Supporting Listening Comprehension and Vocabulary Acquisition in French with Multimedia Annotations LINDA C. JONES Department of Foreign Languages, KIMP 425 University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR 72701 Email: lcjones@uark.edu JAN L. PLASS Educational Communication & Technology Program Steinhardt School of Education New York University 239 Greene St. New York, NY 10003 Email: jan.plass@nyu.edu English-speaking college students enrolled in a French course listened to a 2-minute, 20-sec- ond historical account in French presented by a computer program. The participants were randomly assigned to one of four listening treatments: the listening text (a) with no annota- tions available, (b) with only written annotations available, (c) with only pictorial annotations available, and (d) with both written and pictorial annotations available. The students remem- bered word translations and recalled the passage better when they had selected both written and pictorial annotations while listening rather than one of these types or no annotations. In addition, effect sizes were much larger for pictorial annotations than for written annotations, especially for delayed tests. The results were consistent with Mayer’s (1997, 2001) Generative Theory of Multimedia Learning and extend this theory to listening comprehension. IN THIS ARTICLE WE INVESTIGATE THE question of how effectively multimedia learning environments can assist second language (L2) students in the process of listening comprehen- sion. In particular, we ask how written and picto- rial annotations can aid learners in the acquisi- tion of new vocabulary and in comprehension when they listen to an aural L2 passage. Re- searchers and practitioners in the field have long identified a need for a deeper understanding of listening comprehension in L2 teaching (e.g., Cauldwell, 1996; Field, 1997; Joiner, 1997; Lynch, 1998; Mendelsohn, 1998), as well as for a better understanding of how the attributes of multime- dia can be utilized to enhance listening compre- hension (e.g., Brett, 1995, 1997; Hoven, 1999; Joiner, 1997; Lynch, 1998; Meskill, 1996; Pusack & Otto, 1997; Salaberry, 2001). To date, the ques- tion of how pictorial and written information may help students’ aural comprehension and vocabu- lary acquisition in a multimedia environment has not been sufficiently addressed. Listening comprehension in a L2 is the process of receiving, attending to, and assigning meaning to aural stimuli. It involves a listener, who brings prior knowledge of the topic, linguistic knowl- edge, and cognitive processes to the listening task, the aural text, and the interaction between the two (Coakley & Wolvin, 1986). Fischer and Farris (1995) viewed listening comprehension as a process whereby students actively construct a mental representation of an aural text based on prior knowledge of the topic and information found within. Hoven (1999) extended this defini- tion by arguing that constructive learning from aural materials can also depend on the students’ interaction with the characteristics of the text, the interlocutor, the task, and the process. In L2 education, teachers assign audio-based activities in order to develop students’ listening The Modern Language Journal, 86, iv, (2002) 0026-7902/02/546–561 $1.50/0 ©2002 The Modern Language Journal