Abstract

This study aimed to compare the effects of audio documents and video documents on the listening comprehension of a foreign language. Two groups of adult students were compared in terms of their understanding of a particular document. One group watched the document while the participants in the other group only listened to it. Results indicate that video documents contribute to a better understanding of audio elements in some cases. However, audio documents occasionally help students concentrate on audio elements. Results also show that a video document increases the accuracy of listening comprehension when the video channel visualizes or justifies what is being said and facilitates the act of guessing and anticipating what is going to be said, while an audio document could be misleading or equivocal at times. On the other hand, a video document may include some disconcerting elements which draw the students' attention away from the audio elements.

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