The effects of captioning on content comprehension

Abstract

Captions, or same language subtitles, have been proven beneficial to improve content comprehension, boost vocabulary learning, and enhance speech segmentation for learners of English. It is unclear, however, if captions provide the same benefits to students in the classroom while attending to lessons, and if so, what format of captions would be the most beneficial. This study examines the effects of different caption display formats on the comprehension of L2 learners of English with different proficiency levels in classroom settings. It also aims to explore what views learners of English hold on using captions while watching educational audiovisual content.

Participants were exposed to three types of caption formats (no captions, two-lined captions, and word-by-word, incremental captions) while watching short video clips of academic lectures that contained static slides accompanied by the lecturer's voice. They were asked to complete a written recall task to test their comprehension of the content of the clips and fill out a questionnaire to collect their opinions on caption use.

Results highlighted that two-lined captions were the most beneficial to aid participants’ comprehension. Participants’ opinions on captions reveal potential areas of interest for future research.