When Watching is not Enough: The Effects of Captions on L2 Pragmatics Acquisition and Awareness

The present study explores the possible effects of captions to enhance second language pragmatics acquisition and awareness when watching TV series. Twenty-eight undergraduate English as a Foreign Language (levels B2 to C1) learners who volunteered for the study were assigned to two groups (captioned/non-captioned conditions). The participants were exposed to one season of a TV sitcom as part of out-of-class activities and not as a task in the classroom; neither of the groups had received instruction on pragmatics in class. To test the acquisition of the second language pragmatics (requests and suggestions), a written discourse completion test was used following a pre/post-test design. Results show an overall positive effect of the audiovisual support on the use of some of the request and suggestion strategies and on certain aspects of pragmatic awareness. However, there was no clear effect of captions versus the non-captioned condition. Findings are discussed considering previous studies in foreign language contexts.