https://doi.org/10.25312/j.8546

Katarzyna Kocurek https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2076-9127 Skoczów Technical and Comprehensive School Complex, Poland k.kocurek1212@gmail.com

Krzysztof Polok https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0283-9665 University of Bielsko-Biala, Poland sworntran@interia.pl

The function of multimedia in the process of teaching English with the help of Post-Method techniques

Funkcja multimediów w procesie nauczania języka angielskiego z wykorzystaniem technik postmetodowych

Abstract

This article presents the specific functions of multimedia in the process of English language teaching and learning with the active addition of Post-Method techniques. An experiment was conducted with two groups of learners in order to prove or reject the hypothesis. One group used textbooks throughout the entire time of the experiment whereas the other one used both the textbooks (the first two weeks) and the selected Post-Method techniques (the second two weeks). The statistical elaboration of the results showed that the multimedia tools, alongside the selected Post-Method techniques, delivered better learning and teaching results.

Keywords: multimedia, the Affective Filter Hypothesis, Post-Method, CALL, ICT tools

Streszczenie

W artykule przedstawiono konkretne funkcje multimediów w procesie nauczania i uczenia się języka angielskiego z wykorzystaniem technik postmetodowych. Przeprowadzono eksperyment z dwiema grupami uczniów w celu udowodnienia lub odrzucenia głównej hipotezy badawczej. Jedna grupa korzystała z podręczników przez cały czas trwania eksperymentu, podczas gdy druga korzystała zarówno z podręczników (pierwsze dwa tygodnie), jak i wybranych technik postmetodowych (drugie dwa tygodnie). Statystyczna analiza wyników wykazała, że narzędzia multimedialne, obok wybranych technik postmetodowych, przyniosły lepsze rezultaty w uczeniu się i nauczaniu.

Słowa kluczowe: multimedia, hipoteza filtra afektywnego, postmetoda, CALL, narzędzia ICT

Introduction

With the expansion of multimedia tools, the way of teaching has changed. L2 lesson design has been transformed to meet the needs of L2 students (and their teachers). Research to discover and sketch the forms of behaviour in different L2 classrooms is required to find out the ways L2 lessons need to be modified to meet the expectations of contemporary L2 learners. The massive growth of different forms of multimedia, together with the ap- plication of various ICT tools oblige L2 teachers to determine the forms of lessons that meet the expectations of current L2 students.

Students expect to use, in different ways, multimedia based forms of communication (Vollstädt, 2002). L2 teachers have the possibility of tailoring their lessons so that students can take advantage of the possibilities offered by the contemporary world, such as chatting and/or texting with their peers in different parts of the world, commenting upon various pictures and/or situations presented to them via different social media, Facebook and/or Instagram included, taking an active part in different video games , as well as many other forms of expressing their points of view on a plethora of different pieces of information. Relying on standard L2 lessons limited to (probably important) mostly passively an- chored information derived from course-books and/or workbooks is unlikely to resonate with contemporary L2 learners. According to the authors of this article, it is pointless to attempt to convince L2 learners that learning a language should be sharply directed towards the attainment of grammatical and structural correctness in as short a period as possible. Likewise, it also seems to be pointless to convince L2 learners that there exists only one correct way of message production that they should memorize and later apply in different hypothetically occurring situations. Contemporary L2 learners should know that any form of message production depends on them and what they are being informed about during their L2 lessons are only possible patterns that may be later reproduced and

reshaped by the authentic authors of such or similar messages.

Such an approach naturally influences the process of error understanding. Instead of making it a barrier necessary to be overcome by any learner, if only s/he wishes to be assessed positively (by both his/her present teacher and any of possible message recipients in the future), L2 learners ought to be made aware that there is something far more important than impeccably made and errorless produced messages, and that these are the contents of the messages hidden in them. An approach like this should make

them aware that making errors does not mean being unable to communicate; quite the contrary, using those language elements they have been able to store, they should be invited to actively produce their own messages, (which, may contain as many errors, if such messages cannot be produced in any other way). After all, when looking deeper into the categories of errors, one can find different types, starting from slips of language, up to blunders. And secondly, as an old Latin proverb says, it is through errors that people educate themselves; thus, studying errors and becoming conscious of their nature, L2 learners will discover themselves the correct ways of informing about their problems (Pienemann, 1989).

