The efficiency of subtitles in Second Language Acquisition

The efficiency of subtitles in Second

Language Acquisition

Athanasia Palaska S2745925

MA in Applied Linguistics

Faculty of Liberal Arts

University of Groningen

Supervisors:

Dr. Hanneke Loerts(primary supervisor)

Dr. Marjolijn Verspoor (second reader)

Abstract

The present study attempts to answer the questions whether there is a

subtitling condition that is more effective in second language vocabulary acquisition and meaning comprehension. Several studies have pointed out the importance of multimodality in language processing, as well as the efficacy of subtitles in second language acquisition. Therefore, an experiment was set up in order to examine the efficacy of two different subtitling conditions: standard and intralingual. The participants were native speakers of Greek and L2 speakers of English with an

advanced level of proficiency. Participants were exposed to a video containing one of the subtitling conditions. Both before and after watching the video, subjects had to take a vocabulary test containing some words of the target language that were in the video. Moreover, they also had to take a comprehension test regarding the video content right after they had watched the film fragment. The results showed that even though a learning effect took place in each of the subtitling conditions, significant results highlighting the effectiveness of the intralingual subtitles were only found regarding the comprehension tests and not regarding vocabulary acquisition. Finally, further research is suggested concerning the efficacy of subtitling and different subtitling conditions for the aforementioned language aspects.

1. Introduction

composers. What is more, people spend their spare time watching all different film genres, such as comedies, dramas, science fiction etcetera, for a hobby, discussing their impressions and ideas with other people. Therefore, it is widely accepted that the film industry constitutes an integral part of our lives. However, movies and series can serve as more than just a hobby.

the right film is important and should highly rely on research conducted on this subject area, otherwise the use of subtitling in the classroom might prove ineffective for teaching purposes (Guichon & Mclornan, 2009). Several studies have investigated the use of subtitles in language teaching as a learning strategy (Hayati and Mohmedi, 2009; De Bot, Jagt, Janssen, Kessels & Schils, 1986; Holobow, Lambert & Sayegh, 1984; Lavaur & Bairstow, 2011; Danan, 2004; Bos, 2014). Their results, however, failed to adequately and consistently prove video subtitling to be an effective strategy of language learning to a certain extent.

The present study, therefore, aims to examine whether audiovisual input, presented more twice to the learners, positively affects second language vocabulary acquisition as well as comprehension of second language input. More specifically, this paper intends to investigate if two different types of video subtitling have an effect on vocabulary acquisition and input understanding, and if so, which type is more efficient. The types under investigation are two: standard or interlingual

subtitles, which is providing subtitles in the viewers’ native language, and intralingual subtitles (also called ‘captions’, Danan, 2004), which is providing subtitles in the second language.

According to d’Ydewalle & van de Poel (1999), vocabulary acquisition is one of the most essential aspects of language learning since “words, particularly nouns, are indeed the easiest building blocks in acquiring a new language; accordingly, it is not too surprising to find the first signs of language acquisition in the vocabulary” (p. 240). Listening comprehension through the use of a digital video is equally important as vocabulary acquisition in the process of language learning. According to

grammatical structures, interpret stress and intonation, retain what was gathered in all of the above, and interpret it within the immediate as well as the larger sociocultural context of the utterance” (p. 168). Thus, the present study poses the question whether a specific type of subtitling enhances vocabulary acquisition and input comprehension by testing two groups of Greek native speakers exposed to an English video with two different subtitling conditions; standard subtitling (providing subtitles in the

participants’ native language) and intralingual subtitling (providing subtitles in the second language). It is expected that, audio-visual material combined with subtitles either in the native language (L1) or the second language (L2) is a helpful tool in language learning, as the learners receive input through both modalities

simultaneously. The participants were tested both before and after watching the video fragment on their knowledge of target words present in the fragment in order to discover in which degree their vocabulary knowledge had been increased after the film. Furthermore, they were tested regarding their understanding of the video content by taking a multiple choice comprehension test, the same for each subtitling

condition. On that account, three research questions were addressed:

1. Does audio-visual material positively affect vocabulary acquisition? 2. Is there any different effect between standard and intralingual subtitling in

the acquisition of lexical items?

3. Is there any different effect between standard and intralingual subtitling in meaning comprehension?

In the following chapters, an overview of research regarding different types of subtitles will be presented, followed by this study’s experimental set-up as well as its results.

During the past years, many studies showed a great interest in examining language acquisition through audio-visual material. Films have become quite popular as a teaching method in the educational field. Therefore, the need for further

investigation on the efficacy of the use of film in classroom is apparent. In this section, an overview will be presented on the use of film in education and more specifically, on the complex issue of the efficacy of different subtitling conditions. Moreover, an attempt will be made to link the already existing findings of the previous studies with the design of the present one, which aims to establish facts regarding the use of subtitles in second language classroom environment. 2.1 Comprehensible and authentic language

There have been different approaches towards language teaching in the applied linguistics field during the past years. One main distinction made, regarding language learning, is described by the terms ‘explicit’ and ‘implicit’ learning. According to Ellis (2005), explicit knowledge is achieved through conscious awareness of what is being learned, can be facilitated only in non-time-pressured circumstances, demands a focus on form and can be verbalized using ‘metalanguage’. Implicit learning, on the other hand, is attained without awareness, through noticing, in time-pressured situations with focus on meaning and without the need of specific explanations (Lichtman, 2013). According to Reber, Allen and Reber (1999):

“Implicit learning (a) operates largely independent of awareness, (b) is subsumed by neuroanatomical structures distinct from those that serve

little interindividual variability, and (f) is relatively unaffected by ontogenetic factors” (p. 504).

Researchers have different opinions with regard to the complex issue of explicit versus implicit language instruction. Some of them (Ellis; 1994, 2004, Krashen; 1989) claim that explicit language teaching alone is not enough in order to promote second language learning. Consequently, there is also the need for focus on meaning

combined with explicit classroom instruction. According to Ellis (2004), explicit knowledge can contribute indirectly “to the acquisition of implicit knowledge by facilitating attention to form in the input” (p. 228), whereas Krashen believes that it only helps in “L2 production through monitoring” (Ellis, 2004, p. 228). Other

researchers see “explicit knowledge as a component of L2 proficiency: It is needed to engage effectively in context-free language use” (Cummins, 1983, as cited in Ellis, 2004, p. 228). Nonetheless, context constitutes a very important factor in second language teaching; learners should be able to use the target language in meaningful frameworks and not merely acquiring the words’ definitions and the rules and principles underlying in the language. Therefore, in order to make input

comprehensible for learners, the need for alternative teaching materials, rather than grammar books, textbooks and dictionaries, is present. For this purpose, many educational systems have started using films as a language teaching method.

input. Krashen (1981, 1982) has proposed that in order for a learner to acquire a language he has to be able to understand what is being said as well as what he/she hears. With his Input Hypothesis, he supports that language acquisition occurs when the input is comprehended and contains structures that are one level beyond the learner’s current stage of linguistic competence (i + 1) (Krashen, 1985). According to this hypothesis, it can be argued that learners do not need the provision of detailed linguistic information since they are able to extract the rules of the language from the comprehensible input combined with their general knowledge about the world. Therefore, “acquirers will receive comprehensible input containing structures just beyond them if they are in situations involving genuine communication, and these structures will be constantly provided and automatically reviewed” (Krashen, 1981, p. 71). However, other approaches (Schmidt, 1990; Schmidt & Frota, 1986) claim that there is the need for conscious attention to the input in order for acquisition to take place. Thus, comprehensible input is necessary but not the only factor contributing to second language learning. Krashen (1983) stresses the importance of turning input into intake as follows:

“First, learners understand a message using the not yet acquired i + 1 L2 structure and somehow connect the form with its meaning. Second, learners must notice a difference between their current interlanguage (IL) competence and the L2 form. If the form then shows up again with enough frequency, it may be acquired” (Krashen as cited in Loschky, 1994, p. 304).

Another important factor concerning language teaching is authenticity.

Although this term is quite complex, Morrow (1977) tried to define it as follows: “An authentic text is a stretch of real language, produced by a real speaker or writer for a real audience and designed to convey a real message of some sort” (p. 13). Authentic discourse, according to Gilmore (2007), differs in a great extent from the language presented in the course books. Since learners can only notice what is available to them in the input, authentic language promotes L2 development due to the fact that it offers a wide range of elements (interaction patterns, discourse markers, communication strategies, etc.) and that “this noticing had beneficial effects on learners’ development of communicative competence” (Gilmore, 2007, p. 60). What is more, authentic material is considered by many researchers to be a strong incentive for enhancing students’ motivation (Cross, 1984; Hill, 1984; Wipf, 1984; Swaffar, 1985; Freeman & Holden, 1986; Keinbaum, Russell & Welty, 1986; McGarry, 1995; Peacock, 1997). Authentic language materials are more appealing than the overly planned ones due to their aim to “communicate a message rather than highlight target language” (Swaffar, 1985; Freeman & Holden, 1986; Little & Singleton, 1991, as cited in Gilmore, 2007, p. 46). Furthermore, the use of authentic materials allows the educator to adjust them to the learners’ needs and individual differences, while textbooks are designed for a large group of learners. Moreover, the fact that some learners discern the various authentic materials as being real, affects positively their motivational levels (Hill, 1984; Peacock, 1997). The use of film in the classroom constitutes a powerful example of authentic language material, since in conveys a real message and offers the learners the opportunity for active engagement in the process of language

make it possible to view the message as much as listen to it” (Baltova, 1994 as cited in Danan, 2004, p. 68).

2.2 Audiovisual information processing

Audiovisual material as a teaching tool for language learning has become quite central in education. According to Tschirner (2001), “Digital video makes it possible to `read' communicative situations, to move back and forth just as in written texts, to repeat, to pay close attention to language and other features of the

communicative situation, and to stop and reflect on the components that contribute to a deeper understanding of linguistic and semiotic data and to the language learning process” (p. 307). Over the past years, teachers have become more flexible, started using several alternative teaching tools in the classroom. Audio-visual material has gained ground in education, due to the fact that “its rich context is a powerful instructional tool known to have a motivational, attentional, and affective impact on viewers, which in turn facilitates auditory processing” (Baltova, 1994 as cited in Sokoli, 2006, p. 1). Furthermore, Herron, Morris, Secules, and Curtis (1995)

supported that students’ exposure to audiovisual material has a positive effect to their fluency when communicating with native speakers of the second language, since films and videos entail authentic oral language input. There are several consequences that make the use of video in the classroom a powerful tool, such as vocabulary

acquisition, listening and information processing as well as “narrative visualization, recognition and identification by the student” (Sokoli, 2006, p. 3). More specifically, subtitled audiovisual material can enhance vocabulary learning and content

There are different types of film fragments used by the teachers; subtitled as well as videos with dubbing (the initial audio is replaced by a new, translated one) and in both circumstances the original text is sometimes shortened. In any case,

him/ her from the visual content, even when they are not essential to the

comprehension (Koolstra, Peeters & Spinhof, 2002). Wickens (1984) makes two main observations about attention. He defines attention as “the searchlight that chooses information sources to process” (p. 15). Therefore, assigning to the learners a complex activity that combines both visual and auditory input may provoke what is called a ‘split-attention effect’, which is “the impairment in learning that arises from the need to mentally integrate disparate sources of information” (Moreno and Mayer, 1999, as cited in Guichon and Mclornan, 2008, p. 4). Furthermore, Wickens compares attention to a “resource of limited availability” (p. 15), meaning that in listening comprehension, some procedures (e.g. word recognition) demand a great amount of attention by causing a “deterioration in the performance of other processes (e.g. note-taking) that receive less attention” (Guichon and Mclornan, 2008, p. 4). Opposed to these views, however, is Navon’s and Gropher’s (1979) opinion, who support that a learner can process the multimodal input better when several of his/her senses are being used simultaneously. Compatible to this view is d’Ydewalle’s (2002) argument: “Partly due to the recent theoretical advances, almost everyone will no longer

subtitling condition though. The researchers concluded to the fact that different subtitling conditions have different effects on information processing depending on the viewers’ fluency levels in each case. Another study conducted by Kruger, Hefer, and Matthew (2013) regarding the learners’ understanding of the video content, discovered that subtitles do not distract the learners; instead they reduce the viewers’ levels of frustration when they watch a video in a second language. In their study, participants had to watch a recorded academic lecture with or without subtitles. The researchers measured the viewers’ cognitive load (the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory) by means of “eye tracking (pupil dilation, electroencephalography (EEG), self-reported ratings of mental effort, frustration, comprehension effort and engagement, as well as performance measures

(comprehension test)” (p. 1). The eye tracker and the EEG provided information about the participants’ levels of stress while watching the film. Their results showed that the viewers’ level of frustration was higher when they were watching the video without subtitles suggesting that subtitling does not cause mental overwhelm, but may even reduce mental overwhelm. Moreover, several studies have proved that the human brain is capable of automatically reading written input while viewing scenes (d’Ydewalle et al., 1991; Cerf, Frady, & Koch, 2009).

