Hypermedia in an EFL Context: The Impact on Speaking and Motivation

With the advent of computer technology and educational software, hypermedia language learning materi-als made their way in foreign and second language classrooms. Today the role of hypermedia in improv-ing communication skills is by no means deniable. This research aimed at investigating the effect of hy-permedia on the oral performance as well as the motivation of Iranian EFL Learners. A pretest-posttest control group design was used. Two classes of female students aged 17-25 from Poya-Simin Language Institute, Qa’emshahr branch, were randomly selected. Next, in order to assure the homogeneity of the participants in terms of proficiency, the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), with reasonable measures of va-lidity and reliability, was used to screen the participants. The comparison of the two groups on the speak-ing pretest confirmed the homogeneity of the participants before the instruction. Afterward, the experi-mental group was offered the educational software, Rosetta Stone. After 20 sessions both groups were reexamined by the speaking posttest to investigate the effectiveness of the software on users' oral perfor-mance. The results of the oral test and the motivation questionnaire indicated that the participants in the experimental group made great progress in speaking and hypermedia improved their motivation towards learning English.