THE IMPACT OF NON-VERBAL DIGITAL ELEMENTS ON TEXTUAL COMPREHENSION AND WRITTEN PRODUCTION IN ASYNCHRONOUS LANGUAGE LEARNING THROUGH GOOGLE CLASSROOM
THE IMPACT OF NON-VERBAL DIGITAL ELEMENTS ON TEXTUAL COMPREHENSION AND WRITTEN PRODUCTION IN ASYNCHRONOUS LANGUAGE LEARNING THROUGH GOOGLE CLASSROOM

Summary/Abstract: This study investigates the impact of non-verbal digital elements, such as emojis and visual symbols, on textual comprehension and written production in asynchronous language learning through Google Classroom. A quasi-experimental design was conducted with 50 Italian language learners (A2–B1), divided into experimental and control groups. Results revealed that learners exposed to multimodal texts enriched with emojis achieved significantly higher comprehension and production scores compared to those working with neutral texts. The findings also showed that non-verbal elements play a compensatory role in the absence of gestures, vocal tone, and facial expressions in asynchronous learning, reducing ambiguity and enhancing clarity. These results explicitly support Dual Coding Theory, which emphasizes the integration of verbal and visual channels, and Digital Pragmatics, which highlights the communicative value of non-verbal cues in online contexts. Pedagogically, the study underscores the potential of integrating non-verbal digital elements into classroom practices to foster clearer, more coherent, and emotionally expressive writing.

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