Evidence in favour and opposed regarding the effect of subtitles on input processing are quite strong. However, not many things have been said about the effects of different types of subtitling in the comprehension of language input. This study, therefore will examine if there is any difference in the viewers’ understanding of audio-visual content when two particular subtitling conditions are used (standard and intralingual).

Due to the fact that, over the past few years, the use of audiovisual subtitled material has been established as a teaching tool in foreign language envoronment, it is important to investigate how different types of subtitles facilitate language learning as well as, if there is any significant difference in the effect of these particular types of subtitles on language acquisition.

The most popular subtitling type is the interlingual or else standard subtitling. In this condition, the audio sound of the video does not change, while at the bottom of the screen a translated text of maximum two lines is provided, in the viewers’ native language. Interlingual subtitling, according to Dries (1995), refers to both a change in form and language, going “from one language into another language, and from spoken dialogue into a written, condensed translation which appears on the screen” (p. 26). This type of subtitling is the most easily accessible to people who are able to read in their own language render them capable of watching a film in any possible spoken language.

Another well-known subtitling type is the intralingual subtitling. When this type is used, instead of a translation, a transcript, sometimes condensed, of the original video sound track is provided at the bottom of the screen. According to Baker (1998), intralingual subtitling involves “taking speech down in writing, changing mode but not language” (p. 247). This subtitling condition is often used for deaf people or for language learning purposes. Therefore, when the viewers’

to interpret what is being expressed” (Lambert and Holobow, 1984 as cited in Bos, 2014, p. 13). Intralingual subtitles are possible to lead to the learners’ spelling and pronunciation improvement, since they offer input in a foreign language, regarding both visual and auditory aspects.

The less known subtitling condition, which will be briefly mentioned, since it does not constitute part of the current study, is reversed subtitling. In this case, the foreign language soundtrack is replaced by a new soundtrack in the viewers’ native language (dubbing) and the subtitles provided are in the foreign language. The

learners, therefore, are exposed only to the written input of the target language and not to the auditory.

2.3.1 Effects of subtitles on vocabulary acquisition

students. The students had to take 2 tests, prior to the experiment, one general vocabulary test and one knowledge test regarding the material of each unit of the experiment. All of them were divided into one of the following groups: 1.

captioned/intralingual television, 2. traditional television without captioning, 3. reading along and listening to text and 4. textbook only. The subjects, during a period of nine weeks, had either to watch or read 3 units of science-oriented series, twice a week. After every week, a word-recognition post-test was assigned to the learners, measuring their knowledge of the target words every time. Moreover, they also had to recall the input information by writing a summary of what they had watched or read. The results showed that the participants’ lexical acquisition was benefited through the provision of intralingual subtitles, since the learners in this group outperformed the other groups in the vocabulary tests. Similar but not completely compatible were the results found in an experiment conducted by Kootstra, Johannes & Beentjes (1999), who tested the vocabulary acquisition of 246 Dutch native speakers (4th and 6th graders) with no or one-year previous English instruction. The children were chosen based on an English vocabulary pre-test, in order to reduce the chances for error variance, and they were randomly assigned to 3 groups: 1. standard subtitling group, 2. no subtitling group and 3. control group. The first group had to watch an English television program with Dutch subtitles, the second group had to watch the same program without subtitles and the third group had to watch a Dutch television

Other studies have compared standard, intra- and/or reversed subtitling

conditions. Fazilatfar, Ghorbani, and Samavarchi (2011) for example, investigated the effects of three subtitling conditions (standard, reversed, no subtitles) on incidental vocabulary learning, of Iranian learners of English as a second language as well. In the first part of the experiment, a modified version of Nation’s (1999) Vocabulary Levels Test as well as a listening test (Richards, 2003) were assigned to the participants, in order to define their vocabulary level and their listening ability respectively. Furthermore, they had to take a vocabulary pretest to show their prior knowledge of the video target words. 45 participants were chosen overall, depending on their scores on the previously mentioned tests, and they were divided in three groups. Each group had to watch the same movie twice with one of the subtitling conditions though: group A – no subtitles, group B – standard subtitling, and group C – reversed subtitling. After watching the film, each participant had to take three types of vocabulary test: “1) a word-form recognition test; 2) a multiple-choice (prompted recognition) test; and, 3) a meaning by translation (unprompted recognition) test” (p. 51). The results suggested that the participants in the group with the reversed subtitles outperformed both the other two groups in terms of incidental vocabulary learning. Also d’Ydewalle and van de Poel (1999) examined the effects of standard and

both Dutch subtitles and sound track (control group). After watching the movie, the viewers had to take 3 tests: a vocabulary, a syntax and a morphology test. The results revealed that although language acquisition occurs due to subtitling, “the learning of children was not superior to that of adults investigated in prior studies” (p. 227). They also discover that there is a learning effect only when Danish subtitling is used and that in the reversed condition the effect occurs only in the written form, since there is no foreign language input in the audio track. In her study, Bos (2014) examined the potential efficacy of three different subtitling conditions: standard, intralingual and reversed as well as non-subtitled condition. The participants were Dutch advanced L2 speakers of English who watched a film fragment in either one of the three subtitling conditions. All of the subjects had to take the same vocabulary test, in which they had to find the correct definitions of the target words, before and after watching the video. The results showed that although there was a learning outcome, there was no

speech and the difficult vocabulary level” (Guillory, 1998 as cited in Danan, 2004, p. 71).

