Effects of system-paced and learner-paced multimedia instruction on learners’ vocabulary acquisition

Studies have found that having increased vocabulary knowledge in the early elementary years leads to increased educational achievement. However, many students continue to struggle with reading, and the main reason for this struggle is students’ limited vocabulary knowledge. In order to improve students’ vocabulary knowledge, a multimedia vocabulary instruction with conditions (one learner-paced and one system-paced) was designed and developed by combining research-based guidelines proposed by the Cognitive Load Theory of Multimedia, multimedia design principles, and effective vocabulary instruction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the pacing of multimedia instruction on students’ vocabulary acquisition and on students’ perceptions. Additionally, this study examined the relationship between the duration of instruction and the number of acquired words. A multimedia vocabulary instruction with two conditions (one learner-paced and one system-paced multimedia instruction) was designed and developed by combining research-based guidelines proposed by multimedia design and vocabulary instruction theories and models. Each of these instruction formats included visual text, narration, and graphic representations of targeted words. The learner-paced group was able to control the presentation with “play-pause,” buttons and the learner was given a chance to replay the instruction after each page ended. The system-paced version was presented without pauses and without allowing learners to control the pace. In order to reach this goal, an experimental research design was used with quantitative design principles. Participants were 71 second-grade students who were enrolled in a public charter school district located in the Southwestern United States. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions. Students in each group were asked to take a pretest (1 week before the intervention), the multimedia instruction (learner-paced or system-paced), a posttest, and a learners’ perception questionnaire. The data was analyzed by using an independent samples T Test and a Spearman Correlation Analysis. The results of the independent samples T-Tests revealed that there was no significant difference between the learner-paced and the system-paced groups in terms of students’ vocabulary acquisition and students’ perception of the multimedia instruction types. Additionally, the results of the Spearman Correlation Analysis revealed that there was no significant correlation between the students’ instruction completion time and their number of acquired words. Although this study has implications on multimedia instruction design for early elementary students, additional research is required to better understand the effect of learner control on early elementary students. This study has implications for multimedia instruction design for early elementary students.

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