





































AsiaCALL Online Journal Received: 20/08/2021 

ISSN 1936-9859; https://asiacall.info/acoj Revision: 25/10/2021 

Vol. 12; No. 5; 2021  Accepted: 25/10/2021 

pp. 100-113  Online: 26/10/2021 

 

CITATION | Dizon, G., & Gayed, J. M. (2021). An exploratory study on the use of interactive video via Netflix to 

improve second language aural vocabulary learning. AsiaCALL Online Journal, 12(5), 100-113. EOI: 

http://eoi.citefactor.org/10.11251/acoj.12.05.007 

An exploratory study on the use of interactive video via Netflix to improve second 

language aural vocabulary learning 

Gilbert Dizon1, John M. Gayed2 

1 Himeji Dokkyo University, Japan 
2 Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan 

Correspondence: Gilbert Dizon, Himeji Dokkyo University, Japan. E-mail: gdizon@gm.himeji-du.ac.jp 

 

EOI: http://eoi.citefactor.org/10.11251/acoj.12.05.007  

   

Abstract 

While video streaming services have had a profound impact on how people view television 

programs and movies, very little is known about their use to promote second language (L2) 

development. To address this gap in L2 research, this paper details the results of an 

exploratory study that examined the combination of interactive video, a new form of 

entertainment that prompts viewers to make choices that affect the story, and Netflix to see 

if these tools could enhance different aspects of L2 aural development. Fourteen Japanese 

university EFL students participated in the study, which utilized a counterbalanced, pretest-

posttest research design. The participants viewed two interactive episodes of a TV series via 

Netflix, each under one of the following conditions: non-interactive and interactive. Pre- and 

post-tests were administered to measure any gains that were made in aural vocabulary at two 

different levels (form recognition and meaning recall). Findings from the experiment 

indicated that interactive video did not significantly impact the incidental learning of aural 

vocabulary in terms of form recognition or meaning recall. While these results cast doubt on 

the possible benefits of interactive video, more studies are needed to investigate the potential 

of the technology for L2 learning.  

Keywords: video streaming, vocabulary learning, EFL, L2 video 

 

1. Introduction 

As Van, Dang, Pham, Vo, and Pham (2021) note, the use of technology to learn a foreign 

language comes with many distinct advantages, including increased opportunities for self-

directed language learning inside and outside of the classroom (Nguyen, 2021). One technology 

that has been a common feature of language classrooms for the past several decades is the video 

(Vanderplank, 2016). Montero Perez, Peters, and Desmet (2018) point out that the accessibility 

of video, particularly internet television (YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu), has the 

capacity to facilitate greater exposure to the target language outside of the classroom. Captioned 

and subtitled videos (hereafter, the term “captioned video” is used throughout to minimize 

repeated and/or potentially confusing use of the two terms), which present written text 

synchronously with video and audio to support comprehension, have also made it possible for 

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even beginner learners to make use of video to study a foreign language. While the use of video 

by L2 learners may present some downsides, for instance, the fact that students may associate 

them with leisure viewing rather than language learning (Vanderplank, 2010), as well as the 

possibility of learners using them as a crutch to aid comprehension (Winke, Gass, & Sydorenko, 

2010), the benefits of textual aids when watching video are clear, specifically in terms of 

listening and vocabulary development. A meta-analysis by Montero Perez, Van den Noortgate 

and Desmet (2013) found that those who used L2 subtitles performed significantly better on 

listening and vocabulary tests than language learners who had no access to on-screen text.  

Although extensive literature exists on the use of captioned video with L2 learners (see 

Vanderplank, 2016; Yeldham, 2018), there are still some areas that have received little to no 

attention. One such area is the use of video streaming services for foreign language learning. 

Because of their ubiquity in today’s society, it is critical to examine the use of video streaming 

services to promote L2 development. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, only two 

studies have looked at their use with students in the context of L2 learning (Dizon, 2018; Wang 

& Chen, 2019). Another technology that has not been studied in L2 research is the use of 

interactive video. Interactive video is a relatively new form of entertainment delivered via the 

Internet, which allows users to make choices that affect the outcome of the story, with 

companies such as Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and the BBC currently in the process of 

developing interactive titles (Perez, 2019). Lastly, although incidental vocabulary learning is a 

well-studied topic in L2 video research, less attention has been paid to aural vocabulary learning 

with L2 video. Due to these gaps in the literature, an exploratory study was conducted to 

examine the use of interactive video through Netflix on the incidental learning of L2 English 

aural vocabulary.  

 

2. Theoretical framework 

This study is informed by the theory of multimedia learning by Mayer (1997, 2001). 

According to the theory, learners process information most effectively using visual and written 

aids. When faced with pictorial (visual) and written (verbal) information, students must select 

relevant input and organize this information into visual and verbal mental representations of 

said input. Learners can then build connections between the different forms of input, thereby 

allowing them to integrate this information into working memory (see Figure 1). Accordingly, 

a more fertile learning environment is created, thus leading to vocabulary, reading, and listening 

development. Mayer's (1997, 2001) theory of multimedia learning has been used extensively in 

the field of L2 learning, especially in terms of examining the role that annotations have on 

language learners. Jones (2009) found that beginner and advanced L2 learners benefited most 

from written and pictorial annotations, thereby supporting listening comprehension and 

vocabulary learning. In another study on vocabulary acquisition and listening comprehension, 

Jones and Plass (2002) discovered that students with access to both pictures and written captions 

better remembered word translations and recalled the listening passage more effectively than 

those who only used one form of annotation or who did not have access to aids. While no 



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significant difference was found in relation to reading comprehension, the results from 

Akbulut's (2007) study indicated that access to word definitions and visuals led to greater gains 

in vocabulary compared to when students were only given access to definitions. These findings 

illustrate the importance of visual and written information for L2 vocabulary and listening and 

highlight the positive impact that multimedia environments can have on foreign language 

learners. As Rodgers (2018) notes, combining input modes such as video and audio may 

enhance different features of the L2 learning process, including listening comprehension and 

vocabulary development. Considering captioned video incorporates multiple modes–visual in 

the form of the video, aural in the form of the L2 spoken language, and verbal in the form of 

the written captions–video streaming services may be a useful tool for language learning as 

they offer learners audio and video captioning options in multiple languages.  

 

Figure 1. Mayer’s (1997, 2001) theory of multimedia learning (Jones & Plass, 2002)  

 

3. Literature review 

3.1 Captioned video & L2 vocabulary learning  

Much of the research on video for L2 learning has focused on the use of captions and their 

effects on vocabulary development, with a particular emphasis on comparing L1, L2, and non-

captioning groups. The students in Bianchi and Ciabattoni's (2008) study who used L1 captions 

and L2 captions were found to make more significant improvements on long-term vocabulary 

acquisition than those who used no captions while viewing movies. However, language 

proficiency did have an impact, as beginner learners benefited least from L2 captions while 

advanced students benefited the most. In a year-long longitudinal study involving adolescent 

L2 learners, Pujadas and Muñoz (2019) investigated the role of caption type (L1 vs. L2), 

proficiency, and pre-teaching on vocabulary form recall and meaning recall. The researchers 



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found that both captioning groups were equally as effective in terms of vocabulary 

development, but that pre-teaching the target words and a higher level of language proficiency 

led to greater gains.  

There seem to be conflicting results when it comes to other forms of captioning, such 

as keyword captions or glosses. In a study involving five different captioning groups, Hsieh 

(2019) found that the full captions with highlighted target words and L1 gloss condition best 

promoted word form and meaning learning. Not surprisingly, the no captions group and the full 

captions with no audio group were found to perform the worst in terms of vocabulary learning. 

In a recent study focusing on incidental vocabulary learning among primary L2 English 

learners, Teng (2019) investigated how different forms of captioning (full captions, keyword 

captions, no captions) affected word form/meaning recognition word recall of meaning. 

According to the results of the study, those in the full captioning group significantly 

outperformed the other two groups.  Montero Perez, Peters, Clarebout, and Desmet (2014) also 

investigated vocabulary learning using four different types of tests: form recognition, clip 

association, recall, and meaning recognition. The results of their study revealed that the three 

caption groups outperformed the control group on three of the tests (form recognition, clip 

association, meaning recognition), while no significant differences were found in relation to the 

meaning recall. On the other hand, their findings also indicated that the form of captioning used 

(full captions, keyword captions, full captions with keywords highlighted) did not result in 

significant differences between the three groups, thereby illustrating that captioning, regardless 

of type, can make a positive impact on vocabulary development. In a similar study examining 

the same four aspects of vocabulary, Montero Perez, Peters, and Desmet (2015) found that 

students who used keyword captions outperformed full captions on the form recognition test. 

