Learning action verbs with animation

Abstract

This study investigates whether dynamic animation annotations facilitate the learning of motion verbs better than static graphics annotations. Three eighth-grade classes were randomly assigned to a dynamic animation group, a static graphics group and a text-only group. In a one-way ANOVA design, their learning of 20 target words in two reading passages was assessed by production and recognition tests using a pretest and two posttests. Although the two visual groups outperformed the text-only group, differences between the dynamic animation group and the static graphics group were not detected. The findings support visual aided vocabulary learning and suggest that dynamic animations may be more useful to illustrate unfamiliar, culture-specific concepts in vocabulary lessons.