Điều tra về mức độ hiệu quả của việc sử dụng video có phụ đề để dạy kỹ năng nghe cho sinh viên chuyên tiếng anh năm thứ nhất, trường cao đẳng sư phạm thái bình

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
******

TRẦN THỊ HIỀN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF
USING VIDEOS WITH SUBTITLES IN TEACHING LISTENING SKILL
TO THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS
AT THAI BINH TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGE
Điều tra về mức độ hiệu quả của việc sử dụng video có phụ đề
để dạy kỹ năng nghe cho sinh viên chuyên tiếng Anh năm thứ nhất,
trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Thái Bình

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2017


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
******

TRẦN THỊ HIỀN
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF
USING VIDEOS WITH SUBTITLES IN TEACHING LISTENING SKILL

TO THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS
AT THAI BINH TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGE
Điều tra về mức độ hiệu quả của việc sử dụng video có phụ đề
để dạy kỹ năng nghe cho sinh viên chuyên tiếng Anh năm thứ nhất,
trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Thái Bình

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dr. Hoàng Thị Hạnh.

HANOI – 2017


DECLARATION
I certify that this minor thesis entitled “An investigation into the effectiveness of

using videos with subtitles in teaching listening skills to the first-year English
majored students at Thai Binh Teacher Training College” is the study of my own
research and the substance of this research has not been submitted for a degree to any other
university or institution.

Hanoi, 2017
Signature

Trầ n Thi Hiề
̣ n

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor
Ms. Hoang Thi Hanh, PhD. for the invaluable support, guidance, and timely
encouragement she gave me while I was doing this research. I am truly
grateful to her for her advice, suggestions and useful materials right from the
beginning when this study was only in its formative stage.
I would also like to send my sincere thanks to my colleagues at the
Foreign Language Department, Thai Binh Teacher Training College,
especially Ms. Ha Thi Lan – the Dean and Ms. Ha Thu Nguyet – the Vice
Dean, for their helps and advice when I do this work.
Additional thanks go to the students who actively participated in this
study and willingly shared their experiences with me.
Special thanks go to all the lecturers who taught me throughout the MA
Program, whose lectures were useful for my thesis and sources of my
professional development.
Last, but by no means least, I would like to express my heartfelt
gratitude to all the members of my family: my parents, my husband, my sons
and my elder brothers as well as my sisters-in-law who have constantly
supported, inspired and encouraged me to accomplish the thesis.

ii


ABSTRACT
This

action

research

examines

the

effectiveness

of

using

subtitled/captioned videos in teaching listening skill to elementary students
and explores the students‟ attitudes towards this kind of listening activity. The
study was conducted at Thai Binh Teacher Training College in 2016 within
nine weeks. Ten first-year students in one class were involved in the study.
Different data sources, viz. pre-tests, post-tests, progress tests, journal writing;
and interviews were analyzed in triangulation with one another. The findings
reveal that using subtitled/captioned videos potentially has positive effects on
listening in terms of listening comprehension, vocabulary acquisition,
especially of the students who took notes while watching videos, and
fostering

students‟

interests

and

motivation.

However,

sometimes

subtitles/captions make students feel distracted because they had to watch the
videos, listen to the sound and read the subtitles at the same time.
Accordingly, implications for appropriate video selection, and process and
procedure of using videos with subtitles are proposed.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ............................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................... vi
LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS ............................................. vii
PART A: INTRODUCTION.......................................................................... 1
1. Rationale of the study .............................................................................. 1
2. Aims of the study ..................................................................................... 2
3. Scope of the study .................................................................................... 2
4. Method of the study ................................................................................. 2
5. Significance of the study ......................................................................... 3
6. Organization of the study......................................................................... 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................... 5
1.1. Listening and listening comprehension process ................................... 5

