Incidental collocation learning from reading-while-listening and captioned TV viewing and predictors of learning gains

Although a number of previous studies have shown that TV viewing can lead to incidental vocabulary learning, most of them focused on single words. Little research has examined the effect of captioned TV viewing on incidental collocation learning compared with other modes of input. In addition, research on the factors that affect incidental collocation from different input modes is still relatively scarce and has produced inconclusive findings. To fill those research gaps, the present study investigates the effects of reading-while-listening and captioned TV viewing on incidental collocation learning and predictors of learning gains. Eighty Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group encountered 24 target collocations in two stories in two modes of input (reading-while-listening and viewing videos with second language captions) in a counterbalanced fashion over four weeks. Learning was assessed at the level of form recall. The findings indicated that both modes of input resulted in equally significant gains of collocational knowledge. In addition, learners’ prior vocabulary knowledge and collocational congruency were significant predictors of learning gains. Learners with larger vocabulary knowledge picked up significantly more collocations in reading-while-listening but fewer collocations in captioned TV viewing than learners with smaller vocabulary knowledge.