The Use of Automated Speech-to-Text Captioning to Support Linguistically Diverse Students and Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

There is extensive research literature on the use of captioning to support learning for both students with hearing loss and for English Language Learners (ELLs), based on Fletcher & Tobias\u27 (2005) Multimedia Principle. Although video is used extensively in English Language Teaching, use of this strategy by teachers has been limited due to technological constraints. However, advances in automated captioning now provide simple, accessible and cost-effective use. This paper is an integrative literature review (Belyea & Nicholl, 1998; Torraco, 2005) exploring the intersection of efficacy of captioning for ELLs, and accuracy of current automated captioning platforms to answer the question, Does automated captioning technology provide an effective strategy for English Language Teachers to use in day-to-day teaching?” Results indicated that while automated captioning is not currently accurate enough to be recommended for face-to-face teaching, it can be used to make captioning accessible for pre-recorded learning materials