1.2. Multimedia language learning .............................................................. 8
1.3. Input from visual and auditory modalities ......................................... 12
1.4. Using videos with subtitles (captions) in teaching listening .............. 14
1.4.1. Definition ...................................................................................... 14
1.4.2. Listening comprehension benefits from captioned videos. .......... 15
1.5. Summary ............................................................................................. 19
CHAPTER 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................... 20
2.1. Research design .................................................................................. 20
2.2. Research questions ............................................................................. 21
2.3. Data collection instruments ................................................................ 22
2.3.1. Pre-test and post-test.................................................................... 22

iv


2.3.2. Listening progress test ................................................................. 22
2.3.3. Students’ journals ......................................................................... 23
2.3.4. Interviews ..................................................................................... 23
2.4. Situational analysis ............................................................................. 23
2.4.1. The setting of the study ................................................................. 23
2.4.2. The first-year listening program .................................................. 25
2.4.3. The course aims ............................................................................ 25
2.4.4. The teaching material................................................................... 26
2.4.5. The teaching and learning approach ........................................... 26
2.4.6. The participants............................................................................ 26
2.5. Action research procedure .................................................................. 27
2.5.1. Identifying a problem and collecting data ................................... 27
2.5.2. Analyzing data and generating hypothesis .................................. 28
2.5.3. Planning action and implementing the action plan ..................... 28
2.5.4. Collecting data to monitor change ............................................... 30

2.5.5. Analyzing data and evaluating the change .................................. 30
CHAPTER 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.......................................... 31
3.1. The students‟ listening comprehension .............................................. 31
3.2. Students‟ attitudes towards the teacher‟s using videos with subtitles
(captions) in teaching listening skills........................................................... 34
3.3. Discussion ........................................................................................... 37
PART C: CONCLUSION............................................................................. 43
1. Concluding remarks ................................................................................. 43
2. Implications .............................................................................................. 45
3. Limitations and suggestions for further study ....................................... 46
REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 47
APPENDIXES .................................................................................................. I

v


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ALTE:

Association of Language Testers in Europe

CEFR:

Common European Framework of Reference for languages

FLD:

Foreign Language Department.

IAAL:

International Association of Applied Linguistics

L1:

First Language

L2:

Second Language

KET:

Key English Test

TBTTC:

Thai Binh Teacher Training College

vi


LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS
Table 1: Students‟ listening comprehension scores each week during the
intervention ....................................................................................... 33
Table 2: Reported perceptions of listening to subtitled/captioned videos
activity............................................................................................... 35
Figure 1: Mayer‟s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning ....................... 10
Figure 2: A generative model of Multimedia Learning .................................. 11
Figure 3: Action research cycle....................................................................... 20

Chart 1: The difference in the students‟ listening comprehension scores ...... 32
Chart 2: The average percentage of listening comprehension scores ............. 32
Chart 3: Changes in listening comprehension of the whole class during the
intervention ....................................................................................... 34

vii


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Along with other skills, listening has been of great importance as Brett
(1997, p. 39) stated that „listening is a key language skill, it has a vital role in
the language acquisition process‟. Listening is an efficient channel to provide
comprehensible input for students, consequently, improving listening ability
helps to widen students‟ input. However, listening seems to get less attention
by a number of learners as they suppose that listening is the most difficult
skill among four skills. At Thai Binh Teacher Training College (TBTTC),
listening is a great challenge for many first year students, even the English
majored students. Almost all students at TBTTC graduated from high schools
in rural areas of Thai Binh province where they rarely had opportunities to
learn and practice English generally and listening skills particularly. As a
result, they not only lack necessary strategies to fulfill the listening tasks but
also have difficulties in catching the meaning from the tape because of
lacking vocabulary and having troubles with pronunciation. That they have
numerous challenges in listening makes them be frustrated and no longer
want to learn it worsens their learning listening. Therefore, it is essential to
create and maintain the students‟ interest in the lessons and avoid boredom in
learning listening.
Thus, in order to support students‟ input as well as motivate them in
learning listening then improve their language acquisition, it is essential for

teachers to find out an effective method of teaching listening. When studying
and doing research, I realized that using multimedia (subtitled or captioned
videos) may help me to give much more support for my students and help

