Develop and Evaluate the Effects of Multimodal Presentation System on Elementary Esl Students

The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the effects of multimodal presentation system (MPS), a multimodal presentation software integrated with interactive whiteboard (IWB), on student learning in the elementary English as second language (ESL) course. It focuses primarily on techniques and tools to enhance the students’ ESL learning achievement and learning satisfaction in the classroom setting. This paper utilizes the MPS, based on Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML), to present the multimedia instructional materials in auditory and visual modalities. This learner-centered instruction was compared with a traditional teacher-centered English teaching using blackboard. An experimental research design was employed and 134 fifth-graders were involved in this study. Evaluation of the instruction was based upon data from test scores and questionnaire related to students’ learning satisfaction. In addition, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with randomly selected participants from experimental group to express their perspectives on the merit of using the MPS. The results revealed that there were statistically significant differences between the students in experimental group and control group on measures of learning effectiveness. More details of the results and implications are also discussed in the study.