The effects of textual enhancement on young learners’ attention and vocabulary acquisition through captioned cartoons

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the effects of textual enhancement of captions on vocabulary acquisition by 17 L1-Spanish/Catalan primary school learners of English in fifth grade. Participants watched 11 episodes of a children’s television series. They were divided into two groups: one watched the videos with regular captions, and one with enhanced captions, where target words were bolded and highlighted in yellow. Vocabulary gains were assessed through pre- and post-tests that tapped into form recall and form recognition. Results showed higher learning in the enhanced captions group, particularly in terms of form recognition. Additionally, an eye-tracking analysis showed that the enhanced-captions group had longer fixation durations initially, but the difference disappeared by the end of the intervention.