1


them initially have feeling of desiring to listen and being capable of listening
to English.
The above reasons have encouraged me to carry out the study entitled:
„An investigation into the effectiveness of using videos with subtitles in
teaching listening skill to the first-year English majored students at Thai Binh
Teacher Training College’.
2. Aims of the study
The study is intended to investigate the effectiveness of using multimedia
(subtitled or captioned videos) in teaching listening skill to English majored
students of elementary level. In order to gain this aim, the study seeks to
answer the following questions:
- Question 1: To what extent does using videos with subtitles (captions)
improve first-year English majored students‟ listening skill?
- Question 2: What are the students‟ attitudes towards the teacher‟s using
videos with subtitles (captions) in teaching listening skill?
3. Scope of the study
This minor thesis was conducted in Thai Binh Teacher Training
College in order to investigate the effectiveness of using videos with subtitles
in teaching listening skills to the first-year English majored students.
4. Method of the study
4.1.

Methodology

Action research design is used since it deals the problem occurring in

listening lessons that I have been undertaking in my own classroom and I
would like to improve my students‟ listening, give them more support in
listening so that they can use them as a scaffold helping them have feeling of
enjoyment in listening process and having capability to listen to English. It is
a practical action research one because as pointed out by Koshy (2005, p. 10),

2


its purpose is to research a specific situation with a view toward improving
practice, to focus on small-scale research project, to focus narrowly on a
specific problem and to be taken by individual teacher within a classroom at a
college.
4.2.

Data collection instruments
Students‟ journals: This instrument allows the researcher to collect the

students‟ point of view about teaching listening.
Interviews: The main purpose of this data collection instrument is to
make sure that the information collected from the students‟ journals has its
validity and reliability, which helps trigger insights about the teaching.
Pre-test and Post-test: Through these two tests, the researcher can find
the difference in the students‟ listening comprehension, compare the results
before and after the time of doing an action plan.
Listening progress test: This test is taken weekly and the scores were
recorded to see whether the students‟ listening comprehension would be
improved week by week or not.

5. Significance of the study
The findings of the study are believed to be useful for me, a teacher
working at FLD, TBTTC to be aware of the essential role of videos with
subtitles to the students‟ comprehension in listening lessons since the research
area is completely new to me.
6. Organization of the study
The study is designed with three parts as follow:
Part A. Introduction, introduces the rationale of choosing the topic, the aims
of the study, the scope of the study, the methodology, the significance and the
organization of the study.

3


Part B. Development, is divided into three chapters:
Chapter 1. Literature review; provides basic concepts of listening, listening
comprehension process, multimedia language learning, input from visual and
auditory modalities; and using subtitled/captioned videos in teaching
listening.
Chapter 2. Methodology; presents the methodology used in the study
including the participants, the settings, instrumentation, procedure, data
collection and data analysis.
Chapter 3. Results and Discussion; reports and discusses the major findings.
Part C. Conclusion; summarizes what is addressed in the study, points out the
limitations, draws pedagogical implications and provides some suggestions
for further study.

4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1.

Listening and listening comprehension process
For years, while speaking and writing were thought of as active skills,

listening and reading were passive ones. However, as mentioned above, after
the IAAL Conference, listening received much more attention and was
assessed differently. From the views of Dunkel (1991) and Rubin (1994),
listening is a key language skill playing a crucial role in the language
acquisition process and its development is of prime concern to language
teachers.
Present studies on listening have different views from the former ones.
Helgesen (2003, p. 24) stated that “listening is an active, purposeful process
of making sense of what we hear”. Similarly, Rubin (1995, p. 151) defined
listening comprehension as „an active process of understanding speech in
which listeners select and interpret information which comes from auditory
and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are
trying to express‟. That is to say, listening is a very demanding skill which
requires the listeners‟ abilities to make use of auditory and visual clues to
„work out not only what is directly asserted in the text, but also what is
implied‟ (Brown & Yule, 1983). The definition also emphasizes the role of
the two models of information input – auditory and visual. Therefore, in order
to help learners deal with the challenging process, while teaching listening,
teachers should give them more supports, especially visual clues, not just
playing the tapes.
Many other definitions of listening comprehension also indicate the
kinds of stimuli or information the speaker and the listener exchange. For