Lastly, in a follow-up study by Montero Perez et al. (2018) involving four L2 captioning 

conditions (full, keyword, glossed keyword with access to meaning, and no captions), the 

researchers found that the glossed keyword captions group outperformed the other forms of 

captioning on form recognition and meaning recall, which illustrates that access to meaning 

may benefit L2 learners when they watch the video.  

As noted by Vidal (2003), little research has been done on vocabulary learning via aural 

input. Having said that, there have been a few studies that have investigated the effects of this 

input method on vocabulary learning. Winke et al. (2010), for instance, examined the use of 

target-language captioned video on written and aural vocabulary knowledge and found that the 

caption group outperformed the control group on both variables on the post-test. In another 

study, Peters, Heynen, and Puimège (2016) examined L1 and L2 captions in two exploratory 

experiments. The first experiment focused on form recognition and meaning recall of aural 

vocabulary. It was found that caption type did not predict meaning recall but that L1 captions 

better promoted form recognition. In their second experiment, which examined form 

recognition and meaning recall of written vocabulary, positive effects for captions were found 

in form recall but not form recognition. Similarly, Syodorendo (2010) looked at the effects of 

input modality on vocabulary acquisition. In a mixed-methods study of twenty-six Russian 



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English language learners, the researcher found that video supplemented with captions resulted 

in greater word form recall and word meaning recall, while non-captioned video improved 

recognition of aural word forms. Another important finding from the study was that some of 

the participants indicated the tendency to focus on the captions more than the audio if captions 

were provided, which is a complaint echoed by the participants in Winke et al. (2010). 

Moreover, all participants indicated the importance of having visual images as beneficial to 

their understanding of the spoken input, thus illustrating the importance of visual input 

alongside aural input.  

3.2 Video streaming in L2 learning  

Even though video streaming services have been mentioned in L2 literature as having the 

potential to be used for language learning (Godwin-Jones, 2018; Rosell-Aguilar, 2017), few 

studies have actually examined their use in the context of foreign language learning in empirical 

research. Only two studies have looked at video streaming and language learning to the best of 

the authors' knowledge. One is Dizon's (2018) case study on the use of Netflix with EFL learners. 

The learners were allowed to use the video streaming service however they desired and were 

under no obligation to use it specifically for language learning. Following the end of their 3-

month membership, the students were interviewed to understand their opinions towards Netflix 

as a language learning tool. According to the interview data, several themes were identified. 

First, student comments suggested that learner effectiveness was improved through the use of 

L1/L2 captions. Secondly, the service enhanced motivation because it was a fun way to study 

English. Additionally, the learners indicated that they had better access to cultural and linguistic 

information by watching TV programs and films via Netflix. However, one disadvantage that 

the participants noted was a lack of convenience due to the large amount of data required to 

stream video on their mobile devices. Therefore, some of them limited their use of the service 

to when they had access to Wi-Fi. Another study that has specifically looked at video streaming 

in the context of L2 learning is Wang and Chen's (2019) research on the use of YouTube as an 

informal language learning resource. The researchers interviewed university students in Taiwan 

who had extensive experience in watching L2 English-learning YouTube videos to understand 

the affordances and limitations of the streaming service for foreign language learning. Based 

on these interviews, a few key advantages were discovered, namely, that learning English via 

YouTube was more flexible, interactive, and interesting for the L2 learners. That said, the 

students also felt that the streaming service was ineffective at improving L2 development. 

Although results from these two studies were largely positive, they involved a small number of 

participants and did not examine any language gains the students may have made. Thus, there 

is still a need to investigate if video streaming services can have an impact on the development 

of L2 skills.  

In summary, the use of L1 and/or L2 captions seems to be beneficial for language 

learners in terms of vocabulary learning (Bianchi & Ciabattoni, 2008; Pujadas & Muñoz, 2019). 

Yet, when it comes to other caption types, namely, full captions vs. keyword captions, it is not 

clear what form best promotes vocabulary learning. While the aforementioned literature 



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highlights the positive effects of captioned video on L2 vocabulary learning, there are still gaps 

that need to be addressed. First, the use of interactive video has yet to be studied in the context 

of L2 learning. As an emerging technology that the researchers predict will only continue to 

grow, it is critical to evaluate the tool for language learning. Compared with traditional video 

in which a learner passively takes in input, interactive video has the potential to direct more 

attention to input, particularly written information in the form of on-screen text when students 

are prompted to make choices that impact the story (see Figure 1). Moreover, despite their 

widespread use and popularity, research on video streaming services in the context of language 

learning is scarce. Although video in the form of DVDs and downloadable content has been 

available for more than a decade, the advent of video streaming and the ubiquity of smartphones 

has made language learning via video much more flexible for learners (Wang & Chen, 2019). 