This approach, aimed at learning the correct forms of message-production should become the leading aspect of any L2 lesson offered to contemporary learners, mostly because this form of L2 education remains the simplest way to convince the learners that there is still some sense in learning a foreign language. Now, in the period of bold and active introduction of various aspects of the AI (Artificial Intelligence) possibilities, when contemporary learners have been notified by mobile phone sellers about the possibility to use AI to perform various communication-related intermediary activities between a message producer and its recipient, L2 learners must be given a strong impulse to start learning the language for themselves. This is mostly why such lessons have to be topic customized, contextualized and individualized, as Monthienvichienchai (2005) sees the whole process of contemporary L2 delivery. Contemporary L2 lessons need to be strongly user-led, with the topics able to raise the inherent hidden interest of the learners that should help the lesson activities stress (and strengthen) their individual work. The application of different ICT tools during such user-led L2 lessons, can not only make such lessons more student-focused, but also much simpler and more cognitively accepted by the learners. At the same time, the application of ICT tools alone does not change the whole picture of L2 didactics much; what needs to be added are specific issues advocated by Kumaravadivelu’s Post-Method theory (Kumaravadivelu, 2001).

Literature review

In their old, but still quite popular book, Warschauer and Healey (1998) claim that – starting from the 1960s – the following next 30 years were the years of, respectively, behaviourist CALL, communicative CALL and integrative CALL. They also analyse the development of different CALL-related software, which not only goes hand in hand with the language learning curriculum, but also verifies students’ needs, provides authentic, native-speaker models using diverse media; defines the next steps L2 students should take, provides exercises to master specific skills, and/or records and evaluates students’ progress. Naturally, all of these activities are linked with different aspects of the educa- tional groundwork responsible for the theoretical construction of the software (specified explicitly by the authors with the names of each of the CALL segments). While analysing the forms of educational approach one can find the influence of constructivism, cognitive psychology, affecting filter hypothesis and many others.

Following Nunan (1999), the core of constructivism is to help students to use their own experience during knowledge assimilation. Students should not thoughtlessly get the knowledge from teachers. According to Zhu (2011), the process of gaining the knowledge is not only to be limited to classical teaching periods; quite the contrary, it should be extended to the introduction of many new and effective forms where both the teachers and the learners could actively co-participate and where the process of L2 learning be smoothly incorporated into the very core of a lesson design. As Zhu (2011) observes, while working with students from different social and cultural backgrounds, L2 teachers should be made responsible for the success of their lessons, the ones based upon the design of various forms of digital teaching practice included.

More issues that need to be taken into account while designing L2 lessons are – as they have been called by Matlin (1989) – the learners’ psychological specifics, as well as different psychology-defined cognitive laws. As Matlin (1989) puts it, a student needs to be considered an active and productive being - s/he could never be seen as a passive recipient of knowledge only. One of the answers this stance provides is why multimedia forms of language education are so successful; if one combines different multimedia, such as images, text, sound, graphics, etc., one can truly expect to get the students’ attention, interest and willingness to learn the materials presented to them. Following the achieve- ments of contemporary research (Hahne, Eckstein, Friederici, 2004; Storkel 2009; Larina, 2015), L2 learners receive different chunks of information with the help of their five sens- es1. At the same time the experiments carried out by Trylong (1987) provide convincing evidence that the majority of information (83%) is acquired visually, with the remaining 17% to be acquired with the help of other senses (11% using the sense of hearing, 3.5% in the olfactory way, 1,5% using one’s tactile abilities and only 1% with the help of taste).

However, the very process of L2 discovery, as well as the activities that finally result in its storing largely depend upon the processes that are directly responsible for the con- tacts L2 learners experience during their sessions devoted to new and unknown lexis and syntax studies. Krashen (1987) claims that there are two practically independent systems of foreign language performance, calling them ‘the system of L2 acquisition’ and ‘the system of L2 learning’ respectively. The first of them, i.e. the ‘acquisition’ system is the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire their first language. It requires L2 based meaningful interaction, carried out in the form of natural communication, in which speakers do not concentrate on the form of their utterances, but on the act of communication. According to Krashen (1987), follow- ing the processes performed by more advanced (or native) L2 speakers by the learners adds to the subconscious mental (cognitive) visualization of phrases. In contrast to this natural process of L2 storing, the ‘L2 learning system’ rests upon a number of selective- ly produced and included into specific lesson designs systems of exemplary patterns of communication activities, which are later expected to be analyzed by the learners them- selves in the presence of their teachers and purposefully used in earlier selected forms of quasi-communication (i.e. the selected forms of communication designed purposefully

1 Such an approach lends itself in Howard Gardner’s (2011) definition of multiple intelligences.

by the teachers to help the learners recognize and become aware of the manners certain forms of communication may be effected).

