The impact of using captions on the speaking abilities of low-level and highlevel EFL students

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of using captions on the English-speaking performance of
low- and high-level EFL learners. The experimental research took place during the 2019
academic year's first semester. This research was carried out at a university in central Tokyo.
A total of 67 students were recruited from two freshmen English classes. They were divided
into two groups: captioned group (34 participants) and non-captioned group (33 participants)
over a 13-weeks semester. All participants watched audiovisual media with or without
captions. All participants were asked to take speaking tests in order to evaluate the impact of
caption use. The results of the independent t-tests showed that caption usage improves EFL
learners' overall speaking accuracy. The overall speaking scores of both low-level and highlevel learners showed statistically significant differences in terms of speaking fluency and
accuracy in favor of the high-level learners. Several pedagogical consequences and
recommendations for future research are made based on these results.