Does Multimodality Add to the Value of L2 Listening Homework? A Mixed-Methods Study of Comprehension and Cognitive Load

This study investigated the impact of multimodal listening homework assignments on English as a foreign language learners’ listening comprehension and its associated cognitive load (CL). Two groups of language learners (n = 58) participated in the study and received listening instruction with two different homework conditions. The first group did single-mode listening homework that required audio-only input processing. The second group did multimodal listening homework, demanding multimodal input analysis of animated videos. The participants’ entry level of listening comprehension and its associated CL were assessed before and after the study. The results displayed that the multimodal homework condition was more effective in improving the participants’ listening comprehension, particularly when contextualized dialogues or monologues were listened to. Moreover, the comparison between the initial and final CLs showed a significant rise in the germane load and an insignificant decline in the intrinsic and extrinsic loads perceived by the multimodal homework group. Students’ answers to the open-ended questionnaire showed that the experience had fruitful influences on their cognition and motivation and not only eased oral information processing but also aided them in learning and remembering the content of their textbook.