How Can Subtitles On Videos Support Your Students' Learning?

By Nichola Vo

Having spent the last year supporting various subject lessons, I have seen teachers across all departments use videos in the classroom to aid student understanding. Whilst the visuals often help the students engage with the content, I have been thinking more recently about the benefits of captions on videos. However, I’ve noticed that not all teachers consciously think about turning on the subtitles for students. I hope this blog post makes you think twice before pressing play on a video without the captions on. I’ve found this excellent article by Gernsbacher (2015) that has summarised some key takeaways from having captions turned on that I’m going to share here:

1. Those who are hard of hearing

Starting with the most obvious, captions on videos in the classroom help those who are hard of hearing. It is worth noting that not all students who may struggle with hearing wear an aid and so the act of turning on captions can make the classroom a more inclusive space in terms of allowing students to access the activity. 2. Captions aid in developing literacy skills Whether students choose to listen or read along with the captions, having the subtitles there also provides students with the opportunity to improve their fluency in their spoken vocabulary. Whilst there will be students who outside of the classroom will rarely pick up a book, they are likely to watch something and the use of captions as a means to develop their literacy skills without realising. The act of reading involves multiple skills in terms of mapping sounds into text, and if you are not familiar with how a word sounds, this can be a barrier. But what captions on videos do is illustrate how specific sounds are mapped onto words as well as their contextual meaning too. It is all well to teach vocabulary but if a student does not understand how to use it in context, have they really learnt it? 3. Captions support memorising key information Studies amongst even highly literate adults have shown that captions aid memory recall and retention. Nugent (1983) found in her research that both hearing and deaf students performed better with both visuals and captions than they did on presentations with either component alone. Additionally, Nugent states that neither the deaf nor the hearing groups showed unique abilities to learn from the presentations, implying that both groups have similar cognitive processes. 4. Captions support EAL students Whilst captions on videos were co-opted from foreign-language subtitles, it is worth noting the significance of English captions on videos to support those acquiring it as a second language. Captions have been shown to improve listening comprehension. By having the opportunity to engage with the vocabulary used in context audibly alongside captioning, studies have revealed that captioning serves to have a positive effect on students’ working memory. 5. Encouraging open-mindedness! Lastly, I am a big cinephile who loves world cinema and the idea of subtitles being a barrier to people watching them saddens me! As Academy Award winner Bong Joon Ho put it, “Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Therefore, if the use of captioning is normalised in the classroom, I am sure this will encourage more open-mindedness within the students we work with. Further reading:

• Why children should be watching TV with the subtitles on (theconversation.com)
• Microsoft Word - 182902 (ed.gov)
• The Benefit to the Deaf of Real-Time Captions in a Mainstream Classroom Environment (cmu.edu)