Finding literature on the topics I have been focusing on for this research project has been interesting, particularly because it is already an incredibly established subject, that yes, illustrations do tend to help people learn things more effectively. This aspect of my project is neither groundbreaking or new, but will help us in the 3d printing department develop and tailor our resources going forwards.
Of some of the most interest to me were the studies by Nasrollahi and Daneshfar, who published their study on the acquisition of English vocabularly words by students of Kurdish descent who already had Persian as their second language. Their students were tested in two control groups, one who had no visual contextual support and one who did. They quote Çiftçi and Üster stating that visual contextual support works better as a memory aid, and the results of their study prove this as the group with the visual aids performed better. Çiftçi and Üster had published their own study with control groups, one learning vocabularly in context and one learning vocab only by definitions – however interestingly they concluded that between the two there was no remarkable or statistically significant difference.
Both those studies also used surveys to test the effectiveness of their teaching, which appealed to me as I knew I wanted to use surveys. Both also were testing the learning of English vocabularly words to students learning English as an additional language, which is relevant to my project. Looking at Çiftçi and Üster’s results made it clear to me that alongside the illustrations I should also include definitions – so the terminology I aim to teach is both explained by its written definition, but also the visual context provided by the illustration, hitting both points.
The studies by Sahebkhier (2019) which concluded that learning vocabularly with a glossary out-performed learning by just visual or just text, and by Saban and Turgay (2023) where picture dictionaries were used alongside tertiary teaching for EFL learners were also both of interest to my project.
When it comes to survey design itself the SAGE Handbook of Survey Methodology (Wolf et al, 2016) and selected chapters within it were very useful. The previously referenced Introduction helped situate the origins of survey design through history and track how it has evolved from face to face questions, telephone surveys, and how surveying has changed alongside the development of technology.
On reading Converse and Presser (2011), again published by SAGE, I was able to gain an understanding of how surveys can be really used accurately and professionally to get statistically significant results, however due to time limitations and ability to reach a wide enough pool of students I was unable myself to go through any rounds of pre-testing my survey and its effectiveness.
Reading Kara (2015) on analysing data I was given much to think about, including the ethics of colleting data (which spurred my decision to go for anonymous responses) and an understanding of qualitative vs quantitive data.
495 words
Nasrollahi, K. and Daneshfar, S. (2018) ‘The Effect of Visual Contextual Support and Glossary of Words on Guessing Meaning of New Vocabulary Items in English by Pre-university Male EFL Students’, Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 9(3), pp. 561–672. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0903.16. accessed: 12 nov 2025
Çiftçi, H. & Üster, S., 2009. A comparative analysis of teaching vocabulary in context and by definition. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1(1), pp.1568–1572. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248606614_A_comparative_analysis_of_teaching_vocabulary_in_context_and_by_definition accessed: 12 nov 2025
Sahebkheir, F., 2019. The Effect of Visual Representation, Textual Representation, and Glossing on Second Language Vocabulary Learning. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Dynamics and Advances, 7(2), pp.185–200. Available at: https://journal.azaruniv.ac.ir/article_13990.html accessed: 12 nov 2025
Kara, S. and Kucuk, T., 2023. The effects of picture dictionaries in promoting vocabulary development of EFL learners at tertiary level. Novitas-ROYAL (Research on Youth and Language), 17(2), pp.80–94. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1409292.pdf accessed: 12 nov 2025
Wolf, C., Joye, D., Smith, T.W. & Fu, Y.-c., eds., 2016. The SAGE Handbook of Survey Methodology. Chapter: Survey Methodology: Challenges and Principles. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Available at: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-sage-handbook-of-survey-methodology/book242251 accessed: 19 nov 2025
Jones, T.L., Baxter, M.A.J. & Khanduja, V., 2013. A quick guide to survey research. Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 95(1), pp.5–7. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3964639/ accessed: 19 november 2025
Converse, J.M. and Presser, S., 1986. The tools at hand. In: J.M. Converse and S. Presser, Survey Questions: Handcrafting the Standardized Questionnaire. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, pp. 48–75. Available at: SAGE Research Methods https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412986045 (available there, however was downloaded from Moodle). Accessed: oct 1 2025
Kara, H., 2015. Creative research methods in the social sciences: A practical guide. Bristol: Policy Press. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=6193498 accessed: nov 18 2025