The Impact of Keyword Caption Ratio on Foreign Language Listening Comprehension

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of three keyword caption modes on the listening comprehension of Arab learners of English as a foreign language (N = 90) while viewing authentic video clips. The keyword caption modes contained approximately 10%, 30% or 50% of the words in the video scripts. The participants watched three different video clips from three science videos, each of which contained one of the three keyword caption modes. Each participant experienced all three modes and the order in which they were viewed was counterbalanced. Their understanding of the content of the video clips was measured using comprehension tests consisting of gap fill and multiple-choice questions. The analysis of the listening comprehension test scores found evidence of an effect for the 50% keyword caption condition.

The impact of keyword and full video captioning on listening comprehension

“…The selected keywords represented 31% of the total script. This percentage is consistent with previous studies (e.g., Baltova, 1999;Rooney, 2014) that used keywords rated ranging between 30 and 50% of the full script.…”

Investigating the effects of multimedia input modality on L2 listening skills of Turkish EFL learners

“…The previous studies produces results demonstrating the positive effects of subtitles on listening comprehension (Basaran, 2011;Hwang, 2003;Ozgen, 2008;Rooney, 2011;Sydorenko, 2010;Tsai, 2010;Winke, Gass & Sydorenko, 2010) and for the positive effects of PowerPoint mode; Valencia (2009) is among the studies. However, in the present study, this was not the case.…”

“…Studies done by Chang, Tseng and Tseng (2011), Guichon and McLornan (2008), Kozan (2009), Kozan, Ercetin, and Richardson (2015), Sydorenko (2010) have also emphasized the importance of input modality. Hsu et al (2013), Hsu et al (2014), Hwang (2003), Perez et al (2014), Rooney (2011), Tsai (2010, Winke, Gass and Sydorenko (2010), Yang & Chang (2014) investigated the effects of captioning on listening comprehension through the use of authentic film clips and videos. Mohsen (2015), on the other hand, looked at the use of help options in multimedia listening environments to aid language learning.…”

Automatic Compression of Subtitles with Neural Networks and its Effect on User Experience

“…Thus, additional to an evaluation on a benchmark dataset for comparison to state of the art, we assess the effect of compressed subtitles on comprehension and cognitive load in a user study. Related user studies regarding partial and keyword captions provide controversial results: Guillory [21], Rooney [22] and Mirzaei et al [7] find positive effects of partial captions and no significant differences in comprehension compared to full captions. They argue based on the dual-coding theory that as they lower the input on the visual channel, the cognitive load has to be smaller.…”