Annotations in captioned animation: Effects on vocabulary learning and listening skills

This study investigates whether the availability of annotations for captioned animation in multimedia listening activities aids L2 vocabulary acquisition and facilitates listening skills. Fifty Arab-speaking adult EFL learners watched an audiovisual animated story under one of three conditions: (a) animation + captions + keyword annotation (ACA), (b) animation + captions (AC), and (c) animation alone (A). After viewing the animation, the learners completed computerized vocabulary recognition and listening comprehension posttests, as well as non-computerized (i.e., written) vocabulary production and listening recall tests. All four tests were administered to the students four weeks after the treatments. The results from the mixed ANOVAs indicated that the ACA group significantly outperformed the AC group on the vocabulary recognition and vocabulary production tests and that the AC group in turn substantially outperformed the A group on the same tests. Conversely, the annotations did not significantly improve listening comprehension and recall over time. The A group significantly outscored the ACA and the AC groups in listening comprehension and recall over time. The pedagogical implications of this study suggest that annotations in captioned animation facilitate vocabulary acquisition but hinder listening comprehension and recall.