In other words, viewing video, TV shows, and movies in a foreign language has never been 

easier due to video streaming and mobile devices. Lastly, although some studies have 

investigated the effects of captions on aural vocabulary learning (Peters et al., 2016; 

Syodorenko, 2010; Winke et al., 2010), past L2 captioning research has generally focused on 

written vocabulary development and ignored aural vocabulary. This indicates that more studies 

ought to be conducted to see if captioned video can positively influence the incidental learning 

of aural or listening vocabulary.  

3.3 Research Questions  

Due to these gaps in L2 research, this study looked at the use of interactive video via 

Netflix to develop L2 English aural vocabulary. Specifically, the following research question 

was addressed: Does the use of Netflix and interactive video have a significant effect on L2 

English learners’ aural vocabulary?  

 

4. Methods 

4.1 Pedagogical Setting & Participants 

Fourteen male and female students at a Japanese university participated in the study. These 

participants were chosen via convenience sampling. The participants were six first- and eight 

second-year students enrolled in separate communicative English classes, which were taught 

by the researchers in the fall 2019 semester.  Their ages ranged from 18-21, and they were all 

native-Japanese speakers. Based on the participants' EIKEN scores, their English language 

ability ranged from A1 to A2 on the CEFR proficiency scale, which equates to a beginner level 

of English language proficiency.  

4.2 Design of the Study 

The present study incorporated a counterbalanced, pretest-posttest research design to examine 

if the use of interactive video via the streaming service Netflix promotes significant 

enhancements in aural vocabulary at two levels: form recognition and meaning recall. Form 

recognition refers to the ability to recognize whether or not one has been exposed to a word 



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(reading or listening), whereas meaning recall is the ability to produce an L1 definition of a 

target word. While listening comprehension is another commonly studied variable in L2 video 

research, this was not examined in this study due to the non-linear nature of the interactive 

video. In other words, each user sees different content depending on their choices, so a listening 

comprehension test based on the target videos was not feasible.  

4.3 Data collection & analysis 

The researchers developed an assessment and administered to assess any potential gains in aural 

vocabulary made by the participants. A total of 20 words were identified (10 per episode) as 

target vocabulary. All the words were above the 2k word frequency level according to the 

British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). 

In other words, they were terms that the participants were less likely to know. Another reason 

for the focus on target words beyond the 2k word level was that hat the participants were 

studying the 1k and 2k word levels through a digital flashcard program at the time of the study. 

Therefore, the inclusion of target vocabulary from these high-frequency word levels might have 

resulted in test items that the participants largely knew.  

The target words were unique to each episode that was shown, regardless of the prompts chosen 

by the participants. That said, the frequency of occurrence of the words could have differed 

depending on the individual prompts selected by each participant. However, it is important to 

stress that the participants were exposed to all the target words at least once, irrespective of 

their prompt choices. The words contained nouns, adjectives, and verbs (see Table 1 for the list 

of target vocabulary). The presentation of the target items was audio-recorded by a native 

British-English speaker, which mirrors the variety of English spoken in the interactive episodes. 

The speaker repeated each word twice, with a two-second interval between repetitions and a 

ten-second interval between individual items. In addition to the target words, four non-words 

were added to control for pre-test post-test learning effects (Nation & Webb, 2011) and were 

taken from http://lextutor.ca/freq/lists_download/pnwords.html. Four high-frequency words 

(deliver, rope, balance, village) which appeared in the episodes were also added to aid test 

motivation (Peters et al., 2016). Similar to Peters et al. (2016), participants were asked to tick 

“yes” or “no” if they recognized the word for each item. They were also asked to provide an L1 

definition of each target word, i.e., meaning recall. The written presentation of the test was in 

L1 Japanese so that the assessment was clear and understandable for the participants. To be 

clear, the introduction of the vocabulary items was done aurally; only the instructions were 

provided in written form. Cronbach’s alpha, which measures the internal consistency of a group 

of items, was used to assess the reliability of the two sections of the assessment. Values for the 

form recognition and meaning recall portions of the test were .62 and .80, which indicates slight 

and moderate reliability, respectively (Brown, 2014).  

