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Media, Multimedia and Meaningful Language Learning: A Review of the
Literature
Peter Shea
Department of Educational Theory and Practice
University at Albany, State University of New York
USA
PS7669@CNSVAX.ALBANY.EDU
Abstract: This review examines issues surrounding the effects of media on language
learning. Ausubel's notions of meaningful and non-meaningful learning are applied to the
theories and practices surrounding language acquisition and media use in an attempt to
discern whether the media employed in language teaching may have an effect on the
cognitive processes involved in language learning. Various conceptualizations of language
acquisitions are analyzed to determine if they influence media application and cognitive
outcomes. Studies are presented which support the position that media, through their
provision of different and potentially complementary symbol systems, can have positive
effects on learning outcomes. It is concluded that the linguistic and pedagogic theories
underlying media use tend to enable or constrain that effect.
The difference between meaningful and non-meaningful learning is an essential one and has been a question of
interest in the field of language learning. The question of the effects of media on learning has also been hotly
contested (Clark 1983, Kozma, 1991). Several commentators have noted that traditional uses of media in
language learning have failed to result in meaningful learning (Rivers, 1964, Richards & Rodgers, 1991). One
aspect of language learning research that has not been investigated fully involves an inquiry into the conditions
under which media can contribute to meaningful language learning. This review attempts to provide some
tentative answers to these questions through an analysis and integration of theoretical and empirical data.
Rote and Meaningful Learning
David Ausubel (1966) makes a distinction between rote and meaningful learning that is useful to a inquiry
regarding the value of media for language learning. The author describes rote learning as the process of
acquiring material as "discrete and relatively isolated entities that are relatable to cognitive structure only in an
arbitrary or verbatim fashion, not permitting the establishment of relationships (Ausubel, 1968)." In this type
of learning items are stored in ways that have little or no association with existing cognitive structure. For
example, in language learning students are often able to produce canned or formulaic expressions without
meaningfully understanding. While such expressions can contribute to language learning (Chesterfield 1985,
Oxford 1990), true fluency requires meaningful understanding.
Ausubel contrasts rote learning with meaningful learning which is described as a process of relating and
anchoring new material to relevant, established entities in cognitive structure. To achieve this requires that two
criteria be met. First, the student must have a meaningful learning set i.e. a disposition to relate material in a
nonarbitrary way to existing cognitive structure. Second, the task which the student performs in the learning
process must itself be potentially meaningful to the student, i.e. relatable in a non-verbatim fashion (Ausubel,
1966). In learning, material is meaningful if it is subsumable i.e., if the learner has some relevant cognitive
structures to which the material can be connected and a disposition to do so. Through a process of
systematically relating material with existing structure and making those structures denser and more inclusive
material is retained. The significance of the distinction between rote and meaningful learning lies in retention.
Items that are learned by rote are far more transient than those learned meaningfully.
Theories of Language and Meaningful Learning
While the theory of language beneath Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is fairly explicit and
grounded in the notion of communicative competence, the theory of learning in this approach is not so