The effect of multimedia and temporal contiguity principles on students’ attitude and retention in learning Japanese language

Nowadays many schools take the Japanese language as the second language, although there are similarities in the writing of the Japanese and Chinese language, the student’s learning outcomes are a challenge for the teacher. This study is to explore the effect of multimedia principles (multimedia, temporal contiguity) in slides on students’ attitude and retention towards Japanese vocabulary among 10-grade students in Chinese rural areas. Using quasi-experimental research to form an experiment group and control group for 10 weeks. 90 participants have randomly selected sampling from Wucuan town, Zunyi city, Guizhou province. 5 Likert-scale questionnaire was used to collect the students’ attitudes and binary tests for the students’ retention. All the data were sorted out and input into the SPSS 26 version for description and inferential analysis. The results showed the students’ attitude and retention in EG are significantly different than the CG. Reveal the multimedia and temporal contiguity principles are a benefit to the students. Multimedia and contiguity principles used in the slides can change attitudes toward learning Japanese vocabulary and improve students’ retention.