2.3.2 Effects of subtitles on meaning comprehension

Zarei (2011) in his study, aimed to examine the effects of verbatim and nonverbatim interlingual and intralingual subtitles second language vocabulary comprehension and production. Verbatim subtitling refers to all the spoken elements presented on the screen, including “pause fillers, hesitations”, etcetera, while

nonverbatim subtitling refers to “summarized subtitles conveying only necessary information to get the film” (Zarei, 2011, p. 618). The participants of this study were 120 Iranian learners of English as a second language, who were chosen based on their scores on a multiple-choice TOEFL proficiency test. The participants had to take a vocabulary pretest, giving the Persian synonyms to 100 words from the experiment’s movie, in order to determine their prior vocabulary knowledge. Consequently, they were divided into 4 comparable groups (n=30) and each group watched the same film with a different subtitling condition: 1. verbatim interlingual, 2. nonverbatim

conditions have a different effect on vocabulary acquisition as well as on the understanding of video content. The results showed that the scores of the three treatment groups were equal in terms of form recognition,which test indicated the learners’ ability to recognize the target words, a selection of keywords that were not target words and some distracters and clip association, which defined their ability to recognize the target words and all of them performed significantly better than the control group. Regarding the meaning recognition test, which examined the learners’ ability to recognize the translation of 17 target words, only two of the three groups (full and keyword captioning groups) outperformed the control group. The results also revealed that subtitling had no effect neither on comprehension nor on meaning recall, which is the learners’ ability to actually provide the translation of the target words in their native language. In another study, Hayati and Mohmedi (2011) examined the effects of video fragments with and without subtitles on listening comprehension. 90 Persian native speakers, intermediate learners of English were chosen for their experiment, based on their scores in a proficiency test. The learners were assigned randomly in three groups: English subtitles (ES), Persian subtitles (PS) and no

groups, and the PS group scored higher than the NS group. Consequently, intralingual subtitling is more effective than interlingual, in this particular study.

With regard to the fact that there are so many different views and many contradictory results concerning the complex issue of the role of subtitling in second language acquisition, as well as the fact that some of the methods in the studies that have been conducted are questionable, additional research is required. For example, in the first part of this subchapter, several studies are discussed regarding the role of different subtitling conditions in vocabulary acquisition. Some of them found

significant results, favoring the role of intralingual subtitling (Neuman and Koskinen, 1992) while others supported that reversed subtitles were the most efficient

(Fazilatfar, Ghorbani, and Samavarchi, 2012). There were studies, however, which found no significant results between the conditions (Bos, 2014). In the second part of the subchapter, studies regarding the role of subtitles in meaning comprehension are discussed. Some of them proved that intralingual subtitles benefit meaning

understanding (Hayati and Mohmedi, 2011; Zarei, 2011) while others failed in providing any significant difference (Perez, Peters & Desmet, 2014).

2.4 Statement of purpose

Most of the studies that have been mentioned above are concerned with the role of audiovisual material in language learning. Some of them had examined the impact of subtitled videos on information processing while others the effect of subtitles on vocabulary acquisition. A limited number of studies, however, has investigated the efficacy of different subtitling conditions on second language

1. Does audio-visual material positively affect vocabulary acquisition?

2. Is there any different effect between standard and intralingual subtitling in the acquisition of new lexical items?

3. Is there any different effect between standard and intralingual subtitling in meaning comprehension?

The first concern is to examine if there is any positive effect of subtitles on the viewers’ vocabulary learning. Some of the aforementioned studies have concluded to the fact that there is no significant effect of subtitles on language acquisition. On that account, this experiment measured the participants’ knowledge of the target words before and after they watched the film fragment. The hypothesis that will be tested, based on the literature, is that subtitling, regardless the condition, enhances

vocabulary learning.

The second question aims to analyze which of the two subtitling conditions used in the experiment is more efficient for vocabulary learning. The hypothesis in this case will be that the participants in the group of the intralingual subtitles will perform better in terms of acquiring new lexical items. This assumption is derived from previous studies on the same issue that have found that participants receiving intralingual subtitling treatment performed better than the other groups (i.e. Zarei, 2011).

In order to examine the efficacy of subtitling on second language acquisition and processing and particulary each of the aforementioned research questions a short-scale experiment was set up, in which the participants had to watch a video fragment entailing either one of two subtitling conditions mentioned in section 2.4 (intralingual and interlingual subtitling). It is expected, from the studiy’s experimental set up, that one of the two subtitling conditions (intralingual subtitles) will have a greater effect on the learners’ vocabulary learning as well as on the input comprehension and it can, therefore, be assumed that the degree to which the participants’ vocabulary

knowledge and understanding (dependent variables) was enhanced depended upon the subtitling condition they were exposed to (independent variable).

In the following segments, the study’s method will be presented. In the beginning, in section 3.1, a detailed description of the participants will be given, followed by an overview of the materials used in section 3.2, which constitute part of the next segment (3.3), the procedures of the study. In section 3.4, the way in which the data were analyzed will be discussed, while in chapters 4 and 5 the results of the experiment will be presented and discussed respectively.

3.1 Participants

A small sample of participants was used for the purposes of the pilot study. The subjects were 4 students of different departments of the University of Groningen, who volunteered to participate. There were no specific requirements regarding the participants’ background, since the aim was to reassure that the experiment was properly designed. On that account, there will be no analysis of this pilot data and the results.

avoid high diversity in the cognitive abilites of the subjects between the groups, only high school and university students were invited to participate in the study. Below, an overview of the participants’ study subject is presented in a pie chart. By ‘other’, high school students are implied.

4 6 3 2 2 4 2 7 _History Linguistics Phsychology Physics Chemistry Education Medicine Other

Figure 1. Participants' Study Field.

The invitation of the participants occurred in two ways. Most of them, around 20 people, were personal acquaintances, family members or ex-colleagues of the researcher. The other 10 subjects were invited either through the Facebook platform, or heard about the experiment from other people who took part in it or knew about it. As was expected, most of them had or were studying different educational subjects at the time of testing. Unfortunally, some of them were more familiar with the

The main requirements regarding all of the participants were: 1. to have Greek as their native language, 2. to be advanced speakers of English as their second

language without, though, being balanced bilinguals, 3. not to have lived more than one year in an English speaking environment. Other than these demands, the diversity of the participants was quite wide concerning various aspects. For example, the foreign languages spoken between the subjects were several: German, French, Spanish, and Russian. Some of them were speaking more than one or two foreign languages. In all cases, however, English was their second language and everyone was quite proficient in it. Furthermore, from the total of 30 participants, only 10 of them have spent time abroad, for less than one consecutive year.

