Incidental Vocabulary Learning through Captioned Videos: An Experimental Study among Moroccan EFL Middle School Learners

Abstract

The current experimental study aims to investigate the impact of watching captioned videos on incidental learning of the written form and meaning aspects of vocabulary knowledge among Moroccan EFL middle school learners. The study adopted a pretest-posttest experimental design. 60 middle school EFL learners were randomly assigned to the experimental group (N30), who watched captioned videos, and the control group (N30), who watched uncaptioned videos. The Paired Samples T-Tests results showed a statistically significant improvement in both word written form recognition and meaning recognition within the experimental group. In contrast, no statistically significant improvement was found within the control group. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to compare the differences in vocabulary gains between the control group and the experimental group and the results indicated a statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in word form recognition. However, no statistically significant difference was found in word meaning recognition. These findings provided empirical evidence for the effectiveness of captioned videos in enhancing incidental vocabulary learning.