Effects Of Different Caption Modes On Efl Learners’ Incidental Vocabulary Learning And Content Comprehension

Language and communication on social media provide EFL teachers with opportunities to teach and engage students in multimodal-input practices.Many EFL students like watching American TV programs in their spare time and several captioning options are available.It is crucial to examine which caption type could best aid students’ English comprehension and vocabulary learning.There have been a lot of studies on the use of captioned videos for language learning,and most of them investigated the effects of captions under two and three caption conditions.There are only few studies on the effects of captions under four caption conditions.Previous research on vocabulary learning from audio-visual input has primarily focused on the advantages of adding verbatim L2 subtitling,i.e.,full captioning,while the influence of keyword captions on vocabulary learning is as yet unknown.Different approaches for keeping words more salient in captions(such as highlighted,bold,and keywords)have been tried,but the results have been mixed.Furthermore,only a few studies have examined how EFL learners with various English proficiency levels respond to different caption modes.Based on Dual Coding Theory,Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning,Cognitive Load Theory,this study selected 313 undergraduates and postgraduates from Lanzhou Jiaotong University as the participants.Four different modes of captions were designed to explore the effects of different video captions(Full Captions,Keyword Captions,Glossed Keyword Captions,Full Captions with Highlighted Keyword Captions)on EFL learners’ incidental vocabulary learning and content comprehension.The following three issues are examined:1.What are the effects of different caption modes on EFL learners’ content comprehension?2.What are the effects of different caption modes on EFL learners’ incidental vocabulary learning?.How do EFL learners’ conte3.How do EFL learners’ content and vocabulary comprehension vary with the level of proficiency and different caption modes?Research results showed that,(1)Different caption modes had a significant effect on learners’ content comprehension.The GKC group performed better than the KC group,while there were no significant differences between the KC group and the FC group,between the FCHKC group and the KC group,and between the GKC group and the FCHKC group.(2)Different caption modes had a significant effect on the learners’ vocabulary learning.There were significant differences between the GKC group and the KC group,the FCHKC group and the FC group.However,no significant difference was detected between the KC group and the FCHKC group.Both the GKC group and the FCHKC group also significantly higher than the FC group on the incidental vocabulary learning test.The GKC group performed best in vocabulary learning among the four groups.The KC group performed as effectively as the FCHKC group.The FC group had the least effect on students’ incidental vocabulary learning.(3)For the elementary-limited proficiency learners,the GKC group performed better in video content comprehension than the KC group,the FC group.For the intermediate proficiency students,the GKC group,the KC group,the FCHKC group,and the FC group were all helpful in learners’ video comprehension.In vocabulary learning,the GKC group,the FCHKC group and the KC group were all helpful for elementary-limited proficiency learners.And students in the GKC group performed best,followed by the FCHKC group and the KC group.For intermediate proficiency students,the GKC group,the FCHKC group and the KC group were all helpful in incidental vocabulary learning.And there was no significant difference between the KC group and the FCHKC group.The GKC group performed best in incidental vocabulary learning,followed by the FCHKC group and the KC group.Based on the above results,it will be recommendable to use videos with glossed keyword captions in the classroom context to complement and reinforce more traditional vocabulary learning activities.Besides,it is of vital importance that learners use the input video materials that match their proficiency level.For learners with elementary-limited proficiency,they can make use of videos with glossed keyword captions to improve their content and vocabulary comprehension.