The Effect of Visual Aids on the Improvement of Students’ Narrative Writing in ELT Classes

Visual aids can play an important role in supporting the development of language skills like narrative writing in English language teaching classrooms (Harris & Hofer, ۲۰۰۹; Kunari, ۲۰۰۶). While new technologies have expanded the possibilities for integrating visual elements, these tools often remain underutilized (Depdiknas, ۲۰۰۳). With the passage of time and the advancement of technology, altered methods and multimodal approaches have increasingly characterized language education (Depdiknas, ۲۰۰۳). As English has grown as a prominent lingua franca for global communication, developing writing proficiency has become especially important (Nik, ۲۰۱۰). However, teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) writing presents unique challenges as it requires formal learning processes compared to natural speaking skill acquisition (Díaz, ۱۹۹۹; Nunan, ۱۹۹۹). The act of writing also allows revising final products, distinguishing the writing process from oral interaction (Harmer, ۲۰۰۴). These attributes make writing mastery a complex skill for many EFL learners lacking systematic instruction (Harmer, ۲۰۰۴; Nunan, ۱۹۹۹; Negari, ۲۰۱۱). Narrative writing serves important communicative functions, as stories are fundamental to human understanding and expression (Abbott, ۲۰۰۲; Ropo, ۲۰۰۹). Narratives exist in various fiction and nonfiction forms and pedagogically allow creative and imaginative expression through combining linguistic skills (Geyser, ۲۰۰۷; Rathmann et al., ۲۰۰۷). The versatility of narrative writing genres also makes them well-suited for classroom instruction. Authentic tasks involving meaningful, contextualized language use are crucial for EFL learners progress beyond grammatical rules alone (Golomb, ۱۹۹۵; Müller, ۲۰۰۹).