This study used a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design at one-week intervals to determine the extent to which written, audio, and audiovisual L2 input contributed to incidental vocabulary learning. Seventy-six university students learning EFL in China were randomly assigned to four groups. Each group was presented with the input from the same television documentary in different modes: reading the printed transcript, listening to the documentary, viewing the documentary, and a nontreatment control condition. Checklist and multiple-choice tests were designed to measure knowledge of target words. The results showed that L2 incidental vocabulary learning occurred through reading, listening, and viewing, and that the gain was retained in all modes of input one week after encountering the input. However, no significant differences were found between the three modes on the posttests indicating that each mode of input yielded similar amounts of vocabulary gain and retention. A significant relationship was found between prior vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary learning, but not between frequency of occurrence and vocabulary learning. The study provides further support for the use of L2 television programs for language learning.

The present study explores the incidental learning of formulaic sequences (FS) from audio-visual input and factors affecting the learning of FS. A pretest-posttest, within-participant design was adopted. English-as-a-foreign-language learners (L1 = Dutch; n = 42) watched a one-hour English-language documentary without subtitles. Learning gains were measured at the level of form recall and meaning recall. Significant learning gains were found in both the form recall and meaning recall tests, indicating that several knowledge aspects of FS can be learned incidentally from audio-visual input. The findings also revealed a positive relationship between learners’ prior vocabulary knowledge and the learning gains. Further, several item-related factors affected the learning gains (e.g., collocate-node relationship, frequency). Finally, the findings showed the incremental nature of learning FS, as preknowledge of the meaning of the FS prior to the TV viewing was the strongest predictor of learning the form of FS.

This study explores the differential effects of captions and subtitles on extensive TV viewing comprehension by adolescent beginner foreign language learners, and how their comprehension is affected by factors related to the learner, preteaching of target vocabulary, the lexical coverage of the episodes, and the testing instruments. Four classes of secondary school students took part in an 8-month intervention viewing 24 episodes of a TV series, two classes with captions, and two with subtitles. One class in each language condition received explicit instruction on target vocabulary. Comprehension was assessed through multiple-choice and true-false items, which included a combination of textually explicit and inferential items. Results showed a significant advantage of subtitles over captions for content comprehension, and prior vocabulary knowledge emerged as a significant predictor—particularly in the captions condition. Comprehension scores were also mediated by test-related factors, with true-false items receiving overall more correct responses while textually explicit and inferential items scores differed according to language of the on-screen text. Lexical coverage also emerged as a significant predictor of comprehension.

Theories of multimedia learning suggest that learners can form better referential connections when verbal and visual materials are presented simultaneously. Furthermore, the addition of auditory input in reading-while-listening conditions benefits performance on a variety of linguistic tasks. However, little research has been conducted on the processing of multimedia input (written text and images) with and without accompanying audio. Eye movements were recorded during young L2 learners’ (N = 30) processing of a multimedia story text in reading-only and reading-while-listening conditions to investigate looking patterns and their relationship with comprehension using a multiple-choice comprehension test. Analysis of the eye-movement data showed that the presence of audio in reading-while-listening conditions allowed learners to look at the image more often. Processing time on text was related to lower levels of comprehension, whereas processing time on images was positively related to comprehension.

The present study investigated the potential benefits of extended exposure to captioned videos for second language pronunciation. We tested 90 L2 adult learners of English on speech processing skills (segmentation, speed of lexical access, and sentence processing) and phonological accuracy in perception (ABX discrimination) and production (accentedness ratings) before and after an 8-week treatment consisting of regular exposure to audiovisual materials. Participants were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions involving two viewing modes (captioned or uncaptioned) and two task focus conditions (focus on phonetic form or focus on meaning). Results showed benefits in speech segmentation and speech processing skills irrespective of viewing mode. No significant benefits were found for phonological accuracy in perception. In production, a focus on phonetic form improved pronunciation only in the absence of captions, whereas captioned viewing led to pronunciation gains as long as there was no focus on phonetic form. These findings suggest that pronunciation improvement can take place with the help of captions or, in the absence of captions, when learners’ attention is directed to pronunciation. Cognitive overload might explain why no benefits were obtained when attention was directed to pronunciation in a captioned viewing mode.

This study assessed the extent to which captions, textually unenhanced and enhanced, can draw learners’ attention to and promote the acquisition of a second language (L2) grammatical construction. A pretest–posttest–delayed posttest experimental design was employed. Seventy-two Korean learners of English were randomly assigned to an enhanced captions group, an unenhanced captions group, and a no captions group. Each group completed a series of treatment tasks, during which they watched news clips under their respective captioning condition. The target L2 construction was the use of the present perfect versus the past simple in reporting news. For the enhanced captions group, the present perfect and past simple forms were typographically enhanced using a different color. Eye-movement indices were obtained to examine attentional allocation during the treatment, and oral and written productive tests and a fill-in-the-blank test were used to assess participants’ gains. A series of mixed-effects models found both captioning and textual enhancement effective in drawing learners’ attention to and facilitating development in the use of the target construction. In addition, positive links were identified between attention to captions and learners’ gains.