The Role of Medical Graphical Aids in Developing L2 Oral Proficiency

Abstract

This experimental study investigates the impact of medical graphical materials on developing L2 (second language) speaking skills among rural undergraduate students in Tamil Nadu, India. Drawing from theories in second language acquisition, visual learning, and cognitive psychology, the research explores how visual storytelling can improve fluency, volume, and grammatical accuracy, specifically using medically themed narrative graphics. The sample comprised 30 first-year BCA students, 24 of whom completed the one-week training. Students were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received visual story-based speaking tasks, while the control group engaged with plain-text versions. Assessment was conducted through pre- and post-test speaking evaluations using audio recordings. Findings revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in fluency, volume, and grammatical competence. Additionally, students exhibiting attention-related difficulties showed cognitive and behavioural improvements. The results underscore the pedagogical and neurological benefits of integrating multimodal materials, particularly for learners from socioeconomically disadvantaged and low-resource educational settings. The study recommends the inclusion of structured visual aids in L2 speaking pedagogy to enhance learner engagement, retention, and expressive abilities.