The effects of visuospatial cueing on EFL learners' science text and picture processing through mobile phones

This quasi-experimental study examined whether or not attention cueing can benefit learners in learning the kinematic operation of a mechanical system. This study investigated the interaction effects of the dynamic and cued conditions on the test results as well as cognitive load. Self-regulatory, mobile-phone-based visualizations depicting the kinematics of a flushing cistern comprised the instrument. The participants consisted of 174 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners from four sections of a reading course. After assessing their backgrounds, they were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions—pictures only, pictures plus cueing, animation only, and animation plus cueing. Immediately, after administering the experimental treatment, the participants answered comprehension tests and a cognitive load questionnaire. The results demonstrated that visuospatial cues, particularly in static diagrams, ameliorated the learners' learning effectiveness by facilitating their local comprehension better than their global comprehension. While animation benefited the learners in terms of solving directions and troubleshooting problems, the static diagrams and animations complemented each other in helping the learners understand the different kinematic functions of a mechanical system. The static diagrams were beneficial in enhancing local comprehension, whereas the animations benefited the learners' global comprehension as indicated in the learners' transfer test results. The experimental results revealed that the effectiveness of animation and visual cueing depend on the subject matter and purpose of the tests.