WHAT IS TARGETED CAPTIONING?

When we subtitle, we provide translations for an audience who would not otherwise understand the on-screen language. Captioning provides on-screen support in writing for language that might otherwise be hard to understand, for example, for hard to hear sound or speech that is heavily accented.

Targeted captioning provides on-screen written support matched to the needs of the current audience, in this case L2 learners at a certain level. The purpose of targeted captioning is to bring the on-screen video to an I+1 level, no more and no less.

The following video, a trailer for the 2008 fictionalization of Putin’s rise to power, is captioned for students at the end of a typical first year Russian course (after about 100 contact hours). The easy to understand lines are left untranslated. Lines of garbled speech consisting of recognizable phrases are captioned in Russian. The most difficult lines are rendered in English.

Поцелуй не для прессы (trailer, 2008)
Turn on CC (blacken) to see captions

TARGETED CAPTIONING: TECHNICAL DETAILS

Until recently, captions for all kinds of video were an integral part of the picture being viewed. Even DVDs, themselves a mix of digital files, display multilanguage subtitles through graphics files, not simple text files.

However, all modern computer-based media players support text-based captioning. This is important because text files can be quickly modified independently of the video displayed. This allows teachers to generate several different caption text files, one for each target audience.

SRT CAPTIONS

SRT captions are simple text files with markings for line numbers and timings. Look at the first two lines for the "Kiss Not Meant for the Press," above. This is the all-English version.

1
0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:10.300 
Nina told me on the phone
that you're here for two days.

2
0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:12.300 
I wanted to go to the Raikin show!

Each caption consists of at least four lines:

1. The line number of the caption (1, 2, 3... until the last caption in the segment)
2. The start and end time for the caption as measured in hours:minutes:seconds.hundredths of seconds.
3. The caption itself. Long captions will automatically wrap to the next line. But you can make them more visually appealing by placing linebreaks where you want them.
4. A blank line before the next caption number.

Nearly all generic media players can display SRT captions. The most common generic players are Windows Media Classic (Windows only) and VLC (Windows, Mac, Linux).

To make the captions show up, adjust the preference (options) in the player to show captions when present. Then make sure that the name of the video file matches the name of the SRT file exactly and that both are in the same folder. For example, KISS.AVI and KISS.SRT.

Assume that the video file you want to caption is KISS.AVI. You could write a number of SRT files: kiss_1styear.srt, kiss_2ndyear.srt, kiss_advanced.srt, and so on. Then, at show time, just rename the caption file you want to use as KISS.SRT.

OTHER PLAYERS

Real Player, QuickTime, and Windows Media Player do not read SRT captions by default; instead they use their own formats, which are a bit dense for the novice subtitler. But all three players can be forced to show SRT captions with a little extra software. Real Player users must download a Softpedia plugin. QuickTime (Mac) users need Perian. For Windows Media Player, download Vobsub.

SRT TITLES IN GOOGLE / YOUTUBE

Google Video (but as of yet not the Google-owned YouTube) accepts SRT captions for uploaded videos.

DOES CAPTIONING HELP?

As of this writing no significant research indicates that any kind of captioning helps to develop listening comprehension per se. Comprehensive studies have yet to be done. However, captioning has been shown to aid in vocabulary recognition and aquisition. Moreover, targeted captioning does allow teachers to bring on-screen authentic video to their students at exactly the appropriate I+1 level without the use of additional scaffolding. This is useful for those situations when the cultural interest of the material in question overrides its precise value as language teaching input.