چكيده لاتين :
This article reports an experiment conducted to investigate the comparative effect on remembering of two approaches to teaching/learning narrative texts: reading with the help of only verbal tasks and reading with the help of verbal tasks plus picture production tasks. The experiment involved two groups of students in the English Literature and Language Department of Semnan University, Iran. The control group was asked to read a story carefully and produce a detailed outline for the story while the students in the experimental group were asked to do the same but they were additionally asked to illustrate the outlines without skipping any illustration subtask. After doing an activity not related to the story, the participants were asked to write a retelling of the story in very simple language, mentioning whatever they remembered. The comparison of the number of relevant details (ideas or propositions subjectively determined) mentioned by the students in the two groups showed that the experimental group did significantly better than the control group in reporting the content details of the story. Three and half months later, the same evaluating tasks were given to the two groups, with the control group showing a greater rate of idea loss. The overall findings suggest that learners* picture generation deserves significant attention in the theory and practice of English Language Teaching.