Both processes of L2 contact earlier described by Krashen (1987) cumulate in the ways of their practical realization, which Krashen terms ‘affective filters’. There are a number of affective factors, which are believed to be playing an important role in language acquisition/ learning. Such factors as anxiety, self-doubt, motivation and/or self-confidence are all critical emotional variables to be considered as being implicated in the process of L2 acquisition. Apart from these factors which are closely linked with linguistics, there are also social and/or psychological factors. They tend to work as some kind of ‘adjustable filter’, which either helps L2 users in passing the learned material, or appear as a blocking mechanism. The use of different multimedia, from a psychological perspective, is considered as being highly helpful to any L2 learner both in regards to improving students’ ability to learn by themselves and in enhancing their interest and communication in L2.

The use of multimedia is believed help learners become independent and/or learn in an active way. With a multiplicity of resources, students can pick those that suit them best. Each part of the material just learned can be repeated by the students using the selected materials available on the Internet. Thus, the students do not have to be limited to the material sent by their teacher and may search their favourite websites for useful material. Teachers, using different ICT tools, can freely choose from various resources to prepare an interesting lesson for their students. The variety of special effects, pictures, sounds, animation and others, can attract students’ attention to the topics being presented. This kind of teaching and learning can uplift students’ desire to study English in a more active, fun and enjoyable way. Such real-life situations can be easily arranged in the class, when within a few seconds, teachers can ‘transfer’ their students to a fully different location, letting the students hear natural English and listen to people speak about a number of

different topics.

When using ICT tools quite some problems can arise. L2 teachers have to learn how to effectively use various ICT tools. The first often observed issue is the so-called over- use of multimedia. It is quite possible that many teachers who use the multimedia while teaching English, start being too dependent on them. Some teachers may not have their own ideas how to make their lessons interesting, thus using multimedia as a cure for their lack of ideas or enthusiasm. One must remember that all ICT tools should be used to support the whole process of L2 contact by the learners. An entire lesson overloaded with multimedia contents is not a good option. Students should still be exposed to traditional teaching methods, receive teachers’ critical remarks and/or be encouraged to get involved in creative thinking and making use of it for themselves.

Another problem noticed in the teachers’ relation to using multimedia while teaching English is confusion. As Han and other authors (2018) put it, through easy access to multimedia, it may happen that a teacher not only breaks the traditional model of black- board and chalk demonstration, but also completely ignores the role s/he should play in the classroom. Some teachers fill up their lessons with ready, Internet-based courses, not involving any of their own ideas. These teachers lack creativity; most often they use

somebody else’s work during the entire classes, not paying due heed to the needs and/or demands of their learners at all (Gilakjani, 2012).

In the process of teaching, the teacher always performs a crucial role of a guide. Stu- dents are led by teachers, who are always able to rise their students’ interest and enthu- siasm in a given topic. Following Han and others (2018), this lack of guidance may also be recognized as one more outcome of the overuse of multimedia. Teachers ought not to forget, that students need their guidance and that overloading students with the multimedia content will not work well for them.

Another problem noticed by Han and other authors (2018) concerns those teachers who lack technical skills to assist the ICT tools that may be recognized as being of help for the L2 learners taking part in some multimedia sharing lesson contents. Some of them have wide knowledge and brilliant minds, however, they lack technical skills. Such poor use of even a few selected multimedia, not only negatively influences the quality of a lesson (leading to the gradual lack of students’ interest, enthusiasm and willingness to learn English), but also acts negatively on the teachers’ self-esteem. As a result one can see overwhelmed students who lose their interest and burnt-out teachers who do not feel like being in charge.

One helpful process that may counteract such unwelcome situations in students (and possibly teachers as well) seems to be some of the techniques advocated by Kumarava- divelu (2001) in the three dimensional system of the Post-Method. As Kumaravadivelu (2001) claims, the Post Method pedagogy cannot be described by one definition. It is a broad topic and a person who would like to put it into one category, will fail. That is why a special system of three parameters was created by its author to make it clearer and more understandable. These parameters are: the pedagogy of the particularity, the pedagogy of the practicality and the pedagogy of the possibility respectively.

