Practices and Perceptions of English Language Teachers on the Use of Multimedia Materials for a Communication Course in Higher Education

Abstract

There is a growing need to understand the practices and perceptions on the use of multimedia materials in higher education language classrooms, especially considering the pedagogical adjustments needed to address the changing needs of 21st century learners and to deal with disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. As a potential contribution to addressing this need, this study focused on looking into the experiences and perspectives of language teachers tasked to teach a core course in Communication in selected state universities in the Philippines. Through hermeneutical phenomenology, the study examined the practices of using multimedia materials to deliver lessons in Purposive Communication. Data revealed that all teacher participants still predominantly use teacher-centered strategies, specifically lectures, although multimedia resources and interactive activities were incorporated. Most of the multimedia used by the teacher participants are standalone types and specifically fall under narrative media, the kind that supports learning through acquisition. Moreover, the TPACK and RAT frameworks were adopted to examine how multimedia are integrated. While findings from the data suggest an interest in using various multimedia, there were noted challenges to integrating such materials seamlessly. The most common challenge reflected troubleshooting problems, specifically navigating equipment and devices. The typical approach adopted to deal with the challenges in multimedia use was to consider their previous experiences and to rely on assistance from others. Based on these findings, policy recommendations and a training program on multimedia use for language teachers were suggested. Keywords: Multimedia Materials, 21st century learners, Purposive Communication