Innovation in Language Learning

Although multimedia technologies have proven to be effective educational tools for language learning, most of the studies in this area have been conducted in EFL/ESL contexts. However, there is a need for an increased understanding of the contribution of multimedia technologies to ESP courses, where language use is limited to the professional environment, and the learners are heavily influenced by time and resource limitations. This study was conducted to investigate the role of implementing multimedia on ESP learners' reading ability and cognitive load in an Archival Science ESP course. The participants consisted of 48 archivists working in the National Library and Archives of Iran in two experimental groups selected based on convenience sampling. Two multimedia-assisted task-based and task-based-only methods were employed in a 10-session ESP course. Following a mixed-methods design, the data were collected and analyzed through using independent samples t-tests comparing the means of the two groups on the reading comprehension tests and the cognitive load self-rating scale in the quantitative phase of the study. Moreover, an inductive thematic analysis approach was employed in the qualitative phase to analyze the data gathered through stimulated recall sessions considering the cognitive load the participants had experienced while they were engaged in multimedia-assisted task-based ESP learning. The quantitative findings suggested that multimedia learning was significantly effective in improving ESP learners' reading ability; however, it generated a higher level of cognitive load in the learning process. The qualitative findings revealed that technology-related problems, learner-related problems, content-related problems, and instruction-related problems were the most important factors leading to an increase in the cognitive load in the multimedia-assisted task-based ESP condition.