2000 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The Effects of English Captions on Listening Comprehension Task
| Project/Area Number |
12040237
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (A)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Review Section |
Humanities and Social Sciences
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| Research Institution | Kyushu Women's University |
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Principal Investigator |
TOJO Kazuko Kyushu Women's University, Department of Literature, Associate Professor, 文学部, 助教授 (20258346)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2000
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| Keywords | Language education / English captions / Listening skill / Reading skill / Learner's cognitive code / DVD |
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| Research Abstract |
This project aimed to clarify the mechanism of the effective use of English captions in viewing English films by Japanese EFL students. The focus was place upon how the learner read captions while listening. The analyses of caption reading environment for the learner revealed that the average length was 7.2 syllables per caption and the average duration was 1.93 second per caption for the selected film scenes.
A series of experiments was conducted with 27 Japanese college students to see how comprehension of the selected film scenes was improved by captions in connection with the learner's vocabulary awareness and reading behaviors. The results indicated that captions helped to increase the discrete information that the learner received than the overall information. It also confirmed that the effects of captions were closely related to the learner's reading behavioral patterns. A fast-and constant-paced reader was not successful in utilizing captions effectively. Rather, scanning to reach missed audio information was the key to the effective use of captions.
The outcome of the project suggested the need to reconstruct the rationale in terms of language skills for multi-channel processing and the increasing importance to look at the learner's cognitive code in multi-media use in language education.
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