Investigation into the differential effects of subtitles (first language, second language, and bilingual) on second language vocabulary acquisition
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Date
01/07/2016Author
Li, Mingyue
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Abstract
Video recordings can be subtitled in three ways: with first language (L1) subtitles, with
second language (L2) subtitles, or with first language plus second language (bilingual
or L1+L2) subtitles. The first two types of subtitles are widely discussed in previous
research with regard to how they affect language learning. However, the effects of
bilingual subtitles have not been widely studied. This study aims to examine the
pedagogical effects of bilingual subtitles on vocabulary acquisition in the L2
classroom. A seven-week quasi-experimental study was conducted with four English-major
classes in year-3 in a Chinese university: three experimental groups and one
control group. Students in the three experimental classes were exposed to three
documentary films on very similar topics with the three different types of subtitles in
turn. They then took a vocabulary test relating to the lexical items encountered in the
films. At the end of the experiment, they were given a questionnaire to explore their
opinions towards differential subtitles in relation to their language learning. The results
demonstrated a significant advantage of bilingual subtitling in videos for students’
receptive vocabulary knowledge and recall at post-test and this advantage was
maintained at delayed post-test. The bilingual subtitles probably are more effective
than monolingual subtitles with regard to students’ vocabulary acquisition in short-term
and long-term. Also, bilingual subtitles were preferred by a majority of students
in respect of video understanding and vocabulary learning. L2 subtitles were favoured
by more students for improving their listening comprehension. Pedagogical
implications for the use of differential subtitles in the L2 classroom are discussed.