Briefly speaking, the pedagogy of particularity is one of the main parameters that have to be taken under consideration when the notion of the Post Method is to be analyzed. What is the most important about the pedagogy of particularity is that a specific group of teachers (as well as a specific group of learners) become the centre of the whole process of teaching and learning, L2 education included. Furthermore, both the teachers (and the students) should have a particular goal in mind. Apart from that, everything must take place within a specific institutional framework rooted in a specific socio-cultural context. Primary attention should be paid to the individual psychological and intellectual features of the learners, so as to protect them from becoming distant (Coleman, 1990) from the topics delivered to them. As the author remarks, if no activities securing the situation of being close to the topic have been undertaken, the learning process becomes impossible. The second parameter, i.e. the idea of pedagogy of practicality, goes beyond a daily routine observed in a classroom. Following O’Hanlon (1995), any professional theory stands for a theory created by scholars who come from higher education centres and most often have no everyday contact with students. On the other hand, a personal theory (directly connected with the process of teaching normally applied by a teacher), is gained by daily contact with the learners, who regularly appear in the classroom, facing differ- ent, often difficult situations which need to be handled. This type of experience ought to

be respected, giving teachers a chance to form their own theories, which can be used at work with the students. Sadly, as Kumaravadivelu (2001) points out, such theories are often disregarded and underestimated (even by their authors themselves). In regards to a pedagogy of practice teachers should implement in practice the knowledge and theory which they find works best2.

The third parameter analyzed by Kumaravadivelu (2001), i.e. the pedagogy of possibility was actually created by a Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire (1996). Following the stance presented by Freire (1996), understanding the learner’s social, political, and economic environment is critical in the process of education. Teachers’ attitude toward learners as individuals is crucial when new information is introduced. As Kumaravadivelu (2001) observes, people vary greatly depending on where they come from, depending on their background and their current social circumstances.

As one can easily observe, the principal assets of the Post-Method activities (as well as the main techniques and procedures accepted there) do not go far away from the claims raised by Monthienvichienchai (2005), when she underlines the necessity of contemporary lessons to be more user-led - lessons should be more topic customized, contextualized and individualized. These requests closely fit the analyses given by Kumaravadivelu (2001) and are fully included in the three parameters of education presented by him.

Similar observations as for the necessity of designing all lessons (L2 lessons included) as close to learners’ expectations as possible can also be found in the conclusions Yulian- dri’s research (2017) and closely demonstrate that the use of multimedia when teaching and learning English (with the help of Post-Method indications) improve students’ results, positively affect their motivation and self-learning abilities, and generally lead to a better understanding of what the language learnt by the students is for. The students are more interested in the topic and gain higher scores when tested. They are also more familiar with the new technological tools and tend to have better results when acquiring the language. Finally, the students have been found to be more satisfied with this way of L2 learning, they tend to have higher level of self-esteem. They also learn how to use the multimedia themselves and are thus able to work independently.

Methods

The main purpose of the research was to find out whether (1) the use of multimedia with the combination of Post-Method techniques could improve students’ self-learning ability and whether (2) the Post-Method itself could help learners improve their language espe- cially when teaching has been combined with the application of the selected ICT tools. The following hypotheses were raised:

The main hypothesis of the research looks as follows: The use of a combination of mul- timedia and the Post-Method help get better results when teaching and learning English.

2 See also important remarks on the topic in a seminal work by Darlene Howard (1983).

Apart from that we also formulated two sub-hypotheses and three corresponding research questions. Both the hypotheses and the corresponding research questions have been placed in table 1.

Table 1. The research hypotheses and the research questions

Source: own elaboration.

Our main assumption was that some form of self confidence among both L2 learners and their teachers had to be produced if the two parties were to harmoniously coexist and co-operate during language lessons (it is worth mentioning that the issue of self-confi- dence is actually one of the principal assets of the Post-Method). Appropriately combined multimedia and Post-Method procedures could then help create positive and enjoyable classes which should lead to better results when teaching and learning English. It was believed that a positive atmosphere during the lessons and the growth of the feeling of confidence should improve the students’ and teachers’ educational results. If both students and teachers felt confident in such lessons, the stress level (level of L2 anxiety) would go down and motivation and self-belief would increase.

