Video-accompanied vs. handout-accompanied assignments: Effects on EFL learners’ descriptive paragraphs

Abstract

This study compared the effects of videos and handouts, accompanied by the paragraph assignments, on the quality of English language learners’ written descriptive paragraphs. The study was quasi-experimental and quantitative. It had a pretest-treatment-posttest design. As the treatments, either videos or handouts were accompanied by descriptive paragraph assignments which the participating students were required to write. The purpose of accompanying either videos or handouts was providing the learners with additional guides to help them write appropriate and accurate descriptive paragraphs. The study was conducted during the Covid-19 crisis. The participants were 56 Turkish learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at pre-intermediate level of proficiency. They were receiving virtual education due to school closures because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The participants were assigned to two groups, each of which included 28 learners. One group was provided with educational videos, relevant to the given assignment. The other group was given similar information via handouts. The results of the independent samples t-test indicated that the group that received videos significantly outperformed the one that received handouts. Consequently, the study highly recommends EFL teachers utilize this technique in their classrooms.