in normal
communication, whether in the spoken or the written mode.
The problem arises not from the methodology itself but from
the misuse or incomplete use of it. That is to say, teachers still
evaluate student performance according to the sentence structure and situational settings. In fact, teachers should pay more
attention to the communicative acts rather than to the sentence
structure and situational settings. Hemei(1997) mentions that
students like video presentations because of being interesting,
challenging and stimulating to watch. Video shows them
culture of people whose language they are learning. By illustrating relationship in a way that is not possible with words,
video makes meaning clearer. According to a study, language

teachers like video because it motivates learners, contextualizes language naturally, enables learners to experience authentic language in a controlled environment and brings the real
world into the classroom.

2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
With many ups and downs, however, at present teaching English in public schools is stabilized with four hours a week at
junior high school, a 6 unit credit course at high school, and an
additional four unit credit course at the one year preuniversity level.
All assessment tools are of achievement type with the content
matching the content of the textbooks. At the junior high
school level, oral and written skills are treated as different subjects and two separate scores are reported on a scale of 20. The
oral exam includes memorization of dialogs presented in the
book, reading aloud of the text to assess pronunciation and
intonation, and short conversations in the form of question
and answer based on the grammatical and functional points
taught in class. The written exam consists of sections on
spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension.
(Farhadi, 2010)
According to the advocates of Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT), it is generally accepted that there is a need to
distinguish between knowing various grammatical rules and
being able to use the rules effectively and appropriately when
communicating. (Dahmardeh, 2009) Dornyeis work (2001,
p.63) suggested that most curricular topics are selected primarily on the basis of what society believes students need to
learn, rather than on the basis of students actual need.
Given that the vast majority of language exams and tests in
Iran fail to assess real communicative language content, teaching communicative skills becomes or remains a neglected
component in many foreign language classrooms. This, according to Dahmardehs findings (2006), is the way that English is taught in Iran. Consequently, students lack of success
in communicating in English after studying it for seven years

Department of English Language Teaching, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic

Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran
Hormozgan University, Iran

10

Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014
ISSN 2345-2633

(three years in middle school and four years in secondary

school) is the result.

ganizations and contents. Sheldon (1988), for example, believes that textbooks are usually the product of textbook developers and publishers desire to increase the number of their
publications and suffer from serious theoretical problems, design flaws, and practical shortcomings. Allwright (1981) also
believes that textbooks cannot meet the vast and changing
needs of learners and classes around the world. Even more
recently Tomlinson (2008) has argued that textbooks are responsible for the failure of most of the learners to develop
communicative skills by focusing on linguistic items rather
than opportunities for acquisition and learning.
After having stated the many problems language teaching in
some parts of the worlds is faced with (lack of trained teachers, lack of adequate teaching material, uncritical adoption of
certain teaching methods) his contention is that technology
can play an important role in the process of teaching the peoples of this world the linguistic and cultural means of intercomprehensibility, if only those who deploy the forces of
technology get their bearings right.( Jung, 1990)
Graddol: (1997:16) states that technology lies at the heart of
the globalization process; affecting education work and culture. The use of English language has increased rapidly after
1960. At present the role and status of English is that it is the
language of social context, political, sociocultural, business,
education, industries, media, library, communication across
borders, and key subject in curriculum and language of imparting education.
In the mid-1960s, three new technological aids came into
general use in the classroom-language laboratory, portable
tape-recorder and film strip projector. All these were greeted
with euphoria in all modern language departments. Extensive
use of tapes and equipment was revolutionary for language
teachers. The potential offered to language teaching by taperecorder was enormous - now possible to bring native speaking voices into classroom. Editing and self- recording facilities
were now available (cited in Mirhassani, 2003).
Audiovisual approach marked the start of the technological
age in language teaching and it did introduce important new
element and emphasized the need for visual presentation and
possibility of eliciting language from visual cues. It placed
more weight on the use of foreign language in classroom by
both teacher and pupil, and the language used was of greater
practicality. More gifted teachers used new courses with great
success moved forward to open -- ended question and answer work and extended dialog, designed their own supplementary materials, exercises and worksheets (cited in Barani,
Mazandarani & Seyyedrezaie,2010)
Its proved that multimedia technology plays a positive role in
promoting activities and initiatives of student and teaching
effect in English class. Technological innovations have gone
hand in hand with the growth of English and are changing
the way in which we communicate. And as a result if we neglect or ignore technological developments they will continue
and perhaps we will never be able to catch up, irrespective of
our discipline or branch. For this reason it is important for
language teachers to be aware of the latest and best equipment
and to have a full knowledge of what is available in any given

