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One question which arises in a discussion of media and language learning involves learner characteristics. The
cognitive demands of language learning can be great. Attending to and attempting to decode a foreign
language requires that mental resources be employed in ways that can easily result in misunderstanding. New
students are especially unlikely to have the relevant cognitive structures necessary to make meaning. In order
for meaningful learning to occur a basic prerequisite is that the medium facilitate rather than inhibit the
cognitive processes involved in the learning. Is it possible that the added cognitive strain of attending to
certain media, for example those characterized by their engagement of multiple channels of perception such as
networked multimedia environments, may result in cognitive overload and comprehension failure? The review
of relevant studies which follows attempts to address this question.
Dual Symbol Systems
A number of studies (Beagles-Roos, J. & Gat, I. 1983, Gibbons, J., Anderson, D., Smith, R., Field, D.,&
Fischer, C. 1986, Pezdek, K. & Hartman, E. 1983, Pezdek, K. & Stevens, E. 1984, Hayes, D., Kelly, S., &
Mandel, M. 1986) investigated the question of whether the simultaneous presentation of audio and visual
information taxes cognition at the expense of comprehension. One hypothesis in this debate is that, because ny
symbol system can carry meaning, restricting the flow of information to a single channel reduces the amount of
data which must be processed, allowing the learner to more effectively focus on the significance of the
message. A report by Gibbons (1986) is somewhat representative of studies in this area. Ninety-six children
aged 4.5 and 7.5 were presented stories in either audio or audiovisual form to investigate the hypothesis that
visually presented content is more memorable for children. The children were asked to recall or reconstruct the
stories. Audiovisual input led to better memory for explicitly presented action as well as provoking more
elaborations. The younger children were more likely to remember actions than utterences regardless of
medium.
Similar to Gibbons, none of the other investigators found that the simultaneous presence of two symbol systems
resulted in reduced comprehension for the younger and hence more cognitively challenged subjects. In most of
the studies (Baggett and Ehrenfeucht 1982, Beagles-Roos, J. & Gat, I. 1983, Pezdek, K. & Stevens, E.
1984) the authors concluded that simultaneously presented symbol systems resulted in more recall than
presentations using text only, audio only or video only. In these studies oral reconstructions and ordering
tasks were used to measure recall and hence comprehension. These tests can be viewed as measures of
discourse competence since the students had to combine grammatical forms and meanings to achieve a unified
or written text. Grammatical competence is also demonstrated in these tasks.
What is the relationship between the symbol system which a medium employs and the process of subsumption
involved in the acquisition of communicative competence in a foreign language? Remembering Ausubel's
definition of meaning is useful in answering the question: "Meaning is a clearly articulated and precisely
conscious experience that emerges when potentially meaningful signs, symbols, [italics added] concepts, or
propositions are related to and incorporated within a given individual's cognitive structure on a nonarbitrary
and substantive basis." (cited in Brown, p. 79) The results of the studies reported above may be accounted for
through an analysis of the nature of the symbol systems employed by the media. Children were able to
remember more and produce more accurate retellings when information was presented audiovisually because
such presentations provide more opportunities for incorporating material into relevant cognitive structure.
Bagget (1989) suggests that visual representations are "bushier", i.e. they carry more information. This
common sense notion is captured in the maxim - a picture is worth a thousand words.
Ausubel (1966) would also predict that children in the elementary school years would benefit more from visual
i.e. concrete expressions of concepts than adults who are more adept at handling oral i.e. abstract
representations (p.166). In general, audiovisual presentations, supplying additive and complementary
information of two symbol systems, are probably more beneficial to students with less domain knowledge ,
while audio may be sufficient for those with more content knowledge (Kozma 1991, p. 14). Furthermore,
information essential to the instruction of sociolinguistic competence, i.e. data that informs hypotheses
regarding the relationship and attendant levels of politeness, register and formality of conversants, may be
more difficult to interpret in purely aural presentations of language.
Three Symbol Systems