10 2 2 13 3 0 5 10 15 age 18 age 19 age 22 age 25 age 27 Number of participants

Figure 2. Age range among the participants.

All of the participants were randomly distributed among the two different subtitling conditions, but the number of the participants in each group was the same: 15 participants in the intralingual subtitling group and the remaining 15 subjects in the interlingual subtitling group.

3.2 Materials

3.2.1 L2 proficiency data and background information

In order to measure the participants’ general word knowledge, the Word Associates Test (Read, 1998) was used. This particular test format is designed to go beyond conventional vocabulary tests which simply allow the provision of an affirmative or negative answer (yes/no). The objective of this test, therefore, is to examine to what extent the learners know the target words; in other words, the quality of their vocabulary knowledge. The Word Associates Test, like many other

productive vocabulary tests, is mainly based on the concept of word association. According to Read (1993), second language learners, unlike native speakers who have “remarkably stable patterns of word association”, get better in their responses

responses “ develops towards native speakers norms” (p. 358). Read (1998) created this test according to word associates format. The approach in this case is to provide the learners with a stimulus word along with other lexical items, some of them related to the target word and some of them not (see Appendix A). The aim of the activity is to recognize the words which are associated with the stimulus word. According to Read (1993), “it is assumed that learners with a deeper knowledge of the word will be better able to pick the associates (which should represent different aspects of the meaning of the word) than those whose knowledge is more superficial” (p. 359). Word Associates Test is easily accessible online and the instructions, which are in English, are provided online as well, before the learner takes the test.

In consideration of the participants’ background, a short survey was set up, in order to gather data about various aspects of the subjects’ linguistic environment (see Appendix B). The language used to formulate the questions was in English, since the productive vocabulary test was also in English as the Greek language was not

3.2.2 Film fragment

The actual experimental consists of 4 parts. One pre-test, a film fragment, and two post-tests. The selection of the audiovisual material will be discussed in this sub-chapter.

The selection of the film was a quite complex process, since it had to meet specific requirements. First of all, the content of the film should be appealing both to male and female viewers, due to the fact that the sample of the participants was of mixed gender. Furthermore, there was the need of a film in which a respective amount of words are not known by most of the participants. Moreover, watching the film should be a pleasant experience for the viewers, as the film length had to be about 10 minutes. Although, due to the fact that it was difficult to find audiovisual material in which the target words are repeated more than once, it was decided to show the same 9 minutes video fragment to both groups twice, to achieve the effect of repetition. On that account, the film “Our chemical lives” was used for the experiment. This is a new documentary film, in which the safety of various chemical substances is investigated as well as their effects on the human system. The reason why a scientific documentary film was chosen is due to the fact that the vocabulary used is advanced enough in order to fit and even exceed the proficiency level of the participants. Moreover, the content of the documentary is interesting, addressing both males and females. The spoken language of the film is English, which was the most important requirement.

After the film was downloaded (www.abc.net.au) and a 9 minutes fragment was picked out, the need for creating the two different types of subtitles emerged, since there were no embedded subtitles in the original film. For that purpose, the

Subtitle Workshop program was used, which is very simple to handle (Softonic,

who is a native speaker of Greek and highly proficient in English and embedded to the film according to the commonly accepted rules mentioned in Bos (2014), which were adapted from d’Ydewalle, van Rensbergen, and Pollet (1987):

“ A subtitle cannot contain more than two lines;

 There cannot be less than three characters in a subtitle;

 A line of subtitles can hold no more than 36 characters (spaces included);  Each subtitle must be displayed for at least 1.5 seconds;

 Between two subtitles, a blank of at least .25 seconds should be displayed;  One-line subtitles cannot be displayed for more than 3.5 seconds;

 Two-line subtitles cannot be displayed for more than six seconds” (p. 22). After the integration of the subtitles into the two film fragments, two separate links to the fragments were created online.

3.2.3 Vocabulary test

Thus, in order to eliminate the danger of priming them for what was about to follow, the vocabulary test was consisted of 15 target words, included in the video fragment and another 10 randomly chosen words, which were used as fillers. All of the 25 words belong to different lexical categories (nouns, verbs as well as adjectives) and some of them are quite common, while others are related to the science field, thus they are less common. Definitions of each of the words were added and mixed to the test, with the help of an English dictionary (see Appendix C). The aim was to match each word with the correct definition. Both word and definition lists were given in random order. The overview of the word list is given in table 1 below:

Table 1

Target words Fillers

Foetus Establish

The vocabulary test was placed to the coursesites platform, in a link which was created specifically for the experiment purposes.

3.2.4 Comprehension test

3.3 Procedures

The experiment took part in two separate stages. Before the actual experiment though, a pilot study was conducted, in order to examine some technical details about the experiment. There was the need to inspect how much time is needed for the whole procedure and if there were any unexpected problems regarding the instructions, the design of the tests as well as the video function. The procedures of the final

experiment are discussed in further details below.

of the content of the survey, they were asked to complete it, monitored again through skype, without the ‘share screen’ option this time. In case any of them needed further explanations regarding the questions, he or she was allowed to ask while completing the survey. When they were done with this part, the SKYPE call was terminated and the participants were informed about the date of the next call concerning the second stage of the experiment. This stage was completed when all of the participants had taken both the Word Associates Test as well as the survey.

The second stage of the study was longer and more demanding than the first one. Each of the participants was contacted again through SKYPE, using the ‘share screens’ option. They were asked for one more time to be alone, without any

distractions (e.g. mobile phone, TV, etcetera), in a quiet room and fully concentrated. In the beginning, a general explanation of the experiment was given, to prepare them for the nature of the study. First of all, each of the participants had to give their e-mail address in order to be invited to the online platform in which the experiment was placed (Coursesites). After the invitation, they were guided step by step in order for the tests to be available to them. When they were ready and before they open the vocabulary pre-test, instructions were given to them verbally in Greek. They were specifically told that there was a time limit of 15 minutes for the test, which would be shown on the top of their screen. Once the 15 minutes were passed, the test was designed to be submitted automatically. Written instructions were also available in the beginning of the test.

