| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 106 === Incorporating captions in teaching listening to language learners have found its support from language researchers and practitioners. Most studies focus on the effectiveness of different types of captions whereas few provide learners with the choices of caption types. When mobile technologies are concerned, scant attention has been given to learners’ preferences for devices in their learning listening. Learners in previous studies are either loaned or restricted to using mobile devices in question.
The purpose of the present study was to explore the preferences of EFL college students engaged in learning listening on a WAP (wireless application protocol) site with various captions available and different devices permitted. Twenty-eight college students enrolled in a listening-speaking course at a public university in northern Taiwan were recruited to participate in the study for a semester. On the class website, the students had access to designated audio clips of the twelve units. The audio clips were prepared in full captions, keyword captions, and no captions and were accompanied with comprehension questions. Moreover, to examine participants’ perceptions for device choices and caption types, a post-treatment interview and a survey were also adopted.
The results showed that, when practicing listening, our college students preferred using non-mobile devices for technological, psychological, and environmental reasons. The technological barriers to mobile learning included small screen sizes, operational problems, unfriendly interface, and limited internet services. In terms of their psychological resistance to mobile learning, some students did not perceive smartphones as a learning tool because doing listening practice on smartphones did not “look like studying.” In addition, environmental factors, such as background noises and push notifications, were the major distractors that hindered their use of mobile devices.
In contrast to previous works approving keyword captions with images for listening learning, our college participants favored full-caption texts for higher efficiency and better comprehension. With the aid of full-caption text without images, they felt safe and supported; and, linguistically, they thought their literacy were improved. The main reason for using keyword and no captions was to review the content and to ensure their comprehension without texts.
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