5


instance, Mueller (1980, p. 335) claims that listening comprehension rises
from „a complex interplay of linguistic and extra-linguistic, contextual (often
visual) information cues‟. Coakley & Wolvin (1986, p. 20) also speculate that
listening comprehension is „a complex communication behavior, involving a
process of receiving, attending to, and assigning meaning to verbal and/or
non-verbal stimuli‟. In the same way, according to Brown (2001), listening
comprehension is a complex process which takes more than just hearing the
sounds, but transferring them to the brain for later processing. Listening
comprehension, in other words, is a long and complex process in which
listeners have to use a wide range of strategies and techniques to react
towards the perceived input.
Based on how the listeners process the input, researchers have
classified listening process into two types: bottom- up process and top-down
process
 Bottom – up processing
According to David Nunan (1999, p. 6), bottom – up process is the text
based process. The listeners try to make sense of what they hear by focusing
on the different parts: the vocabulary, the grammar or functional phrases,
sounds. Rubin (1994, p. 20) also defined that bottom – up „is a process of
decoding the sounds that one hears in a linear fashion, from the smallest
meaningful units (or phonemes) to complete texts‟. In other words, the
listeners make use of „his knowledge of words, syntax, and grammar to work
on form‟.
 Top – down processing
Flowerdew & Miller (2005, p. 24) stated that top – down process is a
model in which listeners use their previous knowledge to process a text, rather
than depending on the individual sounds and words. In other words, according

6


to Vandergrift (2002), top down process is the process in which listeners
employ background knowledge or textual schema to make sense of what they
hear. The knowledge may be the general knowledge based on life experience
and previous learning, or the knowledge of language and content used in a
particular situation.
However, in order to understand messages, listeners need to make use
of the interaction between both types of listening process because in fact,
listening comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up processing.
These two processes cannot be separated during the listening processing.
Brown (1990, p. 54) pointed out that there are three aspects involving both
top-down and bottom-up processes from which listeners can interpret a
message. Firstly, before listening, listeners use their background (top-down)
to predict the message. Then, while listening, they use the phonological
system and other discrete aspects of the message (bottom-up) to confirm or
reject their predictions and also collect the information or details they haven‟t
predicted. After listening, they try to infer what the speaker meant. In daily
listening, we usually employ all these aspects almost all the time. While
listening, as we confirm or reject predictions, we make new predictions and
are drawing inferences at the same time, as we continue listening and
deciphering the phonological code. Vandergrift (2002) also stated that
„listeners use content words and contextual clues to form hypotheses in an
exploratory fashion‟. Nevertheless, to what extent listeners use the one
process or the other principally depends on their knowledge of the language,
familiarity with the topic or the purpose of listening. For instance, listening
for gist involves primarily top-down processing, whereas listening for specific
information involves primarily bottom-up processing to comprehend all the

desired details.

7


Furthermore,

cognitive

psychology

also

finds

that

listening

comprehension is a complicate process in which listeners have to make use of
what they already know about the topic to make appropriate inferences to the
speech‟s meanings. Therefore, the more they know about the topic, the more
the listening process is facilitated (Byrnes, 1984). For that reason, before
letting her students listen, it is essential for a teacher to elicit her students‟
background knowledge, organize their thoughts to make predictions prepared
for listening. Their burden of comprehension, thus, is reduced significantly.
According to Harris (1989, p. 54), using video, which provides visual
information such as body language, gestures, expressions and other vital clues
regarding the contexts, the speakers would be a great way of aiding students
with using top-down processes to decipher listening texts. Lemmer (2009)

also concluded that using video can help students „determine context more
easily, better infer meaning of unknown vocabulary and see gesture,
expressions of speakers‟. He also pointed out that using video is less artificial
because it reflects the real-life situations more accurately than having to listen
to tapes blindly, without any visual clues.
In short, second language (L2) listening comprehension is a complex
process, crucial in the development of second language competence. Guiding
students through the process of listening not only provides them with the
knowledge by which they can successfully complete a listening task; it also
motivates them and puts them in control of their learning. Giving students
more support such as visual input provided by multimedia can be a great
option.
1.2.

