چكيده
The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the effect of visual aids on Elementary level Iranian EFL visual and auditory oriented learners’ vocabulary learning. To conduct this study 114 homogeneous Elementary level learners were chosen from among a population of 154 learners through a KET Language proficiency test; then participants went through a piloted teacher-made vocabulary test to check their comparability in their knowledge of the words to be taught during the treatment. With regard to the results of a one-way ANOVA which showed no significant differences between the means of groups, all 114 participants were considered to be at the same level of vocabulary knowledge. Moreover the participants were administered piloted Persian version of VARK learning styles questionnaire, and based on their answers 83 visual and auditory oriented learners entered the study. Then the participants were assigned to 3 groups, non-randomly. While control group (consisted of both visual and auditory oriented learners) received instruction of 35 vocabulary items through L1 equivalents, both experimental groups (one consisted of visual oriented learners, and the other consisted of auditory oriented learners) were taught the same words through visual aids. After 8 sessions of instruction posttest was administered to all groups. Obtained results through a one-way ANOVA and contrast tests showed a significant difference between the means of the groups, and indicated that although visual aids have significant effect on Elementary Level Iranian EFL visual and auditory oriented learners’ vocabulary learning, visual oriented learners benefited more from visual aids than auditory oriented learners.
