چکیده (انگلیسی):

As technology continues to evolve, authentic multimedia-based teaching materials are widely used
in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. However, they may lie beyond most
language learners’ proficiency level. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of
advance organizers in conjunction with the cognitive theory of multimedia learning in EFL
students’ comprehension of English-language DVD soundtrack material. Two types of advance
organizers were developed: 1) a 5-minute film preview with captions followed by brainstorming
and 2) 20 episodic photos important to the main idea of the film, each accompanied by a caption
in the form of a line from the film, and a control condition was used for a comparative purpose. A
total of 128 intermediate university-level EFL students were placed in a 3-week teaching
experiment based on a Latin Square research design and were also asked to complete a post -test
questionnaire. The findings showed the participants in the condition of the 5-minute film preview
followed by brainstorming performed at a significantly higher level than in the condition of 20
episodic photos, which, in turn, outperformed the control condition on the multiple-choice
listening test. It was assumed that the first type of advance organizer was more meaning ful and
involved a higher level of cognitive processing, and thus it should have had more impact on the
comprehension and retention of the aural input. Limitations of the study and suggestions for
further research on the facilitative effect of advance organizers on target-language DVD video
comprehension are discussed.