Development of a Language Learning System with an Adaptive Caption Filtering Mechanism on Handheld Devices

Abstract

This study developed a language learning system on handheld devices based on different caption-filtering degrees of videos, including 220 sight words, the highest frequently used 1000 words, and the highest frequently used 2200 words, for adaptive assistance in English comprehension and vocabulary acquisition of eleventh graders. Different students were treated different bilingual caption modes based on their pre-test in the experimental group while all the students were treated identical caption modes in the control group. During the three experimental times, the students' English listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition status was evaluated after each time of experiment. The experimental results found that the students in the experimental group prefer partial captions they used and perceived enjoyments. In terms of listening comprehension and vocabulary test, the experimental group outperformed the control group when the students in the control group were supported by the captions filtered and hidden the highest frequently used 1000 and 2000 words. The experimental group had similar learning effectiveness with the control group when the students in the control group were supported by the captions filtered and only hidden the 220 sight words. The adaptive caption-filtering approach proposed in the study not only enabled the interface adaption for playing videos on handheld devices, but also achieved and confirmed that different students need different quantity of information such as caption support for better listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisitions.