Effects of caption modification and instructor intervention on comprehension of a technical film

Two versions of a technical film, captioned at approximately 8th- and 11th-grade reading levels, were shown to 32 hearing-impaired college students. Fifteen of these students also received supplementary instruction from a teacher. Data from a comprehension test were analyzed with a four-factor experimental design to determine effects of instruction, level of captioning, test type (recall or recognition), and subject reading ability. Significant effects were found for instruction, test type, and reading ability. In addition, there was a significant three-way interaction between instruction, caption level, and reading ability. While both high and low reading groups benefited from instruction when students viewed 8th-grade level, modified captions, only the high reading group benefited from instruction when they viewed the 11th-grade level, original captions.