With the assistance of the Canadian Captioning Development Agency, TVOntario has undertaken to determine the efficacy of applying closed-captioned television to the needs of adult learners who are not hearing impaired. In this research study, actual and potential applications of closed-captioned television for hearing audiences in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia were explored in order to provide a context to guide development in this area. Following a description of captioning technology and a discussion of the current commitment of Canadian broadcasters to captioned television, the report provides a review of experimental research studies that tested the use of closed-captioned television with adult students of English as a Second Language and literacy, as well as with learning disabled adults. The results of these studies are discussed in terms of their implications for the development of captioned television for adult learners in Ontario. The adult learner markets for closed-captioned television in Ontario are described in detail, as are the programs currently available to these learners. Issues are raised concerning the learning contexts that are best suited to learning with closed captions, and suggestions are made as to the types of programs and captioning methods that are most conducive to learning. The paper concludes with recommendations for the next phase of research--to conduct a pilot test of the use of captioned video in various classroom learning contexts and with learners of varying capabilities. (13 references) (Author/GL)