3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The present study aimed to promote the speaking rate of English in Iranian EFL university learners through the using of
audiovisual materials majoring in English language teaching
in Bandar Lengeh, and to amend the level of educational
books used in Iran universities by using of audiovisual materials (video, film). To this end, the following research questions were addressed:
1. Do audiovisual aids can promote the speaking rate of Iranian EFL university learners?
2. Are the reading based books effective in promoting the
speaking fluency of Iranian EFL learners?

4 LIMITATION AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study is about the role of audiovisual materials on speaking rate of English by university students whose first language
is Farsi. Participation in this study is delimitated to EFL students who are studying English Language Teaching in Azad
University of Bandarlengeh. This study only research Fourthand Fifth- semester students. The study has been done among
female students whose age level is between 20 -25 years old.
So, the male students are not taken part in this study.
The other limitation relates to the instruments to be used.
Two homogenous types of speaking tests of IELTS and not
other tests have been chosen as pretest and posttest.

5 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

It is believed that most of the methods developed over the
centuries have been still in use in various countries. It includes
building of different sentence types, word order, compound
sentences, word classes etc., and teachers continue to use
grammar translation method through course books.( Hosseini,
2007)
Even students at the university lack the necessary skills to use
English communicatively. Firstly, there is imbalance between
teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Sometimes, writing exercises simply mean practicing grammatical
structures instead of, for example, writing a diary or a letter to
a friend. Even those grammatical instructions lack communicative goals, though all the rules are taught in students native
language. Secondly, course books lack any audio-visual facilities to encourage communicative activities outside the class.
Also, course books do not promote grammar consciousnessraising tasks. (Moradkhan & Sohrabiyan, 2009)
Course books barely fulfill students and teachers needs. They
do not allow teachers to be creative in the class. Therefore,
teachers do not rely firmly on their knowledge and performance. There is little motivation for innovation in teaching
and the effort is to relay information or referring directly to
the answers. (Ghorbani, 2009)
(Tomlinson, 2008; Hutchinson & Torres, 1994) argue against
the efficiency of textbooks and inappropriateness of their or11

Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014
ISSN 2345-2633

situation. Teachers can use Multimedia Technology to give

more colorful, stimulating lectures (new Horizons)
According to cognitive psychology, learners can receive information through five senses. (Tryhong, 1987) proves that the
five senses play an effective role in getting information
through experiments: 83% information is obtained visually,
and 11% is obtained auditorally. Other information is through
olfactory organ (3.5%tactile organ (1.5%), and taste organ
(1%).Multimedia applied in the language class can offer multiple ways to convey the information, including the visual and
auditory access.
As Zhang (2006:11.1)points out through Multimedia and network technology we can offer students not only rich, sources
of authentic learning materials, but also an attractive and a
friendly interface, vivid pictures and pleasant sounds, which
to a large extent overcomes the lack of authentic language environment and arouses students' interest in learning English.
Media help us to motivate students by bringing a slice of real
life into the classroom and by presenting language in its more
complete communicative context. Media can also provide a
density of information and richness of cultural input not otherwise possible in the classroom, they can help students' process information and free the teacher from excessive explanation, and they can provide contextualization and a solid point
of departure for classroom activities (cited in Barani, Mazandarani & Seyyedrezaie,2010)
Audio-visual materials provide students with content, meaning, and guidance. They thus create a contextualized situation
within which language items are presented and practiced.
Celce-Murcia (2002).

dents are not taken part in this study. The participants were selected based on a pretest as the sample of this study.

