The Impact of Multimedia-enhanced STEAM Activities on Foreign Language Learners’ Development of Oracy Skills and Willingness to Communicate

Oct 15, 2026

The study examined how multimedia-enhanced STEAM activities affect English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ oracy skills and willingness to communicate (WTC) in an online course. Forty-two learners were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (21 each). Listening and speaking were measured using IELTS modules, and WTC was assessed with a WTC questionnaire. The experimental group received multimedia-enhanced instruction via clips introducing STEAM domain concepts over five months, while the control group used conventional textbook materials.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time1 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

STEAM pedagogy and goals

Technology integration in STEAM

Multimedia as instructional tool

STEAM content-based language instruction

Challenges in STEAM curriculum adoption

The Impact of Multimedia-enhanced STEAM Activities on Foreign Language Learners’ Development of Oracy Skills and Willingness to Communicate Zeinab Hatami Nasab * and Mehrak Rahimi** Abstract The study explored the impact of multimedia-enhanced STEAM activities on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ development of oracy skills and willingness to communicate (WTC) inan online course. The sample included 42EFL learners who were randomly split into two groups with 21 students in each. Before the study, both groups’ listening and speaking proficiency was assessed by the listening and speaking modules of the IELTS test. Also, the WTC questionnaire was utilized to evaluate their WTC in English before the study. The experimental group received multimedia-enhanced instruction where the concepts of each domain of STEAM were taught by multimedia clips along the course. Meanwhile, the content was taught to the control group by conventional teaching materials of the textbook. The instruction was online and lasted for five months. Both groups’ oral proficiency and WTC were assessed again after the study. One-way Multivariate Analysis of Variance method was used to analyze the collected data. The outcomes displayed a significant difference between the oral skills of the two groups and a non significant difference between their WTC after the treatment in favor of the experimental group. The practical significance of the results can be found in the tremendous potential of integrating STEAM curriculum with language teaching, particularly in technology-enhanced learning environments, for promoting students’ interest in STEAM professions in countries like Iran that have a crisis in educating STEAM specialists. Follow-up studies on combining STEAM topics with teaching other subject matters using emerging technologies across different levels of education are recommended. Keywords: Listening, multimedia, speaking, STEAM, Willingness to Communicate * English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Lavizan, 1678815811, Tehran, Iran. Email: [z.hatami1374@gmail.com](z.hatami1374@gmail.com) ** English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Lavizan, 1678815811, Tehran, Iran. Email: [rahimi@sru.ac.ir](rahimi@sru.ac.ir) Introduction STEAM pedagogy (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics), as an education initiative, combines the creative skills and understanding of the arts with hard sciences skills to raise students’ interest in STEAM subjects at school while teaching them topics of more than one domain and enabling them to utilize multi-disciplinary knowledge to solve practical problems (Yang & Baldwin, 2020).The integration of the arts, as the inspiration for creativity and critical thinking (Yakman, 2008), into the curriculum, guides the students to gain the competencies of the 21st century (Stohlmannet al., 2011) and provides them with opportunities to become problem solvers, innovators, designers, and critical thinkers. Despite its popularity, literature shows that students lose their interest in STEAM as they move along the curriculum. Educationists have examined the role of different types of programs or tasks to arouse interest in STEAM topics (e.g., Wegner et al., 2014) . One line of research in STEAM education has focused on integrating technology into the curriculum to increase students’ interest (Innes, 2020) and help them understand and practice various STEAM topics (Mayo, 2009) . Despite generally favorable outcomes, the instructional advantages of implementing technology in STEM programs need further clarification (D'Angelo et al., 2014) . Considering the positive effect of multimodal input on learning gains, particularly in science classes, multimedia can be a suitable technology to be incorporated into STEAM programs. Instructional multimedia is evident to help learners understand the topics in a more efficient

FAQs

How was oracy ability assessed in the study?

Both groups’ listening and speaking proficiency were evaluated using the listening and speaking modules of the IELTS test before and after the instruction.

What instructional approach did the experimental group receive?

The experimental group received multimedia-enhanced instruction where each STEAM domain concept was taught through multimedia clips during an online course lasting five months.

What were the main outcomes regarding oracy skills and willingness to communicate?

Results showed a significant difference in oral skills between the two groups in favor of the experimental group, while willingness to communicate did not show a significant difference after the treatment.

Oct 15, 2026

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