 

 

 

 



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Table 1. Breakdown of target vocabulary   

Target word Part of speech  BNC-COCA frequency Episode 

ashore noun 6k 1 

canyon noun 7k 1 

bushwhack verb 17k 1 

abandoned adjective 3k 1 

critical adjective 3k 1 

fierce adjective 3k 1 

volcanic adjective 4k 1 

hacking noun 5k 1 

stalking verb 5k 1 

reptile noun 7k 1 

isolated adjective 3k 2 

straining verb 3k 2 

primitive adjective 4k 2 

ticking verb 4k 2 

improvise verb 5k 2 

perishable adjective 6k 2 

trolley noun 6k 2 

commando noun 7k 2 

budge verb 8k 2 

rappel verb 17k 2 

 The aural vocabulary pretest was administered in December of 2019. Four weeks later, 

in January of 2020, the participants viewed the first two episodes of the interactive TV series 

You vs. Wild through Netflix in consecutive class periods. Due to the counterbalanced design, 

the first-year students watched episode one under the non-interactive condition and episode two 

under the interactive condition, whereas the second-year students watched episode one under 

the interactive condition and episode two under the non-interactive condition. In the non-

interactive condition, episodes were displayed via class projector, and each prompt choice was 

determined by letting the selection time period run out, i.e., choices were selected randomly. In 

the interactive condition, participants watched the episodes individually on desktop PCs located 

in the classroom or with their individual smartphones and made prompt choices on their own 

(see Figure 1 for an example prompt from You vs. Wild). While the actual length of each episode 

depends on the choices made, the average run-time of each episode as listed by Netflix was 14 

minutes and 20 minutes for episodes 1 and 2, respectively. Due to the participants’ English 

proficiency levels and to enhance comprehension, L1 captions were displayed throughout both 

episodes, regardless of the condition. After viewing each episode, the participants immediately 

took the aural vocabulary post-test pertaining to the target words in that particular episode (ten 



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target words each). 

 

Figure 2. Interactive video prompt is You vs. Wild 

 Given the small sample size, non-parametric statistical tools were used to analyze the 

data. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test was used to analyze the gains made within each group 

with respect to aural vocabulary form recognition and meaning recall, and the Mann-Whitney 

U test was used to determine if there were significant differences between the relative gains the 

non-interactive and interactive conditions were able to make in aural vocabulary form 

recognition and meaning recall from the pre- to the post-test. Rather than solely examining the 

differences between pre-and post-test scores with respect to the variables studied, relative gains 

were calculated based on a formula [(post-test score – pre-test score) / (number of test items – 

pre-test score) × 100] outlined by Webb and Chang (2015). According to Horst, Cobb and Meara 

(1998), relative gains may be a more accurate measure of learner improvement compared to 

absolute gains as they take into account differing opportunities for growth. Descriptive statistics 

of the students' aural vocabulary test scores were also provided. 

 

5. Results/Findings and discussion 

Table 2 below illustrates the pre-and post-test results as it relates to the participants' 

aural form recognition and meaning recall scores. As the descriptive statistics show, the non-

interactive and interactive conditions promoted little to no gain with respect to the variables 

studied. For the non-interactive condition, form recognition slightly decreased from the pre- to 

the post-test. Non-positive results were also found in the interactive condition; specifically, 

there was no difference between the mean pre-test and post-test form recognition results. 

Likewise, the non-interactive condition (Z = 1.26, p = .20) nor the interactive condition (Z = 

0.0, p = 1.0) promoted significant improvements in form recognition from the pre-test to the 

post-test according to the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. When comparing between groups with the 



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Mann-Whitney U test, a significant difference was not found between the form recognition 

relative gains of the non-interactive condition and interactive conditions (U = 86.5, p = .61). 

There were similar results when examining meaning recall. Both the non-interactive and 

interactive conditions supported small gains in the variable. However, these modest within-

group improvements were non-significant in the non-interactive condition (Z = 0.81, p = .41) 

and the interactive condition (Z = 1.0, p = .31). Similarly, there was not a significant difference 

between the non-interactive and interactive conditions when it came to relative gains in 

meaning recall (U = 96, p = .94). 

