http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4065-6595
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ABSTRACT
Using the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, this study aimed to evaluate the design of one multimedia courseware used for teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in China and to compare the attitudinal differences in the teachers’ and students’ evaluation of the courseware. A questionnaire was developed and validated. Results indicated that the design of the courseware generally complied with the coherence principle, the signalling principle, the spatial contiguity principle, and the temporal contiguity principle but slightly violated the redundancy principle. The results of the independent sample t-tests on the questionnaires and the further analyses of the interviews revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the teachers’ and students’ evaluation concerning the coherence principle, the redundancy principle, and the spatial contiguity principle. Findings of this study suggested that the cognitive theory of multimedia learning can be a useful tool for evaluating multimedia courseware for teaching and learning EFL, as the theory is firmly grounded on the characteristics of human cognitive architecture and places the users in the centre of courseware design and evaluation.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. We are also grateful to the participant students and teachers of this research.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Dayu Jiang
Dayu Jiang is a PhD candidate in education at the School of Education, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australia. He holds an MA in applied linguistics from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests include English language teaching, cognitive load theory, courseware evaluation, instructional design, and computer assisted language learning.
Willy A. Renandya
Willy A. Renandya, PhD, is a language teacher educator with extensive teaching experience in Asia. He currently teaches applied linguistics courses at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has published extensively, including an edited book Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice (CUP, 2002, 2008). His latest publications include Essential factors affecting EFL learning outcomes (English Teaching, 2013) and Motivation in the language classroom (2014, TESOL International). He maintains an active language teacher professional development forum called Teacher Voices: https://www.facebook.com/groups/teachervoices/.
Lawrence Jun Zhang
Lawrence Jun Zhang, PhD, is Professor and Associate Dean, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, New Zealand. A past Post-Doctoral Fellow at University of Oxford, he has published widely on the psychology of language learning in British Journal of Educational Psychology, Discourse Processes, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Instructional Science, System, TESOL Quarterly, and Journal of Second Language Writing. His current interests lie in biliteracy and reading and writing development. He is the sole recipient of TESOL Award for Distinguished Research 2011 for his article in TESOL Quarterly (2010). He is a Co-Editor of System (Elsevier) and TESOL Quarterly (Wiley) and an editorial board member for Applied Linguistics Review (de Gryuter), Journal of Second Language Writing (Elsevier), Pedagogy and Writing (Equinox), and Metacognition and Learning (Springer). He reviews manuscripts for Applied Linguistics, Modern Language Journal, and Review of Educational Research, among other journals.