Listening comprehension, the first step in the process of acquiring a language and an essential element in communication for any human being, had formerly received relatively little attention in the teaching, learning, and assessment of English as a foreign language (EFL) (Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011). However, with the perceived importance of listening skills in the recent years, there has been a new trend of executing more listening tasks and trainings in the communicative language teaching (CLT) (Renukadevi, 2014). In an analogous manner, English education in Taiwan used to put considerable emphasis on grammar practice and vocabulary memorization; drills and paper-pencil tests were regular and typical test types. In this regard, English listening comprehension was never really given much importance by college applicants until a provision in 2012, which required The Joint Board of College Recruitment Commission in Taiwan to hold the test of English Listening Comprehension (TELC) for high school students to take before the college joint entrance exam (Chou, 2015). TELC test results serve as a
requisite or an important criterion for many Taiwanese colleges in the preliminary phase of college application. In the school year of 2018, more than one hundred college departments required TELC scores as a requisite in the admissions process (The Ministry of Education, MOE, Taiwan).
Likewise, there was another innovation in Taiwan’s education targeting the high school admission test in 2015. An English listening comprehension test was unprecedentedly added and made compulsory with the test results accounting for 20% of the score of the English section of the Comprehensive Assessment Program (CAP). These two innovations of the exam systems in Taiwan’s
education immediately drew massive attention to the need of students to enhance their English listening comprehension. And language learners, teachers and
parents, started to look for effective pedagogical tools and language materials that could better facilitate improving their English listening comprehension (Li, 2016).
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has been the focus in the quest for innovative and efficient pedagogy as it warrants facilitative effect and enhanced motivation in learning (Jones, Ramanau, Cross & Healing, 2010;
Kennedy, Judd, Dalgarnot & Waycott, 2010; Webb & Cox, 2004). Based on the belief that ICT entails optimal learning outcomes, a large number of studies have been conducted to identify effective pedagogy to promote English listening comprehension (Ginther, 2002; Guillory, 1998; Kuppens, 2010; Kuure, 2011).
Also, the implications of cognitive load theory (CLT) have informed that multimodal learning provides scaffold in promoting optimal learning (Baltova, 1999; Mayer, 2002, 2014, 2017; Paas, Renkl, & Swellers, 2003). The abundant textual and contextual cues provided by multimodal materials (e.g., videos) help learners successfully retrieve schemas, reduce cognitive load, and contribute to optimized learning outcomes in learners (Garza, 1991; Mitterer, & McQueen, 2009).
Of all the multimodal pedagogical tools, the application of videos has become increasingly popular (Gruba, 1997; Vandergrift, 1999, 2007). Video clips are multimodal material originating from TV programs and movies, all featuring authentic pronunciation, facial expressions, gestures, rich contexts and a
soundtrack in the mother language and/or target language. Previous studies have corroborated that increased exposure to authentic video materials is pedagogically more beneficial in terms of language learning (Bird & Williams, 2002; Chung 1999, 2002; Hsu, Hwang, Chang, Y.T., & Chang, 2013; Markham 1999, 2001) than exclusive exposure to the didactic lectures made by teachers or abridged scripted materials (Baltova, 1999). Listening activities involving video watching boost learners’ motivation, teamwork and engagement (Yasin, Mustafa, &
Permatasari, 2017). However, several essential issues need to be addressed in order to shed more light on how captioned materials should be used for optimal language learning outcomes. Do L1 or L2 captions provide optimal scaffolding in promoting listening comprehension? What are the learners’ perceptions of
learning English through watching online videos?
Although numerous studies have been conducted trying to answer the above mentioned questions, the findings remain inconclusive (Garza, 1991; Markham 1999, 2001; Markham & Peter 2003, Neuman & Koskinen, 1992; Vanderplank, 1988, 2013). For example, Markham (1999) found that captions in the learners’
second language (L2) successfully upgrades a language learners’ test performance on word recognition and listening comprehension. Mitterer et al. (2009) also noticed that captions in the learners’ native language (L1) hindered language acquisition while captions in L2 facilitated the viewers’ phonetic knowledge in their target language.