In the next step of this stage, the participants had to watch the video fragment immediately after the pre-test. Half of them had to watch the fragment with the interlingual subtitling condition and the other half with the intralingual. A link

they were asked to watch it twice in a row. The participants were again monitored through the ‘share screen’ option, having muted their microphones though. When they were done, they were again asked to go back to the Coursesites page, in order to take the vocabulary post-test. Since it was exactly the same with the pre-test, no further instructions were provided, apart from the original ones.

In the final part of the experiment, the participants had to take the

comprehension test. The design of it was similar to the vocabulary test, with a 15 minute time limit. The instructions were given to them verbally in Greek and they were again monitored through SKYPE while they were taking the test. Once every participant had taken all of the tests and after all of the data were collected, they were informed one by one through a written message about their performance.

Although the total experiment lasted for a long time, approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes, and there was no cash prize, all of the participants showed up and no one of them quit during the procedure. All of them found it an interesting experience, since the subject of the study is related to a very popular hobby, the one of watching foreign movies. Moreover, they were very interested in learning about their level of proficiency in English.

3.4 Data analyses

The three research questions (does audiovisual material positively affects vocabulary acquisition; is there a different effect of standard and intralingual

subtitling in the acquisition of new lexical items; is there a different effect of standard and intralingual subtitling in meaning comprehension?) and their data analyses will be discussed in this section in further details.

conditions. For that reason, the data were analysed in order to examine if there were any significant differences in the participants’ performance before and after watching the video, regarding their vocabulary improvement. Therefore, two paired samples t-tests were carried out in SPSS in order to compare the overall means of the samples before and after watching the video. The hypothesis was that the subjects will perform better in terms of vocabulary acquisition after having watched the film fragment. After the paired samples t-tests were done, the improvement of each participant’s performance in both groups was measured, by simply calculating the difference between the scores of the pre-test and the post-test. Consequently, using the

improvement scores of both groups, the second research question will be analysed. The aim in this case is to examine if any of the two groups performs better regarding the acquisition of new lexical items, depending on the different subtitling conditions (intralingual and interlingual). A Mann-Whitney U test was performed this time in SPSS, in order to examine if there is any significant difference between the two groups. The hypothesis tested here was that the participants of the intralingual

subtitling group will perform better. As far as the final research question is concerned, another Mann-Whitney U test was carried out, in order to investigate if there was any significant difference between the performances of the two groups regarding the meaning comprehension. The hypothesis was similar to the previously mentioned one, that the participants of the intralingual subtitling group will perform better in terms of understanding the video content.

4. Results

4.1 Learning effect

intralingual conditions. The null hypothesis (H0) in each case is that subtitles do not affect vocabulary learning and the level of significance that was set in each case is

a=0.05, since it is not a case of life or death and due to the fact that language related

studies usually set the level at 5%. Before the paired-samples t-test for the interlingual subtitling condition group was conducted, a Shapiro-Wilk Test was carried out, to check for the normal distribution of the data. When the value is bigger than .05 it can be assumed that the data is normally distributed. For the pre-test, the Shapiro-Wilk test of normality (S-W = 0.94, df = 15, p = 0.40) suggests that normality is a

Figure 3. Distribution of the pre and post-tests scores for the interlingual subtitling condition.

Another paired-samples t-test was carried out for the intralingual subtitling group, in order to compare the participants’ performance before and after watching the video regarding vocabulary learning. Before that, though, a Shapiro-Wilk Test was carried out, to check for the normal distribution of the data. In both the pre-test, the Shapiro-Wilk Test of normality (S-W = 0.94, df = 15, p = 0.46) and in the post-test (S-W = 0.93, df = 15, p = 0.30) suggest the data was normally distributed, as is also demonstrated in the boxplot below (Figure 4). The results of the t-test showed that there was a significant difference in the scores for the pre-test (M=18.0,

Figure 4. Distribution of the pre and post-tests scores for the intralingual subtitling condition.

4.2 Comparison of interlingual and intralingual conditions concerning vocabulary learning

the data. A Mann-Whitney U test indicated that there was no significant difference between the interlingual (Mdn=15) and the intralingual condition (Mdn=15), U=112, p=0.98 and that the effect size is small, r=0.03<1%.

Figure 5. Distribution of the two groups regarding the performance on the vocabulary test.

4.3 Comparison between interlingual and intralingual conditions concerning meaning comprehension

In order to examine if there is any significant difference in the performance of the two different subtitling condition groups regarding how well they understand the meaning of the video, another Mann-Whitney U test was conducted on the

equal, F (1.15) = 0.29, p = 0.01. Consequently, a Shapiro-Wilk test was conducted to check for the distribution of the data in each group. The results showed that the distribution of the data in both groups deviates from the norm (interlingual: S-W = 0.01, df = 15, p = 0.005; intralingual: S-W = 0.01, df = 15, p = 0.003), as is also demonstrated to the boxplot below (Figure 6). The outcome of the Mann-Whitney U test revealed that on average, the intralingual subtitling group performed better (Mdn=15) than the interlingual subtitling group (Mdn=15), U= 35.0, p=0.001<0.05. The difference was significant (p = 0.01 < 0.05). The effect size in this case is large, r = 0.60 > 25%.

Figure 6. Distribution of the two groups.

5. Discussion

The aim of this study was to find if there is any effect due to the use of

comprehension of the video content. This chapter, therefore, offers an interpretation of the previous chapter’s results and their implications, in the context of previously done research on this field. In the end of this chapter, and after all of the research questions have been adequately addressed, suggestion for further research will be provided.

5.1 General learning effect

The analysis of the results should point out whether there was a significant difference in the participants’ vocabulary test scores before and after watching the subtitled video fragment, for both interlingual and intralingual conditions. It was hypothesized, in chapter 2.4, that the use of subtitles, regardless the condition,

enhances second language vocabulary learning. Such an outcome was expected due to several reasons. First of all, the positive effects of the use of audiovisual materials on incidental vocabulary learning in general, are widely accepted in the linguistics field (e.g. Bates, 1985). More specifically, many researchers have reported that the use of subtitled or captioned video as a teaching method promotes vocabulary learning (Baltova, 1999; d’Ydewalle and Poel, 1999; Fazilatfar, Ghorbani, and Samavarchi, 2011; Guichon & Mclornan, 2009; Hayati and Mohmedi, 2009; Koolstra and Beentjes, 1999; Markham, 1999; Neuman and Koskinen, 1992; Yuksel and