6.3 Instruments and Materials

In order to determine the role of audiovisual aids on speaking
fluency of EFL learners, four instruments were used in this
study. In order to check the homogeneity of the two groups,
the researcher asked the subjects to take an IBT TOEFL Test in
the first session. The test consisted of 49 items to which the
learners had to answer in 56 minutes. This test divided into
four sessions: these are: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.
The second instrument was a sample speaking tests of IELTS
(a speaking test which was scored out of 30) which was used
as a pre- test. The third instrument which was used as a posttest was another sample speaking proficiency test of IELTS. In
order to score the interviews, a checklist developed by Askary
(2006) was used . The validity of checklist had been verified by
him using a pilot study. Regarding the checklist it should be
mentioned that it scores each speaking test out of 30. Moreover, it included six scales, including fluency, comprehension,
communication, vocabulary, structure and accent. Each scale
incorporates five levels (5 points). It should also be mentioned
that, to develop the speaking proficiency assessment checklist,
various sample checklists including Hughes (2003), Heaton
(1990), and Underhill (1987) were reviewed and closely evaluated by Askary (2006).
Regarding the materials that were used, it should be mentioned that three English video films were used.
6.4 Data collection procedure
This research was conducted based on pre-test and post- test design. The first step to take, before the participants were selected
was, an IBT TOEFL Test consisting of 49 items was given to the
subjects in the very first session. To do so, the tests were given to
a group of 60 initial EFL learners including just females. When
the scores of the tests were obtained, the average mean of the
scores were calculated and 40 participants who scored one standard deviation above and below the mean were selected as homogeneous language learners and divided into two groups as group
one ( n= 20 ) and group two (n= 20) based on random judgment
sampling.
Regarding the speaking test, it should be mentioned that each
interview was scored out of 30 according to the speaking proficiency scale which includes six scales of fluency, comprehension,
communication, vocabulary, structure, and accent and each scale
incorporated five levels (5 points).
More importantly, in order to increase the reliability of the speaking scores, rating activities were carried out first by the researcher
herself and then by an inter- rater and later the mean score of
speaking pre-post tests for every participant was calculated.
Throughout the experiment which lasted for two months (3 times
a week), the researcher provided group one with the English video films exposure to work on in- and out- side the classroom with
researcher monitoring. On the contrary, group two was provided
with non- videos program (active book 2) to work on in and outside the classroom with researcher monitoring.
During the experiment and for each interval between every two

6 METHDOLOGY
6.1 Design of the study
This study tried to analyze the role of audiovisual materials on
speaking fluency of Iranian EFL learners. The research was
designed so that it would provide answers to the following
question:
Do audiovisual materials can promote the speaking rate of
Iranian EFL university learners?
So the research question deals with the relationship between
two variables that is audiovisual aids and speaking rate.
The study designed a video based project. This study was a
pre- test/ post- test experimental/ control group design. Using Mann- Whitney test, two main types of data analysis were
used: (a) descriptive statistics, (b) paired and independent
sample t-tests was run to find if there were any significant
differences between the results of the experimental and control groups in the speaking test.
6.2 Participants
The participants of this study were initially 60 Iranian EFL learners including just females out of whom 40 participants were selected to carry the research with. They were studying English
Language Teaching in Azad University of Bandarlengeh. The
participants were studying in fourth- fifth semesters. The age of
the respondents ranged from 20- 25 years old. So the male stu12

Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014
ISSN 2345-2633

sessions, group one was asked to watch and listen to two epidown the summary of whatever which was viewed and discussed later inside the classroom. As the matter of fact, this was
only done to make sure that group one had at least the same minimum amount of exposure to audiovisual aids and group two
had at least the same minimum amount of exposure to non- video programs outside the classroom. Group one were gone to a
laboratory which was equipped with a computer in order to
watch an English video film while the other group, group two
were gone to an ordinary classroom which was just equipped
with a whiteboard in order to be taught in traditional teaching
method. To do so, the teacher (researcher) was write some kinds
of questions about the main subject of the specific lesson of that
session on the board and asked the students to answer to them.
After reading the passage for the first time by the teacher, then
while asking the students to read it paragraph by paragraph, and
explaining about the main idea of which and writing some kinds
of synonyms of the new words on the board, the researcher asked
the students to mention their ideas about that special paragraph.
And then the next paragraph was read by another student to the
end of the passage. Then I would ask them to answer to some
kinds of questions of the previous page written and orally about
the passage. For their homework, I asked them to answer to the
following questions about that passage. And they should for the
next session, using a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms, look-

sodes of the already selected film outside the classroom and write
ing for and write the synonyms of the new words of the next lesson and take to the classroom.
After two months of exposure ( three sessions weekly and each
session lasts 90 minutes ), all the participants took a same sample
speaking proficiency test of IELTS as a post- test to check if there
was any change in their speaking fluency.

6.5 Data analysis

Participants took part in a pre- test. Then the treatment did
on the experimental group. Then post- test was taken from all
of the experimental and control groups. An independent sample t- test was run to find if there were any significant differences between the results of the experimental and control
groups in the speaking test. The analysis of covariance was
used to show if there were any significant difference between
audiovisual aid users and non- audiovisual users.
Data was analyzed through computer program MannWhitney. Paired t- test was applied to compare the achievements of the experimental and control groups. For analysis of
covariance and independent sample t- tests, the .05 level of
statistical significance was selected.

7 DESCRIPTIVE RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

TABLE 1
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
Posttest Audiovisual Researcher
Pretest Audiovisual Researcher
Pretest Audiovisual Researcher colleague
posttest Traditional Researcher
pretest
Traditional Researcher
pretest
Traditional Researcher colleague
Valid N (listwise)

N
Statistic
20

Minimum
Statistic
10.00

Maximum
Statistic
27.00

Mean
Statistic
17.2000

Std. Error
1.05282

Std. Deviation
Statistic
4.70834

20

8.00

24.00

14.2500

.94277

4.21620

20

7.00

24.00

14.3500

.94109

4.20870

20

9.00

23.00

15.5000

.92765

4.14856

20

9.00

22.00

14.8000

.89030

3.98154

20

8.00

23.00

14.5500

.93885

4.19868

20

As we see, the mean score in pre- test (audiovisual users) which is

scored by the researcher is 14. 25, the minimum and maximum
scores of the subjects in this group is 8.00 and 24.00 respectively.
Whereas, the mean scores in post- test (audiovisual users) are
17.20, the minimum and maximum score of the subjects in this
time is 10.00 and 27.00 respectively. So this advancement in their

scores in post- test shows the success of the students in audiovisual approach.
According to this table, the students average score in pre- test
(traditional users) which is determined by the researcher is 14.80,
the minimum and maximum score of the participants in this
group is 9.00 and 22.00 respectively, however, the mean score in
13

Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014
ISSN 2345-2633

post test (traditional users) is 15.50, the minimum and maxi- post- test mean scores in the traditional users group.
mum scores of the students in this group is 9.00 and 23.00 respectively. So we can see that there is not so difference between pre
TABLE 2
THE RESEARCHER AND HER COLLEAGUE ANALYSIS OF TWO GROUPS IN PRE-TEST
Test
Groups

N
40
40

Mean
17.20
1.5000

Descriptive Statistics
Std. Deviation
4.637
.50637

Minimum
9
1.00

Maximum
27
2.00

MANN-W HITNEY TEST, TEST STATISTICS B

Mann-Whitney U

Test
198.000

Wilcoxon W

408.000

-.054

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)

.957

Exact Sig. [2*(1-tailed Sig.)]

