Developing a multimedia instrument for technical vocabulary learning: a case of EFL undergraduate physics education

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to investigate the process of constructing a Multimedia Assisted Vocabulary Learning (MAVL) instrument at a university in Rwanda in 2009. The instrument is used in a one-computer classroom where students were taught in a foreign language and had little access to books. It consists of video clips featuring images, sound and text intended to facilitate learning and retention of technical vocabulary in a first-year electricity course. The construction takes theories of social constructivism and learning with multimedia as its point of departure. In response to the need for knowledge of scientific vocabulary, the researcher collaborated with a group of 82 students and their two teachers to select and encode 81 video clips of technical terminology. The gains from the process of constructing the instrument enabled collaborative and interdisciplinary learning and showed the potential to facilitate technical vocabulary acquisition.