Tanriverdi, 2002). Moreover, a positive learning effect was assumed, since the human brain is designed to automatically read the subtitles on a screen. According to several cognitive experimental studies, the reading of subtitles occurs uniformly, regardless audio sound or the viewers’ proficiency level of the spoken language. Therefore, it was quite safe to expect that the learning effect will take place unconsciously.

there was not a control group as a reference point, due to the lack of sufficient number of participants, the paired-samples t-test compared the performance of the participants in the vocabulary test before and after watching the film in both subtitling conditions. Both groups, therefore, knew more lexical items after the provision of the subtitled film fragment, regardless the subtitling type. This positive result might have been affected by the existance of subtitles but it might have also been the result of audio track as well as the film’s content. These results are not surprising, since they are compatible with other similar studies, which among other elements; they also examined their subjects’ vocabulary knowledge before and after the provision of videos. For example, Bos (2014) found that her participants performed significantly better on the post-test than on pre-test, in all four video conditions. Accordingly, Zarei (2011) tested his participants’ knowledge of the target words before and after

5.2 Vocabulary learning effect between the two conditions

The second research question was about the comparison between the intralingual and the interlingual subtitling condition regarding the vocabulary acquisition. In this case, it was hypothesized that the participants in the intralingual subtitling group will score higher in the post vocabulary test than the ones in the interlingual subtitling group. Such an assumption was made due to the fact that all of the participants had a high level of proficiency in English (advanced) according to their IELTS certificates and to the Words Associates Test’s scores, and people with a high level of proficiency do not usually use their native language to understand the meaning of a foreign language (Weinrich, 1953). It is a common sense that the intralingual condition does not create any connections to the participants’ native language; thus, it was expected that they would benefit more under this particular subtitling type in noticing and acquiring new lexical items. Furthermore, it was believed that the interlingual condition could distract the participants from paying attention to the second language’s lexical items, since it is essentially the translation in their native language. Therefore, intralingual subtitling was expected to be more beneficial since it did not require from the participants to switch between two

languages. Moreover, the research question’s assumption was additionally supported from the findings of other studies on this matter, which found that viewers who received intralingual subtitles performed better than others receiving different subtitling treatment in terms of vocabulary learning (Baltova, 1999; Jones, 2004; Koolstra and Beentjes, 1999; Zarei, 2011).

intralingual, without however, their scores to be significantly higher compared to the scores of the other group. One possible explanation for these results is that

intralingual subtitling requires the reader to implicitly find the meaning of the words, whereas with L1 subtitling, the meaning is given directly. The standard subtitling condition, therefore, might be more beneficial for beginners, since they are not very experienced with the second language yet. Even though previous studies have pointed out the effectiviness of the intralingual condition on high proficient learners, in this study such an outcome was not apparent. For example, Zarei (2011) in his study, highlighted the superiority of intralingual subtitles to the interlingual ones. One reason for that, according to Zarei, is that “intralingual subtitles provide the opportunity for language learners to have access to the written forms of new words”; this exposure, therefore, leads to a better performance concerning language acquisition. The results of this study, though, are not compatible with the aforementioned finding. However, they resemble to a certain extend the conclusion made by a number of other studies (e.g Aurstad, 2013; Bianchi & Ciabattoni, 2008). The former found that there were no effects of the two subtitling conditions (interlingual and intralingual) on the word definition knowledge and the performance on the lexical decision task. Similarly, Bianchi and Ciabattoni (2008) discovered that there was no significant difference in the performance of the advanced participants, comparing the two subtitling conditions (interlingual and intralingual) in terms of vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, another study carried out by Bisson, van Heuven, Conklin and Tunney (2012); found that there was no difference between the same subtitling conditions in incidental vocabulary acquisition, based on eye tracking data.

is that the participants’ sample is not completely representative of the population. First of all, the sample’s size is quite small. Normally, meaningful results arise when the number of the subjects is large enough, approximately 20 to 25 people per group. In the current study, only 15 participants took part in the experiment in each group. Moreover, the sample cannot be considered representative regarding the age groups that it’s addressed to. The viewers’ age varied only between 18 and 27 years old; thus, other age groups were not taken into account. It is very possible that young children, for example, would have a different reaction towards the film fragment, since their experience regarding exposure to intralingual subtitling is assumed to be limited and they are often not skilled readers. Another disadvantage regarding the sample is that there is not enough information about the English instructional background of the participants. Although their level of proficiency was approximately the same, the skills which they had developed in a greater extent during learning English were not controlled. For this study specifically, exceptional developed listening and reading skills are quite important regarding the viewers’ performance. Therefore, this insignificant outcome might have resulted from the fact that the participants had not practiced these two skills to a sufficient degree during their English language instruction.

“Overall there is very little evidence to support the claim that input frequency affects L2 acquisition but there is very little evidence to refute it. Perhaps the safest conclusion is that input frequency serves as one of the factors

influencing development, often in association with other factors such as L1 transfer and communicative need” (p. 273).

Therefore, it could be assumed that, due to the fact that the factor of frequency in the target input is absent, no significant results could be found in the learners’

performance on the vocabulary test.

that they had already encountered many of the target words in the past; thus, the vocabulary of the film fragment proved to be not very new for most of the viewers. 5.3 Meaning comprehension effect between the two conditions

The last research question was set up to investigate the potential difference in the performance between the interlingual and intralingual subtitling groups in terms of the video’s meaning comprehension. The hypothesis for this particular aspect was that people exposed to the intralingual subtitling condition will achieve higher scores in the multiple-choice comprehension test than the ones exposed to the interlingual subtitles. Such an assumption was reasonable, first of all, due to the aforementioned case of the high proficiency level of the participants in the English language. People with a good knowledge of English do not need to make connections in their native language in order to understand the general meaning of the content. Therefore, it was anticipated that the interlingual subtitling condition would prove to be less helpful for this purpose. Practically, the viewer’s receiving the interlingual condition had to mentally translate the English information to their native language (Greek) while reading the subtitles. Hayati and Mohmedi (2011) in their study examining the same conditions upon listening comprehension stated that due to the difficulty of the translation process and because of the fact that it surpasses the viewers’ processing ability, ”factors such as the presentation speed or the difficulty level of the text may lower the effectiveness of L1 subtitling” (p. 189). Accordingly, Markham (1989) mentioned, regarding the interlingual subtitles, that “the additional process of

that in the current study, subtitles in the second language will enhance content’s information understanding (e.g. Lavaur and Bairstow, 2011).