The participants of the experiment were two groups of primary seventh grade students attending a primary school, located in Cieszyn, Poland. The number of students (both boys and girls) in the two groups was exactly the same (20 students). It was found that some students were very communicative, whereas some others needed to be engaged and requested to say anything during the lesson. The research strategy applied for the purpose of the study was a quantitative approach. We prepared a pre-test and post-test for two groups of students, i.e. the control group (CG) and the experimental group (EG), that took part in the experiment.

In the first part of the experiment, both groups completed the same test (a pre-test) which aimed to check students’ language proficiency and the level of language knowl- edge. They had two weeks to revise the material they dealt with in the previous years. After that a semester long experiment period took place. During the experiment time both the control and the experimental group used the same course-book (Brainy 7 issued by MacMillan Poland), but the experimental group was additionally helped with the application of various multimedia tools (the two groups were taught with the use of the

same Post-Method exercises but the two groups followed different lesson plans). Both groups had four hours of English per week before the pre-test. Afterwards, at the end of the experiment, the second test, (a post-test) was carried out in the both groups and the obtained results were calculated statistically with the help of a t-test. Both the pre-test and the post-test for both groups were identical and included one listening task, two vocab- ulary tasks and two grammar tasks. All the students could get 20 points maximum. The comparison of the students’ test results helped support (or reject) the hypotheses. In each test the students followed the same set of tests: two vocabulary checking tests, a listening test and two grammar checking tests.

The first tasks which the students were asked to complete were these checking their vocabulary. They were to fill in the gaps in different utterances and/or insert context-related missing word collocations. Students had three different options to choose from in each sentence. The third task given to the two groups was a task with five different utterances, where in each utterance there was one word missing. There was the first letter of each word given in the gap-beginning word. The students were asked to fill the gap writing down the proper word that fits the entire sentence.

The listening task was to check if the students understood four different utterances and if they were able to match them in the proper order. The listening corresponded with after-school activities. Before the test, the students could find the same utterances in MacMillan’s book. Also, the experiment-taking groups could use listening tasks available in the book. After listening to the recorded information, the students were asked to match each utterance to the statements given. There was also one extra statement that did not fit any utterance.

The two grammar controlling tasks mostly focused upon checking the correct order of the sentences and the application of correct tenses in the sentence gaps given to the learners. The multimedia used within the study for the experimental group were Wordwall, YouTube, teacher-prepared Internet contents, PowerPoint graphs and animations. All this was possible with the use of a computer, the Internet and a multimedia whiteboard. The aim of such a combination was to broaden the students’ horizons, to stir up the students’ imagination and to enhance their interest in a given topic. All the exercises were helpful in regard to vocabulary memorizing, understanding the meaning of specific phrases and

mastering grammar.

Wordwall was used to improve the students’ vocabulary, phrases forming, grammar and many other abilities. Within the experimental group, Wordwall’s “match up” procedure was used (i.e. dragging and dropping each keyword next to its definition); the “unjamble” procedure, (i.e. dragging and dropping words to rearrange each sentence into its correct order); the “missing word” technique (i.e. an activity where students drag and drop words into blank spaces within a text), and the “matching pairs” technique, (i.e. tapping a pair of tiles at a time to reveal if they match).

During the preparations for the post-test, a YouTube platform was also used. It is full of different videos which were uploaded for students before the post-test took place. Several short films were chosen consisting of grammar structures. The films featured age-appropriate material, their current problems or things that interest them. It could be

helpful when it comes to the students who need additional stimulus. There is a combi- nation of motion and sound, which might help students remember specific utterances or grammar structures better.

Findings

As said before, the reason to undertake the experiment was to check, if there was a sig- nificant change noticed between the results of the pre-tests and the post-tests within the group of the students who followed the textbooks only and the group of students who, apart from using the textbooks, also used different multimedia tools. The two groups were taught with the help of the techniques assigned to the Post-Method activities.

Within three months, both groups prepared for the post-test. The control group used textbooks with some listening exercises attached to the book and the experimental group apart from the text book, used multimedia tools and some Post-Method techniques. Both groups had four hours of English per week, which is forty eight hours for each group for the preparations to the post-test.

The work with the control group was based on repeating certain selected phrases from the book (mostly these underlined by the course-book authors), doing exercises attached to the course-book, repeating the vocabulary, and working with the texts available in the course-book. All the tasks found in the course-book were of the same level as the tasks which were given later to the students during the post-test.