Table 2. Pre- and post-test results  

 Pre-test Post-test 

 Form recognition  Meaning 

recall 

Form recognition  Meaning 

recall 

 M SD M SD M SD M SD 

Non-interactive 4.79 1.53 0.79 1.12 4.50 2.03 1.07 1.38 

Interactive 4.71 1.27 0.29 0.61 4.71 1.68 0.57 1.16 

 There are several possible explanations for the lack of improvements. First, the 

frequency of occurrence of the target words could have had an impact on the results. Prior 

research has indicated that more frequent exposures to a word lead to more successful learning 

(Teng, 2019). Yet, this variable could not be controlled in the study as interactive video is non-

linear. Another plausible explanation for the non-gains may be the incorporation of low-

frequency words, which likely led to a higher "learning burden" for the students (Laufer, 2005, 

p. 234). The target vocabulary words were chosen due to their difficulty and unfamiliarity, and 

this possibly made it too challenging for the students to recognize and learn these terms. 

Furthermore, it is difficult to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words in real-time (Buck, 2001), 

so the learners may have been unable to learn the words as they could have appeared only once, 

and the students could not replay portions of the video. The use of L1 instead of L2 captions is 

another factor that might have influenced the results. There were likely instances where there 

was a mismatch between what the learners heard in English versus what they simultaneously 

read in Japanese, and these inconsistencies could have had a negative influence on aural 

vocabulary learning.  

 

6. Conclusion 

Interactive video is an emerging technology and thus should be investigated for its 

language learning potential. Accordingly, this study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of 

the technology to support aural developments in the target language, making it the first research 

to involve interactive video in the context of L2 learning. However, while Mayer’s (1997, 2001) 

theory of multimedia learning posits that video watching affords L2 learners with listening 



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comprehension and vocabulary learning benefits, the present study resulted in no to limited 

gains in the variables studied. Participants in the interactive condition did not make significantly 

greater gains in form recognition or meaning recall than the non-interactive condition. The 

findings from this study suggest that interactive video via streaming services may not offer any 

aural vocabulary learning benefits over traditional video. Although interactivity has been 

viewed as a positive for L2 learning (e.g., Chapelle, 2005), its incorporation may have had a 

detrimental effect in that students could have paid more attention to the entertainment aspect of 

the videos rather than the English audio track. This mirrors the warning Vanderplank (2010) 

made concerning leisure viewing and how learners may associate movies and TV shows with 

entertainment, which in turn may restrict the potential of video to support L2 development. As 

a result, the researchers cannot recommend the use of interactive video in the language 

classroom at this time. However, it is important to stress the small sample size, which likely 

substantially influenced the results. In other words, the participants may not have been 

representative of the impact that interactive video can have on aural language learning. 

Therefore, it is important to conduct more studies on the use of interactive video with L2 

learners to gain a more comprehensive understanding of its affordances, especially since 

technology-mediated L2 learning has been shown to bring about positive effects on all four 

language skills, that is, listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Van et al., 2021).  

 Other limitations of the study include the non-randomized research design. Because of 

this, future studies involving video streaming and/or interactive video should be taken from a 

randomized and much larger sample. Another limitation was that the type of on-screen text in 

the study was limited to L1 captions. Research involving textual aids with L2 video has largely 

revolved around examining the types of help options that best promote language learning. Thus, 

a worthwhile avenue of research would be to compare the efficacy of L1 and L2 captions when 

viewing the interactive video. Furthermore, the learners' views on video streaming and 

interactive video were not obtained. As a result, it would be valuable to evaluate L2 learner 

perceptions towards these emerging technologies through the use of surveys, interviews, and/or 

reflective reports. Lastly, although this study did not examine this variable, a future one could 

examine if interactive video affects L2 listening, given the affordances that technology provides 

in L2 listening development (Nguyen, 2021).  

 

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Biodata 

Gilbert Dizon is an associate professor at Himeji Dokkyo University, Japan and a doctoral 

student in the Department of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education at Indiana University. 

His research interests lie in computer-assisted language learning, specifically, technology-

mediated informal language learning and the use of artificial intelligence in language 

education. 

 

John M. Gayed is a PhD student at the Tokyo Institute of Technology researching the potential 

to use an AI-based writing assistant for second language learners. The digital assistant will 

help English language learners overcome the various cognitive barriers they face when they 

attempt to produce written text in English. 

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444809990267
https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/24.1.56
https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2019.1607356
https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168814559800
http://dx.doi.org/10125/44203
https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2017.1406956

