Abstract:
This study investigated the effects of captioned texts on second/foreign (L2) listening comprehension and vocabulary gains using a computer multimedia program. Additionally, it explored the caption ordering effect (i.e. captions displayed during the first or second listening), and the interaction of captioning order with the L2 proficiency level of language learners in listening comprehension and vocabulary performance. To these ends, a computer software program was designed and 200 EFL learners (100 high-intermediate and 100 low-intermediate level students) were asked to participate in the experiment. They were randomly assigned into four groups: captioned (listening to texts twice with captions), noncaptioned (listening to texts twice without captions), first captioned (listening to texts first with captions and then without captions), and second captioned (listening to texts first without captions and then with captions) groups. They listened to four audio texts (i.e. short stories) twice and took the listening and vocabulary tests, administered through the software. Results from t-tests and two-way ANOVAs showed that the captioned stories were more effective than the non-captioned ones. Moreover, the caption ordering had no significant effect on the participants' L2 listening comprehension and vocabulary performance. Finally, L2 proficiency level differences did not affect performance derived from caption ordering.
Machine summary:
"The effects of captioning texts and caption ordering on L2 listening comprehension and vocabulary learning Ali Roohani (Assistant Professor, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Islamic Republic of Iran) roohani.
The findings indicated that captioning during the first showing of the videos was more effective for the performance on listening comprehension and vocabulary for Spanish and Russian learners.
/ Figure 2: A Sample Shot of the Vocabulary MC Items The audio texts used in this study included four English short stories, selected on the basis of length, conceptual difficulty, and readability from the Steps to Understanding (Hill, 1988), presenting audio materials at the intermediate level.
To assess the potential impacts of captioning and order of captioning on L2 listening comprehension and vocabulary, the selected participants were then randomly assigned into four groups, each with 50 EFL learners: the caption group (CG), noncaption group (NCG), the first caption group (FCG), and the second caption group (SCG).
110 The third research question explored whether L2 proficiency level interacted with the captioning order to impact the participants’ L2 listening comprehension and vocabulary scores.
/ Figure 4: Interaction between Proficiency Level and Captioning for the L2 Listening Comprehension Furthermore, as depicted in Table 7, there was a statistically significant effect for the L2 proficiency level on the vocabulary scores, F (1, 192) = 429 *p< .
In line with the results on the listening comprehension scores, the interaction effect between captioning and proficiency level for the vocabulary scores was not statistically significant, F (3, 192) = 1."