The majority of language teachers apparently agree that using visuals can help improve language learning

The majority of language teachers apparently agree that using visuals can help improve language learning. They make learning more meaningful and entertaining by assisting teachers in bringing the real world into the classroom (Brinton, 2000). According to Bamford (2003), visual literacy is essential for obtaining information, constructing knowledge, and achieving good educational results. He claims that this is related to an increase in the global amount of photos (as cited in Harif and Hashim, 2009). It's vital to note that students bring their own backgrounds to class, which are often associated with pictures from the media, video games, and other sources. Santas (2009) remarks on how teachers encourage pupils to think without any of this assistance, which appears to necessitate persuading them to give up what they have experiencedin their lives.
As Mannan (2005) points out, visual aids can assist teachers in clarifying, establishing, correlating, and coordinating accurate concepts, interpretations, and appreciations, as well as enabling them to make learning more tangible, effective, fascinating, inspirational, meaningful, and vivid (p.108).
As Canning-Wilson (2000) points out in her work, visual material or anything used to help the learner understand an immediate meaning in the language may aid the student and the teacher by clarifying the message if the visuals complement or supplement the linguistic point. These benefits indicate that pictures might assist in making a work or circumstance more authentic (Canning-Wilson, 1998).
Visuals, according to Kemp and Dayton (1985), aid in motivation and attention retention by providing variation and making the course more interesting (as cited in Bradshaw, 2003).
Watkins and Brobaker compiled multiple data from several studies in their study, concluding that visuals explain and enhance students' learning, and that this knowledge is recognized and remembered for longer periods of time than verbal information alone.
Early researchers like Adam and Chambers (1962) and Harber and Myers (1982) seem to agree that remembering a picture-word combination is better than remembering words or pictures alone (Petterson, 2004). According to Branch and Boom, the Pictorical Superiority Effect refers to the fact that memory for pictures is superior to memory for words (as cited in Petterson, 2004). Recent studies on sights and words have revealed that memory for images is generally superior to memory for words (Clark and Lyons, 2004).
Other studies, such as Barry (1998), say that persuasion is nearly entirely performed through imagery in both infants and teenagers, and that those images and visuals speak directly to us in the same manner that experience does: holistically and emotionally. In light of this, Piaget and Inhelder (2000) claim that young students have little understanding of the living world and are still constructing concepts. As a result, they require more visual information to communicate their ideas (as cited in Arif and Hashim, 2009).
Moriarty (1994) also contends that visual language abilities develop before verbal language skills, and that they serve as a foundation for the latter. This could be one reason why young children prefer pictorical information to written information (Arif and Hashing 2009). Paivio (2009) has already described this with his hypothesis, which is based on the premise that in the early stages of learning, the balance between verbal and visual experiences stimulates cognitive progress. According to Arif and Hashim (2006)'s research, visuals attract more attention than words, and among young learners, pictures have become the primary clue in deciphering the meaning of words.
Visuals in the learning environment have been shown to promote learning, according to research (Anglin, Vaez and Cunningham, 2004). Visuals can assist readers become more interested, curious, and motivated (Mayer and Moreno, 1998). Fang agrees with these advantages and adds others such as cultivating aesthetic awareness, promoting creativity, and serving as mental scaffolding (as cited in Carney and Levin, 2002).
According to studies conducted by Mukherjee and Roy (2003), using visual aids to contextualize spoken communication is a big assistance for pupils, as they can grasp 30 percent more than they could without it. Following this line of thought, Canning- Wilson (2000) research suggests that, thanks to paralinguistic cues, pictures can be employed to enhance the meaning of the message communicated by the speakers.
Another point to consider is that pictures may aid in the development of mental models and the communication of relationships between content objects more effectively than words alone (Clark and Lyons, 2004). When focusing on how language is processed, Canning-Wilson (1997) emphasizes the role of visual aids.
Working memory and long-term memory are two types of memories that are important in the learning process, according to Clark and Lyons (2004). The new knowledge is saved in working memory, which is said to be at the heart of all active mental activities, including learning. After receiving the visual and phonetic information, it is grouped to produce a cohesive notion. Finally, active prior knowledge from long-term memory must be incorporated with this concept. As can be seen, the two memories operate together in complimentary ways to build an updated mental model that is retained in long-term memory and lasts an unlimited amount of time (Clark and Lyons, 2004). The virtual capacity of working memory is influenced by how closely long-term memory knowledge is related to the domain being researched. The more it is related, the more is the virtual capacity.
Taking into account that in a learning environment this related knowledge may not be too much, cognitive overload can take place if the working memory cannot process all the new information during learning. In order to avoid this cognitive overload the two subcomponent of the working memory should be used in their best way. One of these subcomponents is specialized in visual input and the other one in auditory input. For example, if a graphic is explained by words presented in audio, learning the new information is better than if the words are presented in text (Clark and Lyons, 2004, p.chapter 6). The mental models that have been mentioned before are the schemas stored in the long-term memory and are the basis of thinking, and visuals are claimed to help building them.