Multimedia language learning
Thanks to the development of technology, it is easy to combine

different types of media, such as texts, sounds, images, and video, which

8


enhances the expansion of multimedia learning. Meskill (1996, p. 179) states
that „multimedia allows integration of text, graphics, audio, and motion video
in a range of combinations‟. Similarly, according to Mayer (2005b),
multimedia is the combination of texts and pictures; and multimedia learning
takes place when we build mental representations from these words and
pictures or „when students receive information presented in more than one
mode, such as pictures and words‟ (Mayer, 1997, p. 1). Many cognitive
researchers (Baddeley, 1986; Sweller, 1988, 1994, 2005; Mayer, 2003, 2005,

2009) argue that multimedia supports the way that the human brain learns and
they claim that people learn more deeply from words and pictures than from
only words, which is known as „multimedia principle‟ (Mayer, 2001).
According to Mayer (2009, p. 6), words consist of „speech and printed text‟
and pictures can be „static graphics (such as illustrations or photos) and
dynamic graphics (such as animations or video)‟.
Mayer (2009) states that for multimedia learning, instructional messages
should be designed in light of how human brain works. He assumes that
humans have two information processing systems – one for processing verbal
information and one for working out visual information. Therefore, if the
material is presented in verbal mode only, „the potential contribution of our
capacity to process information in the visual mode‟ is being ignored (p. 6). He
explains more: „Presenting both is like presenting the material twice – giving
the learner twice as much exposure to the explanation‟ (p. 7). That is the reason
why multimedia presentations should be made use of in order to take advantage
of „the full capacity of humans for processing information‟ (p. 6).
The model in Figure 1 shows how the human mind actively works in
multimedia learning. According to Mayer (2005b), this is „a demanding
process‟ (p. 46) in which the words and pictures presented by multimedia are

9


processed flexibly through two channels (auditory channel and visual
channel) by three memory stores; and new knowledge will be stored in the
long-term memory when the combination of its verbal model and pictorial
model is integrated with people‟s prior knowledge.
MULTIMEDIA
PRESENTATION

WORKING
MEMORY

SENSORY
MEMORY

selecting
Words

Ears

words

Sounds

Organizing
words

LONG-TERM
MEMORY

Verbal
model
Prior

Pictures

Eyes

selecting

images

Images

Organizing
images

Pictorial
model

Intergrating

knowledge

Figure 1: Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning
(Mayer, 2005a)
In the research „Multimedia learning: Are we asking the right
questions?‟, Mayer (1997) with his colleagues question why a student can
read or listen to every word of a science passage but cannot use that
information to solve problem. Their research has produced convincing
evidence that the presentation of a verbal explanation of how a system works
does not insure that students will understand the explanation. In their research
for ways to help students understand science explanations, they have come to
rely increasingly on multimedia learning. The generative model of multimedia
learning (Figure 2) indicates the constructive process of meaningful learning
in a multimedia environment, in which Mayer (1997) emphasizes that for the
integrating process, the final process of working out the presented information

10

in multimedia environment, to take place, „the visual representation must be
held in visual short-term memory at the same time that the corresponding
verbal information is held in verbal short-term memory‟ (p. 5). In other
words, learners can construct the link between verbal and visual stimuli more
efficiently when the text and demonstrations are introduced simultaneously.
This conclusion used to be improved by Salomon (1989) when he proposed a
model that explained the collaboration of textual and visual media by
studying the features of media, and the characteristics of tasks and learners.
According to this model, there are five types of variables related to the
process of learning from textual and visual media: stimulus variables,
cognitive variables, task variables, and accomplished psychological functions.
He calls the integration of these types of variables „visual supplantation‟
(Salomon, 1989: 77) – a process when explicit visuals „model (that is –
supplant) the kind of imagery that learners should have conjured up on their
own, assuming of course that such imagery is necessary for the acquisition of
the material to be learned‟ (Salomon, 1989: 77). In other words, the process of
learning is supported by visual supplantation only when there is a
complementary association between the textual information and visual
information.
Text

