Cloze Dictation with Video Clips

Impacts on Vocabulary andContent Knowledge

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate whether or not watching a foreign language video and doing a cloze listening dictation exercise in groups results in increased content knowledge of the subject matter or an increase in vocabulary knowledge. A classroom experiment with Japanese junior college students learning English found significant gains in both vocabulary and subject matter knowledge. The experiment was conducted over three weeks with pre-tests being administered in the first week, the video clip treatment in the second week, and the post-tests in the third week. The pre- and post-measures consisted of a matching test for receptive vocabulary, a cloze test for productive vocabulary, and a content knowledge test to determine what the students knew about the climate change issue. This research should be considered preliminary because of the small number of subjects and a quasi-experimental design that did not incorporate a control group. The paper includes possible future modifications to the experiment for further research.