Understanding Digitized Second Language Videotext

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of digital video and, increasingly, multimedia in listening instruction throughout second language programs, little is known about how learners attend to dynamic visual elements in comprehension. A lack of research in how listeners engage with videotext retards the development of computer-based listening skills. This investigation seeks to describe what learners do when they attend to digital video media. In conjunction with Japanese language instructors, three authentic Japanese news broadcasts were recorded and digitized for computer display. Through a series of immediately retrospective verbal reports, 12 tertiary students of Japanese provided verbal reports as they attended to a front-to-back viewing of videotexts. Based on constructivist perspectives of comprehension, the study produced a seven-category framework regarding the comprehension of second language videotexts. The results of this investigation point out that visual elements work in a number of ways that go beyond merely ‘supporting’ verbal elements; they are better thought of as integral resources to comprehension whose influence shifts from primary to secondary importance as a Hlistener develops a mature understanding of the videotext.