SELECTING
WORDS

Text base

Verbally-based
ORGANIZING
WORDS

model

INTERGRATING

Illustrations

SELECTING
IMAGES

Image base

Visually-based
ORGANIZING
IMAGES

model

Figure 2: A generative model of multimedia learning (Mayer, 1997)

11


Based on a set of researches, Mayer (1997) also finds that learners at
low level of background knowledge and high levels of spatial capability
benefit most from the contiguous performance of verbal and visual
information.
Brett (1997) studies the effects of the use of multimedia on listening
comprehension and he finds that in comparison with listening supported by
other media (audio or video combined with pen and paper), listening

performance in a computer-based multimedia – „that delivers video and audio
in combination with text‟ (p. 39) achieved higher level. He indicates that
learners seemed to appreciate „the efficiency of multimedia that has
everything (video picture, aural input, written tasks, and the place for
response and feedback) in the same place‟ and „multimedia seemed preferable
to audio cassettes for learning‟ (p. 47).
1.3.

Input from visual and auditory modalities

A variety of input modalities is now being used in language teaching because
it is believed that multiple modalities help to improve language acquisition.
Paivio‟s Dual Coding Theory (1986, 1991, 2007) assumes that verbal and
non-verbal information are processed by two distinct but interactive systems –
a verbal system specialized for dealing directly with language and a nonverbal (imagery) system specialized for dealing with non-linguistic objects
and events. The activation of both systems results in better recall which
explains why combining visual images with verbal information can improve
second language learning.
Many researchers (Al-Seghayer, 2001; Chun & Plass, 1996a, 1996b;
Plass et al., 1998, 2003; Jones & Plass, 2002) agree that vocabulary learning
can be enhanced if new words are explained with both verbal input and
images rather than with only one of these stimuli. Jones (2004) also finds that

12


the combination of visual and aural information helps L2 learners understand
more, because any recognized visual information is handled spontaneously in
working memory and made available for processing further linguistic input.
Moreover, in his research, Al-Seghayer (2001) found that multimedia

supporting with video and text led to better vocabulary learning than that with
still pictures and text combination. Gestures and facial expressions in video
input have been found to facilitate listening comprehension in the L2
(Hernandez, 2005; Sueyoshi & Hardison, 2005). Besides, Vandergrift & Goh
(2012, p. 219) state that adding a visual component to listening instruction
increases the authenticity of classroom listening practice. This brings students
opportunities to practice listening in like-real-life situations, then become
more active and confident in real communication which is the final aim of
teaching listening. They also conclude that aural information supported by
visual mode can lead to better comprehension for L2 listening.
According to many L2 listening researchers (Baltova, 1994; Gruba,
1997; Progosh, 1996; Wagner, 2007), in almost all the real-life listening
situations, the listeners can see the speaker, which shows that L2 listening
involves not only verbal information but also nonverbal elements. Therefore,
they state that visuals with speech can assist the comprehension of L2 listeners.
As pointed out by Wagner (2007), supporting the aural input with visual
components can not only provide more authentic L2 listening tasks, but also
„lead to more construct relevant variance in the assessments, allowing for more
valid inferences to be made from the results of those assessments‟ (p. 67).
Most foreign language teachers agree that videos expose students to
authentic materials and provide cultural contexts for the language (Herron &
Hanley, 1992; Swaffar & Vlatten, 1997). As pointed out by Chung (1999),
video offers listeners the opportunity to „read‟ visual as well as aural

13


messages. Students provided with a video source understand and retain more
than those who have a printed or an auditory source only. Rubin (1990) also
argues that video can enhance listening comprehension if it is selected so that

it provides abundant cues for information processing.
However, Baltova (1994) argues that due to visual images, authentic
videos help with overall comprehension of information, but they do not boost
comprehending of the language per se. He says that in order to help learners
comprehend the language, on-screen text is often augmented into videos.
The next section will discuss the use of subtitles (captions) as an onscreen text in teaching listening.
1.4.

