The Use of Help Options in Multimedia Listening Environments to Aid Language Learning: A Review

This paper provides a comprehensive review on the use of help options (HOs) in the multimedia listening context to aid listening comprehension (LC) and improve incidental vocabulary learning. The paper also aims to synthesize the research findings obtained from the use of HOs in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) literature and reveals the theoretical framework that has guided multimedia listening studies. The term HOs refers to any form of assistance, such as visual, auditory (ie, variety of pronunciations) or textual, that is displayed synchronously or asynchronously on the computer screen to facilitate language learning. The paper analyzes the potentials of HO techniques and reveals how these techniques are utilized in CALL literature. The paper then summarizes the overall gain in the use of HOs, highlights their limitations in LC tasks and recommends directions for future research.