EFL Learners as Visualizers in Reading and Recalling Literary Texts

Abstract

Research in the field of reading skill indicates that lexical items that have entered our minds through reading a text commonly leave us with pictures, sounds, echoes, and feelings in the mind (cf. Stevick, 1986). While the ability to produce images in the mind in the process of reading appears to be vital for greater comprehension and recall of texts, it seems that many poor readers do not visualize as they read. On the contrary, those readers who do typically visualize achieve greater comprehension and recall (see Tomlinson, 1997). In this study, in line with Wittrock's 'generative learning theory' (e.g., 1992), two fairly homogeneous groups of EFL undergraduates (N=50) were randomly assigned to attend a short-story course in two different sections—one group serving as the experimental and the other as the control group, both studying the same short stories and being taught by the researcher as their teacher. The experimental group was instructed how to form pictures in the mind—i.e., how to visualize—before reading, while reading, and after reading a short story, for example, by being asked to draw the characters of the story as they perceived them. The control group, however, did not receive any training with respect to imagery production and was not asked to visualize either. The results of a reading comprehension test on the short stories that had been discussed in both classes, and also a recall test, administered two weeks later, indicated that the "visualizers" significantly outperformed the "non-visualizers," i.e., the control group, on both tests.