The Effects of Multimodality on Receptive Vocabulary Acquisition Through Read-Alouds in the Swedish Lower Primary EFL Classroom : A quasi experiment on the effects of reading aloud with or without showing pictures as visual aids

It is important for children to learn English through both verbal and non-verbal support. This study aimed to research the effects of reading aloud to Swedish first grade pupils, with and without the use of multimodality, by showing pictures simultaneously as narrating. The study was based on the dual coding theory and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning. The method used was a quasi-experiment inspired by similar previous research conducted on other school ages in other parts of the world. The main findings of the study were that the experimental group that was exposed to multimodality during the read aloud had a greater vocabulary acquisition than the control group. An unexpected pattern was also found in the results of the study, showing that there was a noticeable difference between the results of the genders in the assessments. A higher percentage of girls than percentage of boys, in both the control group and the experimental group, scored a higher target word score in both the posttest and the delayed posttest compared to the pretest. Further research on using multimodality when reading aloud to children is suggested to fill in any research gaps. The suggestions for future research are to conduct a similar experiment with more participants, in the same time frame of the day with both groups, with more time having passed before conducting the delayed posttest as well as triangulating the research.