The power of PowerPoint in listening at beginning levels of Spanish

This study took place during the Spring and Fall semesters of 2008 at the University of Alabama in two Elementary Spanish classes. Using a combination of the findings reported by Mueller (1979), Bransford and Johnson (1972), Kim (2003), U. K. Chung (1994), and others as a base, this research aimed to extend the findings of previous studies on visually supported listening. It also aimed to compare empirically the effect of visually enriched PowerPoint slides (VEPP) on students’ listening outcomes using control and treatment conditions for comparison. This study was also interested in whether gender affected listening outcomes with and without VEPP. This study presented quantitative evidence for the use of VEPP for pre-, during-, and postlistening activities at elementary levels. A mixed ANOVA determined that there were statistically significant differences between scores on listening exercises in the control and treatment conditions. The results suggest that students who were in the treatment condition (with VEPP) performed statistically significantly better. There was no main effect for gender, but an interaction revealed that females were at a disadvantage in comparison to the males in the control condition (non-VEPP); the treatment (VEPP) appeared to help them to catch up with the males in listening comprehension. Finally, qualitative information coming from participant surveys revealed that they preferred and felt less anxious with the use of VEPP for pre-, during-, and postlistening activities.