As it was anticipated, the results regarding the two treatment groups’

performance in the comprehension test were significant, pointing out the superiority of the intralingual condition over the interlingual. One obvious reason for that, along with the aforementioned expected ones, is what the learners stated. Based on the data collected by their opinions after having watched the video, most of them mentioned that exposure to the target language’s subtitles helped them to mentally connect both the written and the audio forms of the words with their meaning, more than the participants exposed to the interlingual condition. This factor was also apparent in Hayati and Mohmedi’s (2011) experiment on listening comprehension. Additionally, the viewers of the film fragment with the Greek subtitles explained that they were distracted a lot by the translation. As it was mentioned in chapter 2.3, interlingual subtitling is practically “a condensed translation”, which usually undergoes changes in form and meaning or even omissions of several parts of speech in order to make sense in the native language (Dries, 1995). It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the subjects belonging in the interlingual group experienced some loss of information in their effort to understand the meaning spoken in the video while processing the Greek translation. It was also mentioned that the interlingual subtitles distracted the viewers and they were not able to pay attention to the soundtrack.

backgrounds, such as chemistry, medicine and physics. It is possible, therefore, that many participants were already familiar with the lexical items of the documentary. Since all of them were randomly assigned to the two subtitling groups, it was unknown how many participants per group were familiar with the language of the video. It was discovered, from the participants’ statements after the experiment, that the intralingual group contained learners who had been previously introduced to the target vocabulary, knowing the meaning of it. Another complication in terms of the sample is that it is unclear when was the last time that the participants were frequently exposed to the English language before the experiment. Although all of them had a high level of proficiency, some of them may have practiced the language more often than others. According to the data extracted from the psycholinguistic survey, in the questions ‘What percentage of reading is in English’ and ‘What percentage of media exposure is in English’ the answers differed. Some of the subjects were more exposed than others to the English language through these means. Moreover, in the question how often do you use English, 17 out of 30 subjects answered ‘weekly’ while the rest of them fluctuated between ‘daily’ and ‘monthly’. Therefore, the results might have been significant due to the fact that the subjects with the most frequent exposure to English have fallen under the intralingual condition.

One final concern that should be noted about the results is that for this experiment no scientific tools were used in order to measure how active or concentrated the participants were during watching the video. Therefore, it is not possible to have a deeper insight to the concentration levels of each group as well as to the way each participant processed different modalities.

As far as the second research question about vocabulary acquisition is concerned, this study cannot provide a definite answer, due to the fact that no significant results were found regarding the potential difference between the two subtitling conditions. The sample of the participants was not completely

representative of the entire population; it was fairly small and within only one age group. Therefore, it is suggested that further research should be conducted with a larger number of participants, from various age groups. Additionally, participants should be of various levels of proficiency, in order to examine if there are different effects depending on the level of proficiency as well as to avoid the complication of the current study: high level proficiency students had already come across with some of the target lexical items. Moreover, more research should be done, examining in greater detail the listening and reading skills of the participants regarding the English language, in order to have a deeper insight to the way these skills were trained. Furthermore, the choice of the video fragment should be made taking several factors into account. For example, the film should entail more unkown words, occuring more than once or twice, in order to avoid projecting it two times in a raw, which might prove to be tedious. According to Elley (1989), frequency is a crucial factor, among others, which best predicts “whether a particular word would be learned” (p. 174).

Another suggestion, first mentioned by Bos (2014), is that in order to

acquiring new knowledge and not as retrieving already exisisting knowledge.

However, it should be expected that creating subtitles in a fantasy language acquires particularly developed skills as well as plenty of time.

As far as the last research question regarding meaning comprehension is concerned, this current study successfully managed to give an answer: intralingual subtitles enhance the understanding of the content more than the interlingual ones. Nevertheless, further research is suggested even in this case, in terms of several aspects. First of all, larger diversity in terms of educational backgrounds is needed. For example, most of the participants should not come from only one particular educational field. There should be a balance in the number of the subjects belonging to each educational category, in order the results to resemble the reality and to avoid already existing familiarity with the subject matter. Furthermore, the participants should carefully be chosen according to their frequency of exposure to the target language. The outcome will be more objective if all of the learners use the foreign language at the same extent and the amount of time between the last exposure and the experiment is equal for all of them. One final suggestion is that apart from the

vocabulary and comprehension, it should also be taken into account the use of scientific instruments which measure the engagement of the participants while watching the video, such as EEG analyses, as well as eye tracking and pupil dilation tools. In this way, the results will have a more scientific validity as well as they will be more objective.

6. Conclusion

comprehension. Previously conducted research and many different opinions on this issue were taken under consideration, concluding to the need for further research. A large number of studies has indicated the importance of the role of subtitling as a language teaching tool as well as their success in improving vocabulary learning and meaning comprehension. Additionally, it is widely accepted that subtitles can convert incomprehensible input into comprehensible input, which is very important for implicit language learning (Bos. 2014). The notion of subtitles, however, should not be seen as merely providing the translation in the native language. There are many different types of subtitles, each one of them with a different effect upon the process of foreign language learning. Therefore, and especially due to the fact that the use of film in second language classroom environment has become increasingly popular as a teaching mechanism, subtitled based instruction can be considered a powerful

teaching tool as well as a source of authentic language input. The crucial question which was addressed in this study, is which of the existing subtitling conditions is more effective for learning new lexical items as well as understanding the meaning of the input.

effective than the other in terms of vocabulary acquisition. The most plausible explanation for that is that the participants’ sample was small. Therefore, it was suggested further research is done, using a larger sample of subjects, since previous studies have pointed out the effectiveness of intralingual subtitling in vocabulary acquisition (Zarei, 2011). However, this study managed to give a conclusive answer regarding meaning comprehension. The results of the test comparing the performance of the two groups in the comprehension tests showed that intralingual subtitles indeed enhance meaning understanding, as it was expected. This outcome was compatible with other studies’ results, which proved the superiority of the provision of subtitles in the target language (Hayati and Mohmedi, 2011; Lavaour and Bairstow, 2011).

Nevertheless, suggestions for further research were made, requesting again the use of a more representative participants’ sample as well as the use of scientific tools, in order to verify and duplicate these results using even more methods.

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