Another tool used during the experiment were presentation meetings for the learners, where they could ask questions and/or exchange their own ideas. As for the Post-Method techniques, brainstorming was included, as this tool generally helps L2 learners rise their self-esteem. For those students who do not express themselves easily there were designed other tasks (e.g. special quizzes that should help them build up their task-related opinions). All students, after watching short films and presentations were asked to get proper phrases right away or present selected grammatical issues using certain mixed pieces, given to them. The results of the two tests are given in table 2 below.

Table 2. The results of the two tests for the control and the experimental group

Source: own research.

It was very important for the teacher to use an individual approach to each students. It was noticed by many scholars and proven in various research that learners need an individual approach because each of them possess different needs, different type of intel- ligence, various strengths and various weaknesses. By taking under consideration these factors, we can easily strengthen positive features and help our students to learn more effectively and gain better results.

The above table 2 illustrates progress in both groups, i.e. the control group (that learned by using text books only) and in the experimental group (that used text books and the combination of multimedia tools with the Post-Method techniques). Respectively, the con- trol group’s average 9.5 points in the pre-test (47%) went up to 11.50 (58%), whereas the experimental group’s results changed from 9.56 (48%) up to 12.80 (64%) in the post-test. It is then clearly seen, that better results could be found within the experimental group. Also the t-test calculations indicate the better results obtained within the experimental group’s students (table 2).

Table 3. The t-test results

Source: own elaboration.

When comparing the results obtained by the two groups it can be seen that the t-test result for the experimental group is much higher than the one for the control group. The p figure calculated in each group is not significant. As one can see the t-test result in the experimental group is much higher with t = 10.45, when it is compared to this of the control group, which is t = 7.61. Undoubtedly, such results indicate that the principal experiment hypothesis which states that the combination of multimedia and the Post-Method help get better results when teaching and learning English may be considered as being helpful in its positive evaluation. Also the evidence for the positive assessment of the side-hypotheses (1 and 2) can be found there. Table 1 shows that the experimental group learners worked harder and with much higher amount of engagement when compared to these of the control group. The evidence for such a claim could be found in the percentage results calculated for the two groups (one percent difference between the two groups in the pre-test and four points’ difference after the post-test). Such a situation could also be observed during the lessons – the experimental group students were much more involved in the lessons and participated in different tasks with much higher amount of vigor. They also paid more attention to the remarks given by the teacher, being able to reproduce them during their oral topic-related presentations. As the control group learners were usually asked to say a word or an opinion, the students from the experimental group were willing to self-par- ticipate in such meetings, being ready to present their opinions on a topical-issue without any teacher’s indication and stress-producing remarks

Conclusion

The processes of analysing and comparing the particular parts of the tests from the two groups, helped us conclude that there was greater improvement within the experimental group, which apart from the text books, used the multimedia tools and some Post-Method techniques. We showed that the use of multimedia gave these students encouragement and assisted them to better remember specific collocations, separate words or given grammar structures. The use of multimedia increased students’ engagement and helped them better discover different lexical, grammatical and syntactic issues dealt with during the lessons. These students also seemed to be more motivated when using different ICT tools which were additionally enriched by some selected Post-Method techniques that were custom- ised and individualised among the experimental group learners taking part in the study.

It has to be mentioned that some progress was also observed within the control group, which followed the coursebook throughout the entire period of the experiment, but it was not so high as within the experimental group. The control group repeated the material and spent more time over their exercises.

To conclude, the fact that the experimental group students improved their results with the help of the multimedia (mostly the extensive use of Wordwall), as well as user-led Post-Method techniques is beyond doubt. This may suggest that appropriately applied ICT tools, used during well-designed learner-friendly L2 lessons may be recognized as being a step in the right direction. The study showed that such lessons positively influenced the learners’ motivation and strengthened their level of self-trust which, in turn, positively aided the growth of courage in their attempts to work with the new topics presented to them during the lessons. Thus, the experiment proved the main research hypothesis has to be accepted. The application of well-chosen multimedia tools brings benefits to both students and teachers and is a great help when it comes to the processes of L2 learning and teaching. At the same time careful and deliberate selection of such tools is recommended. The age of the learners and their individual needs and their habitual education-developed features needs to be considered. It is also very important not to neglect the use of a number of traditional L2 methods/procedures if they have been found to be positively accepted by the learners.

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