The Impact of Using the Multimedia Modality Principle to Teach Shakespearean Drama

The present study investigates the effect of the modality principle in multimedia learning during the teaching of drama at the English department at a Saudi university, the University of Ha’il. It compares explicitly the impact of using static pictures and narration concurrently with on-screen text for the control group with the impact of using pictures with narration only for the experimental group. A sample of 69 male English-majoring students was selected and divided into control and experimental groups. The aim was to determine which group performed better than the other with the hypothesis that audio-visual presentation of the selected content would enhance students’ knowledge retention and mental skills and would lead to better learning outcomes for the experimental group. A quasi-experimental design was adopted and ANCOVA test was used to observe variation in the scores of the two groups after studying Hamlet’s play. The results support the hypothesis. Students in the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group. This was observed in the post-tests on the retention of knowledge and mental skills. The findings of this study provide additional evidence of the superiority of audio-visual presentation in a previously unstudied context related to the teaching of literary content.