Exploring repeated captioning viewing as a way to promote vocabulary learning: time lag between repetitions and learner factors

Abstract

Repeated viewing of the same video is a common strategy among autonomous language learners as well as a much used pedagogical strategy among foreign language (FL) teachers. Learners may watch the same video more than once, to increase global comprehension of the target language or to focus their attention on linguistic aspects, such as new vocabulary or pronunciation. This study sought to examine to what extent repetition is more efficient for vocabulary learning if the second viewing follows the first immediately, or a week later. Participants were upper intermediate-level college learners who were distributed into three groups, one watched a TV series episode twice in the same session, one also watched the same episode twice but one week apart, and the last (control) group did not watch the video. Tests of word meaning recognition and word meaning recall were administered before and after viewing (pretest-immediate posttest-delayed posttest). The pretest and posttests contained 23 target items and 17 distracters (single words and multi-word expressions). In addition, the study explored the influence of two learner factors, each related to one of two verbal input channels: sound recognition for the audio and reading efficacy (reading speed and comprehension) for the onscreen text. The results indicated significant vocabulary learning from viewing and slightly higher benefits for the spaced repetition group at immediate posttest. The results also showed a significant influence of previous target vocabulary knowledge and of aptitude, as measured by the LLAMA D test, but not of reading efficacy.

Keywords:

• Audiovisual input
• repeated viewing
• captions
• aptitude
• reading efficacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [CM], upon reasonable request.

Notes

1 The lag effect is related to the spacing effect (Rogers, 2017) and both are generally referred to as distributed practice effect. However, while the lag effect is concerned with the effects of different amounts of spacing – as in the present study, the spacing effect refers to the effects of spacing and no spacing (i.e. massing), as when target items are repeated n times in a row.

2 Many of these multilingual learners were also proficient in Catalan and Spanish, having been schooled wholly or partly in these languages. For those who chose so, we allowed them to give translations to their L1 (we had a few answers in Italian and Romanian). No differences were found between them and learners whose family language was Catalan or/and Spanish.

3 Their vocabulary size was 7055 words on average (SD: 1325) as measured by the Yes/No Levels Test (Meara & Miralpeix, 2017). Vocabulary size was not included in the analysis because, due to practical problems, it was measured after the viewing sessions. However, it gives us a good approximation of the participants’ vocabulary knowledge and ensures their comprehension of the language in the video.

4 Because of the COVID pandemic, this was the third semester these students were taking their courses online and they were familiar with the format by then.

5 It has been argued that the optimal spacing between training or studying sessions is related to the interval between study and test, and that the former should be 10–30% of the latter, approximately (Cepeda et al, 2008). In the present study, the immediate posttest did not leave any interval between session and test, but the formula could be applied to the interval between sessions (7 days) and the delayed posttest (32 days) and this combination approximates the optimal ratio at 22%.

6 We are very grateful to Paul Meara for his kind help providing the scores.

Additional information

Funding

MCIN/AEI/10.12039/501100011033.

Notes on contributors

Carmen Muñoz

Carmen Muñoz is Full Professor of Applied English Linguistics at the University of Barcelona. Her research interests include the effects of age and input, young learners in instructed settings, individual differences, informal learning, and L2 learning through audiovisual input. She is the coordinator of the SUBTiLL Project, on the learning potential of audiovisual input and the effects of captions/subtitles.

Anastasia Pattemore

Anastasia Pattemore is a researcher collaborator at the University of Barcelona where she obtained her PhD. Her PhD research explored how exposure to captioned and uncaptioned original version audio-visual input affects learning of L2 grammar constructions both inside and outside the classroom.

Daniela Avello

Daniela Avello is a predoctoral researcher and EFL teacher at the University of Barcelona. She is currently working on her doctoral dissertation, which focuses on L2 learning from captioned-video viewing in primary school learners. Her research interests are foreign language learning and teaching, vocabulary learning, receptive skills development, individual differences, L2 learning from audiovisual input, and young L2 learners.