Exploring the potential of textually‑enhanced captioned video to direct learners’ attention to challenging sound contrasts

Abstract This study investigates the potential of textually-enhanced captioned video to direct EFL learners’ attention to a difficult L2 vowel contrast (English /æ/-/ʌ / ) while watching a 30-minute episode of Ted Lasso. Spanish EFL learners ( N = 89) were randomly assigned to five different viewing conditions: unenhanced captions (1); enhanced captions with /æ/ and /ʌ/ in two different colours with the target words either in phonetic symbols (2) or orthography (3); or with /æ/ and /ʌ/ in the same colour, either in phonetic symbols (4) or orthography (5). The participants’ eye movements were recorded with a Tobii TX-1200 eye-tracker. The textual enhancement implemented was effective in directing learners’ attention to the target words and attention was generally maintained during the episode. The enhanced conditions promoted higher fixation rates and durations than the unenhanced one. Additionally, the participants’ answers to a post-viewing questionnaire revealed that they considered these types of enhancement useful to help them spot instances of the target sounds and that the captions were not overwhelming.