Smart subtitles for vocabulary learning
Name
Miller_Smart subtitles.pdf
Size
3.43 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9400771b9f23c95b1f0eb18edaef5999
Author(s)
Kovacs, Geza
Miller, Robert C.
Date Issued
April 2014
Journal
Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI '14)
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Citation
Geza Kovacs and Robert C. Miller. 2014. Smart subtitles for vocabulary learning. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 853-862.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Language learners often use subtitled videos to help them learn. However, standard subtitles are geared more towards comprehension than vocabulary learning, as translations are nonliteral and are provided only for phrases, not vocabulary. This paper presents Smart Subtitles, which are interactive subtitles tailored towards vocabulary learning. Smart Subtitles can be automatically generated from common video sources such as subtitled DVDs. They provide features such as vocabulary definitions on hover, and dialog-based video navigation. In our pilot study with intermediate learners studying Chinese, participants correctly defined over twice as many new words in a post-viewing vocabulary test when they used Smart Subtitles, compared to dual Chinese-English subtitles. Learners spent the same amount of time watching clips with each tool, and enjoyed viewing videos with Smart Subtitles as much as with dual subtitles. Learners understood videos equally well using either tool, as indicated by self-assessments and independent evaluations of their summaries.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557256
