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[|Acha, J. (2009). The effectiveness of multimedia programmes in children's vocabulary learning. //British Journal of Educational Technology, 40 (1), 23-31.] **Article Summary: ** An experiment investigated which presentation mode of multimedia program would help in learning more vocabulary in a second language: one with pictures, one with words, or one with a combination. The growing use of multimedia programs in schools (e.g., via the Internet) has conveyed a great support to individual learning in the sense that it allows the student to access different kinds of information at the same time (words, pictures, audio) and at their own pace. Thus, the designers of multimedia programs face the challenge of adapting programs to the learner's characteristics as well as making certain the programs are effective [|(Ávila & Sadoski, 1996).]

Previous research on the same topic using adults has indicated that adding a picture to a word, in an unknown language, may enhance the student’s acquisition and storage process for that particular word ([|Tindall-Ford, Chandler & Sweller, 1997)]. The word and picture strategy may connect the new word to a previous experience in the student’s long-term memory. In this study, one hundred and thirty five 3rd and 4th grade Spanish students participated in the experiment. All students were tested at the beginning of the experiment and each was judged by his/her teacher as making normal progress according to the grade level expectations in the English language. The students were presented with an interactive multimedia short story that consisted of 101 English words. Twelve previously unknown words (key words) were embedded within the story. Different types of multimedia annotations were available for these words to help with the meaning of them. Students were presented with verbal annotations (written translation), visual annotations (picture representation), and a combination of the two to assist in their understanding of the twelve key words. To begin, students were given a 60 English word pretest to complete at their own pace. Students were instructed to write the meaning of the words they knew in Spanish. The next day, the spatial ability and verbal test was administrated. The story with the multimedia was read. Students were randomly assigned to the three groups (word only, picture only, or word and picture). All students were given a brief demonstration of the program with a preview on each computer. Findings determined that those with low cognitive abilities, learning may be worse when a picture is added in a multimedia program. This is due to the fact that students must translate an ambiguous picture into a non-ambiguous word meaning. Results show that in a second language vocabulary learning multimedia program presenting a word is more effective than presenting the word together with the picture or only picture. It allows the student to work in a direct connection between the native language and its foreign equivalent. The authors suggested that multimedia programs can "overload" the working memory of school children with too many stimuli. They suggest that the best approach to teaching children vocabulary is by providing only the written translation. **Critique: ** I believe that this article was very enlightening. As an English teacher, I am constantly interested in ways to build my students vocabulary. After reading the article I felt somewhat worried. I have always believed that a picture is worth a thousand words. I usually use pictures for beginners (3rd-6th grade) when I introduce new vocabulary and for reviewing. I have found it personally helpful and it caters to the [|visual learners]. I have begun compiling different pictures of semantic sets on my computer as a result of participating in the [|ICT project]in school. I am adding the audio and translation as well. My concern is that the authors of this article made a generalization to all school age children, although, the participants had a mean age of 8.5. [|Cognitive abilities]vary with the age of the student, even in elementary. A 3rd grade student functions at a different level than a 5th grade student. I think that since most of the previous research was conducted on adults, more research should be done on school children at different levels before generalizing.