The Impact of Visualization and Graphic Organizers on EFL Learners’ Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral Engagement and Listening

The present study examined the impact of visualization and graphic organizers as pre-listening strategies on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement and their listening comprehension. To do so, this study was carried out in three listening classes at Islamic Azad University of Mashhad. The participants included 80 junior EFL university students. A quasi experimental design with a control group and two experimental groups (graphic organizers and visualization) was utilized. Students’ engagement was assessed through academic engagement questionnaire measuring behavioral, emotional, and cognitive aspects of academic engagement. A sample IELTS (International English Language Testing System) test was utilized to gauge students’ level of listening proficiency. To examine the impact of the two intervention techniques on listening proficiency level, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run. A one-way between-groups multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was utilized to investigate the role of graphic organizers and visualization in students’ behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of graphic organizers and visualization as pre-listening strategies in enhancing EFL university students’ listening achievement as well as their engagement. The results of post-hoc analysis showed that visualization and graphic organizer techniques were equally influential in enhancing learners’ listening proficiency. It was also found the emotional engagement exhibited the highest difference and cognitive engagement showed the lowest difference.