The Effect of Textual Enhancement on Incidental Learning of Single Words and Multi-word Items From L2 Captioned Viewing

Abstract

There has been limited research examining the impact of textual enhancement on incidental learning of multi-word items (MWIs) and single words from captioned viewing, particularly at the level of form recall. This study aims to address this gap. Sixty-two EFL learners encountered 16 MWIs and 18 single words in one of the following conditions: (a) MWI-enhanced captioned viewing (MWI-enhanced CV) (b) single-word enhanced captioned viewing (SW-enhanced CV), (c) uncaptioned viewing, (d) unenhanced captioned viewing (Unenhanced CV). Learning was gauged using a form-recall test with re-arranged items as a pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest. Regarding MWI learning, the MWI-enhanced captioned viewing group significantly outperformed the other three groups on both immediate and delayed posttests. Regarding single-word learning, however, no significant differences were found among the four groups. Learners’ prior vocabulary knowledge had a significantly positive correlation merely with the delayed gains in the single-word enhanced captioned viewing and the uncaptioned viewing conditions. Altogether, the findings demonstrate that instructional support embedded in captions through textual enhancement plays a critical role in incidental vocabulary learning. Theoretically, the results extend the Noticing Hypothesis by suggesting that perceptual salience can selectively support MWI learning without an apparent increase in cognitive load, as inferred from the vocabulary learning gains.

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