Effects of Multimedia Vocabulary Annotations and Learning Styles on Vocabulary Learning

This first goal of the study described here was to investigate the effectiveness of three types of vocabulary annotations on vocabulary learning for EFL college students in Taiwan: text annotation only, text plus picture, and text plus picture and sound. The second goal of the study was to determine whether learners with certain perceptual learning styles benefited more from a particular type of vocabulary annotations. The perceptual learning styles investigated were auditory, visual-verbal (with text), visual-nonverbal (with pictures), and mixed preferences. The results of the study showed that the version with text plus picture was the most effective type of vocabulary annotation. Perceptual learning styles did not seem to have a significant influence on the effectiveness of vocabulary annotations.