Research Spotlight No. 9

How Do Illustrative Images Help French Language Students Develop Oral Communication Skills and Enhance Their Learning Engagement?

Continuing the series of research spotlights issued by Beni Suef University, today’s spotlight highlights a study from the Social Sciences – Educational Sciences sector. The study reflects the university’s commitment to encouraging international scholarly publications among researchers in the humanities and social sciences.

The published research focused on developing oral communication skills in teaching French as a foreign language (FFL). The study evaluated the effectiveness of a pictogram-based instructional module as a teaching tool. A quasi-experimental design was used, including pre-test and post-test measures with a control group. The study involved 80 first-year students from the French Department, Faculty of Education, Egypt. The experimental group (n=40) received pictogram-based instruction for eight weeks, while the control group (n=40) followed the traditional curriculum. Results were measured using validated oral communication and academic engagement scales, and data were analyzed using analysis of variance to compare post-test scores while controlling for pre-test differences.

The results revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in both oral communication and academic engagement, with large effect sizes for both measures. These findings provide strong causal evidence that a pictogram-based instructional module is a highly effective pedagogical tool for enhancing FFL students’ oral communication competencies while simultaneously fostering academic engagement. This approach presents a validated, theoretically grounded alternative to traditional teaching methods. One key implication of the study is that integrating structured pictogram-based activities into FFL curricula offers a potent, low-resource means of enhancing both linguistic proficiency and student motivation.

The research was conducted and published by Dr. Fatma Ali Abdelaal (Principal Researcher), Assistant Professor of Curriculum and French Teaching Methods, Faculty of Education, Beni Suef University. The study was published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal *Discover Education*, indexed in Scopus, and published by the global publishing house Springer Nature. The journal specializes in research in the social sciences, particularly educational studies.

**English Brief:**
Developing oral communication skills and maintaining academic engagement are significant challenges in French as a Foreign Language (FFL) instruction. The study findings provide strong causal evidence that a pictogram-based instructional module is a highly effective pedagogical tool for simultaneously improving FFL students' oral communication competencies and fostering their academic engagement. This approach offers a validated, theoretically grounded alternative to traditional teaching methods. A key implication is that integrating structured pictogram-based activities into FFL curricula offers a potent, low-resource method for enhancing both linguistic proficiency and student motivation.

#Pictograms #FrenchAsAForeignLanguage #OralCommunication #AcademicEngagement #PreServiceFFLTeachers #QuasiExperimentalDesign #CognitiveLoadTheory #FatmaAliAbdelaal

DOI: [https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-025-00928-2](https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-025-00928-2)