However, contrary results are revealed in other research. Some researchers noticed that subtitling provided scaffolding to language learners in in-depth reasoning and contributed to incidental language acquisition (Danan, 2004;
Koolstra & Beentjes, 1999). Others found that subtitles helped boost learning motivation and eased learning anxiety (Safar, Modot, Angrisani, Gambier, Eugeni,
& Fonatenel, 2011). Therefore, the findings on the efficacy of the two caption modes remain inconclusive.
To thoroughly examine the effectiveness of L1 versus L2 captions, language researchers have put many variables into the equation, such as age (Muñoz, 2017), the learners’ native language, and so on (Lee, Yeung, & Ip, 2016). However, of all the variables, the learners’ proficiency level has been found to play a crucial role (Danan, 2004; Lwo & Lin, 2012). Many studies have verified that captioning facilitates language learning of the leaners of higher intermediate and advanced
levels (Araujo & Costa, 2013; Bianchi & Ciabattoni, 2008). On the contrary, the studies involving beginning level learners have been inconclusive in terms of language gains (Lavaur & Bairstow, 2011; Markham, Peter, & McCarthy, 2001).
Additionally, most studies were only one-shot experiments (Li, 2016; Stæ hr, 2009;
Yang & Chang, 2014) or were conducted in the language lab (Hayati & Mohmedi, 2011; Li, 2016). And the participants of the previous research were mostly college students in their early twenties (Frumuselua, Maeyerb, Doncheb, & Plana, 2015;
Mirzaei, Meshgi, Akita, & Kawahara, 2017, Markham, 1999). As a consequence, studies on junior high school EFL learners in real classrooms have been rather sparse. Therefore, because of the abovementioned contradictory findings and the research gap, the present study wishes to verify the differential effectiveness of L1 versus L2 captions on leaners of different proficiency levels. This study will also examine the learners’ perceptions toward online video learning.
In addition, a characteristic of this study is that the video materials used will be selected from online streaming websites such as YouTube and TED
(Technology, Education, Design), which are both popular and widely used by many foreign language (FL) and L2 learners. YouTube is reported to be the most frequently visited video website among all the available video resources online (Ashraf, 2009). It is the third most frequently-used online website only after Google and Facebook (Tan & Pearce, 2012) and has more than one billion users (YouTube, 2017). Its positive educational implication on enhancing a learners’
academic performance has been demonstrated in recent research (Allam & Elyas, 2016; Almoswai, 2017; Alwehaibi, 2015; Roodt & Villiers, 2011; Watkins &
Wilkins, 2011).
Similarly, TED is another website that offers videos featuring authentic speeches of assorted genres, in-depth content, varied lengths, and speakers of different mother languages but all speak in English (Wolfe, 2015). While English
captions are always available on TED, transcripts and translations of speeches into the official languages of foreign countries are also obtainable on many of its videos on TED. It has been observed that watching TED talks benefits a language learner’s listening comprehension with or without reading the transcript
beforehand (Ono & Nakajima, 2017). Online video clips not only help students conceptualize the abstract meanings of novel vocabulary, but also boost positive attitudes and higher motivation in learners (Goldman, Braasch, Wiley, Graesser,
& Brodowinska, 2012; Hsu, et al., 2013). Furthermore, the integration of online resources has helped shift the students’ role in learning, transforming them from passive learners to active learners (Orús, Barlés, Belanche, Casaló, Fraj, &
Gurrea, 2016), as the pedagogy warrants extensive learner choices and self-direction (McLoughlin & Lee, 2007). In addition to these significant advantages, more recent studies have stressed the value of English learning through watching online videos, highlighting that this approach is in line with the latest trend in EFL teaching/learning, multilingualism, multi-cultures, and lingual diversity (world Englishes) (Frumuselua, et al., 2015).
In light of the gap in the previously mentioned research data, this empirical study attempts to address the following issues:
(1) Are L1 or L2 captions more effective in promoting EFL learners’
listening comprehension?
(2) Is the degree to which the learners benefit from different caption modes affected by their English proficiency level?
(3) What are the perceptions of the learners with different caption modes toward online video learning?