.968a

a. Not corrected for ties.

b. Grouping Variable: groups

Analysis of calculated t- test provides us with the judgment

which allows us to accept or reject the null hypothesis of the
present study.
Different t- tests were calculated to compare the means of
the two groups on different tests. First, the means of the two
groups on speaking test (pre-test) given to the students at the
beginning of the program was compared and the t-test

showed no significant difference and confirmed their homogeneity. Then, to check the null hypothesis, the means of the
two groups on speaking test (post-test) at the end of the course
were also compared. According to the results taken by MannWhitney, the results of pre- test scores determined by both the
researcher and her colleague have not meaningful differences.

TABLE 3
THE COMPARISON BETWEEN PRE POST TEST SCORES IN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP
Test
groups

N
40
40

Mean
15.73
2.0000

Descriptive Statistics
Std. Deviation
4.657
1.01274

Minimum
8
1.00

Maximum
27
3.00

TEST STATISTICS
Mann-Whitney U
Wilcoxon W
Z
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
Exact Sig. [2*(1-tailed Sig.)]
a. Not corrected for ties.
b. Grouping Variable: groups

According to this table, level of significance for this study is

meaningful. So, we can conclude that the audiovisual users or

Test
126.500
336.500
-1.997
.046
.046a

on the other hand experimental group outperformed those in

control group.

TABLE 4
THE COMPARISON BETWEEN PRE POST TEST SCORES IN CONTROL GROUP
test
groups

N
40
40

Mean
15.15
6.0000

Descriptive Statistics
Std. Deviation
4.029
1.01274

14

Minimum
9
5.00

Maximum
23
7.00

Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014
ISSN 2345-2633

Test Statisticsbb

Mann-Whitney U
Wilcoxon W
Z
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
Exact Sig. [2*(1-tailed Sig.)]
a. Not corrected for ties.
b. Grouping Variable: groups

As we see in this table, level of significance in pre post -test

traditional group is not meaningful. As a conclusion the reading based books or on the other hand the traditional users are
the loser of this study.
To answer question 1. Ho 1: "Audiovisual materials cannot
promote the English speaking rate in Iranian EFL university
learners" was tested. An independent sample t- test was run to
find if there were any significant differences between the results of the experimental and control groups in the speaking
test. The results showed that there was a significant difference
between the results of experimental and control group.
To answer question 2, Ho 2. "The reading- based books are
effective in promoting the speaking fluency of Iranian EFL
learners" was tested using t- test. Result of the analysis rejected the hypothesis indicating that the reading- based books are
effective in order to improve the English speaking rate and
fluency of students. There was not a significant difference between the mean score of participants in pre post -test.

Test
179.500
389.500
-.557
.578
.583a

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8 CONCLUSION
According to Wright (1976:1) many media and many styles of
visual presentation are useful to the language learner. That is
to say, all audio-visual materials have positive contributions to
language learning as long as they are used at the right time, in
the right place. As Canning-Wilson (2000) describes video, at
the most basic level of instruction, is a form of communication
and it can be achieved without the help of language, since we
often interact by gesture, eye contact and facial expression to
convey meaning. A lot of research related to the present study
considers the use of technology and interaction in ESL context
to enhance language learning (Adams, Morrison, & Reedy,
1968; Decker, 1976; Keller, 1987; Clark & Sugrue, 1991; Phillips, 1998; Hubbard, 1998; Clifford, 1998; Egan, 1999; Pemberton et al, 2004). Methodologically speaking, watching video
films should be different from passive television viewing. So,
the teacher should encourage the learners to watch the films
actively, by using the supplementary materials, such as worksheets prepared by him or supplied with the films. When used
appropriately, video is quite beneficial for learners and teachers as long as they are considered only as mere entertainment,
but carefully chosen films can be a useful and extremely motivational teaching tool for both practicing listening skills and
stimulating speaking and writing (Katchen, 2002).

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