Using videos with subtitles (captions) in teaching listening

1.4.1. Definition
According to Sydorenko (2010), on-screen text can be various forms:
subtitles (L1 text, L2 sound), reversed subtitles (L1 sound, L2 text), or
captions (sound is in the same language as the text). Jacob B. Scheffer (2014)
states that the terms „captions‟ and „subtitles‟ are used somewhat
interchangeably. „Captioning‟, initially invented as a means to assist the
impaired hearing for television, is the use of the same language text on a
video screen concurrent with the audio of the spoken text (Price, 1983).
„Subtitles‟, as defined by Livingstone (2013), are usually in the viewer‟s L1
or other language text on screen concurrent with the L2 spoken audio, and the
text may be paraphrased so that the text on the screen matches the scene.
However, according to Danan (2004), captions are „called teletext subtitles in
Europe, with subtitles in the same language as the sound track‟ (p. 68).
Therefore, in this study, I just focus on subtitles as captions with L2 sound
and L2 text (both in English). In other words, the terms „subtitles‟ and „

14


captions‟ are used alternatively indicating the verbatim transcription of the

original language (English) of the videos.
1.4.2. Listening comprehension benefits from captioned videos.
When being first used in foreign language classroom in the 1980s,
captioning was believed to be a good way to improve learners‟ attention,
decrease anxiety, boost students‟ understanding of what was heard, and
increase motivation (Burger, 1989; Froehlich, 1988; Grimmer, 1992;
Vanderplank, 1988). Then, numerous researchers studied whether captioned
video is more beneficial than non-captioned video (Baltova, 1999; Danan,
1992, 2004; Garza, 1991; Markham, 1993, 1999; Neuman & Koskinen,
1992). The general agreement among these researchers was that captioning is
beneficial for listening comprehension.
According to Danan (2004), „audiovisual material with captions or
subtitles is a particularly powerful pedagogical tool which can help improve
the listening comprehension skills of second-language learners‟ (p. 67)
because captions aid language learning by helping learners visualize what
they hear, especially if the input is slightly beyond their linguistic ability.
Vanderplank (1988) proposed that attaching English text subtitles to English
videos is one way of helping learners of English to comprehend authentic
video programs while preserving a target language learning environment.
Bird & Williams (2002) found that comprehension is supported by
captions because they increase processing depth. They conducted an
experiment studying how a bimodal presentation (aural and visual) of new
words would affect the learning of the words. They considered the effect of
three conditions on word learning: text with sound, text without sound and
sound without text. The results showed that in comparison with words
presented by the other two presentation modalities, words presented by the

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combination of text and sound resulted in better recognition memory. Their
results also provide evidence that the cognitive systems dealing with auditory
and visual word recognition are highly interactive and fully interconnected. It
means that captions help to increase processing depth, which supports
comprehension.
Chiquito (1995) and Chung (1993) also showed that captions are
beneficial for the comprehension of videos‟ details. Chiquito (1995) observes
that listening and reading simultaneously forces L2 students „to review the
video in order to read the captioned text, listen again, or to compare speech
and text depending on what they have just missed‟ (p. 219). Subtitled video
may help L2 students associate the auditory and written forms of words more
easily and quickly than video without subtitles (Chung, 1999). This increases
the comprehension of videos‟ details.
In addition, captions can help with word recognition and vocabulary
building. Neuman & Koskinen (1992) conduct a series of increasingly
complex tests demonstrated the beneficial effects of captions and they show
that captioning is more beneficial to vocabulary recognition and acquisition
than traditional television watching, or reading while listening.
Moreover, Danan (2004, p. 69) concludes that captions help make the
video more intelligible by bridging the gap between reading comprehension
skills and listening comprehension, which is consistent with the Garza‟s study
(1991). Garza (1991, p. 246) points out that providing students with a
comprehensible graphic presentation of an utterance means giving them an
opportunity to assign meaning to previously unintelligible aural entities,
gradually building their aural comprehension in relation to their reading
comprehension. For example: A ESL student might view a video clip showing
two students meeting after class. One says to the other, „Djeetjet?‟; the other

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