JOURNAL:
LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY FEBRUARY 2010, VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1 PP. 65-86
AUTHORS:
PAULA WINKE, SUSAN GASS, TETYANA SYDORENKO
This
research is concerned with the effects of video captioning in foreign language
listening activities. It is believed that L2 listening and comprehension skills
can be improved through the usage of audiovisual materials that are enhanced
with captions. It helps learners to visualize what they hear particularly the
input that is beyond their linguistic ability or in other words it helps
learners to connect auditory to visual input regardless of their language
proficiency. The participants chosen are the foreign language learners from a
large Midwestern university in the United States. The one hundred fifty
participants are mixed from four different native languages that are Spanish,
Russian, Arabic, and Chinese. The number of participants across languages is
not balanced because this study relies on volunteers as the subjects. There are
all four materials used for this study- videos, vocabulary tests, test of prior
knowledge of key vocabulary and comprehension tests. The videos are taken from
three short English-language documentaries about three animals- salmon, bears,
and dolphins. The vocabulary test is divided into two- one in written form and
the other one in audio form. The test of prior knowledge of key vocabulary is
used to identify the knowledge the learners have prior to watching the videos.
They have to respond to the scale given for each key word presented to them. the
comprehension tests is in English. It consists of multiple choice questions the
participants need to answer prior to their knowledge gained from the
documentaries they watch. For the procedure, the participants are first
required to fill in a background questionnaire followed by a presentation
explaining the tasks they are about to do next. Then, they are to watch the
three documentaries in which each video is shown two times, one without caption
and the other is with caption. The first finding based on the first research
question shows that captioned videos aid in vocabulary recognition and overall
comprehension which is supported by a previous research that multiple input
results in better recognition. The second finding shows that there is an effect
of the order of viewing on the following recognition of vocabulary presented in
aural mode. Participants who viewed the videos with captions first were better
to aurally recognize novel vocabulary than those who viewed the videos later. The
third finding tells that the orthographic differences between participants do
have an effect on the result of the study. The results are compared between the
Russian and Spanish and Arabic and Chinese where those who have a background
knowledge on the orthographic pattern of the language and their native language
scored better than those who do not. The final finding shows that proficiency
differences do not affect the result of the research thus brings this research
to a notion that captioning functions similarly to all proficiency level.
This
research does interest me as it provides me an idea on how to improve my
English proficiency apart from having an insight to improve my students’
proficiency later in the future. The whole part of the study is somehow can be
related to my own experience while watching movies with captions where I’m
aware of the vocabularies used in the movies including the way they are
pronounced by then native speakers of the language. All in all, this research
is well conducted as the researchers do take the orthographic factor of the
Arabs and the Chinese into account. It is well organized and none has seemed to
confuse the participants in participating in the research. It is highly
suggested and appreciated if this study were to be done in the Malaysian
context. This is because most of the ESL learners do watch movies in English
but with Malay subtitles which is seemed to jeopardize their learning stage of
the language. It can be seen clearly in cinemas where viewers are presented
with Malay subtitles instead of English. This study might be helpful in
increasing the awareness of the Malaysian ESL learners to be better in
recognizing the vocabularies of the second language while watching movies or
other videos as well.
