Foreign Subtitles Help but Native-Language Subtitles Harm Foreign Speech Perception
Abstract
"Understanding foreign speech is difficult, in part because of unusual mappings between sounds and words. It is known that listeners in their native language can use lexical knowledge (about how words ought to sound) to learn how to interpret unusual speech-sounds. We therefore investigated whether subtitles, which provide lexical information, support perceptual learning about foreign speech. Dutch participants, unfamiliar with Scottish and Australian regional accents of English, watched Scottish or Australian English videos with Dutch, English or no subtitles, and then repeated audio fragments of both accents. Repetition of novel fragments was worse after Dutch-subtitle exposure but better after English-subtitle exposure.
Native-language subtitles appear to create lexical interference, but foreign-language subtitles assist speech learning by indicating which words (and hence sounds) are being spoken."http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0007785As naturalistic as it gets: subtitles in the English classroom in Norway
"The study was initially inspired by Mitterer and McQueen (2009) who showed that original English subtitles improved speech perception, and more generally, processing of less frequent English varieties."
Abstract
"This study aimed to investigate the effects of subtitles in the context of authentic material on second language comprehension and potentially, second language acquisition for Norwegian learners of English. Participants in the study were 49 17-year-old students and 65 16-year-old students, who were all native speakers of Norwegian learning English as an L2 in high school. Both age groups were divided into three Conditions, where one group watched an episode of the American animated cartoon Family Guy with Norwegian subtitles, one group with English subtitles, and one group watched the episode with no subtitles. On a comprehension questionnaire conducted immediately after watching the episode positive short-term effects of both native language (L1) and target language (L2) subtitles were found for both age groups. However, no differences in terms of the language of the subtitles were found in the older and more advanced group. Four weeks later the participants responded to a word definition task and a word recall task to investigate potential long-term effects of the subtitles. The only long-term effect was found in the word definition task and was modulated by age.
We found, however, that native language subtitles impact negatively on performance on the comprehension task. The results from this study suggest that the mere presence of subtitles as an additional source of information enhances learners' comprehension of the plot and content in animated audio-visual material in their L2. The absence of differences in terms of the language of the subtitles in the more advanced group suggests that both intralanguage and interlanguage subtitles can aid target language comprehension in very advanced learners, most probably due to better consolidated vocabulary knowledge in that group. The two groups differed also on predictors of performance on the two lexical tasks. While in the less proficient younger group, vocabulary status best predicted performance on both tasks (vocabulary predicts vocabulary), for the very advanced older group, grammar was a stronger predictor, highlighting the importance of generic language competence and skills in L2 tasks for highly proficient L2 users. We also found an effect of written L2 skills on performance on both lexical tasks indicative of the role of orthography in vocabulary consolidation."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4288378/Watching Subtitled Films Can Help Learning Foreign Languages
Abstract
"Watching English-spoken films with subtitles is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. One reason for this trend is the assumption that perceptual learning of the sounds of a foreign language, English, will improve perception skills in non-English speakers. Yet, solid proof for this is scarce. In order to test the potential learning effects derived from watching subtitled media, a group of intermediate Spanish students of English as a foreign language watched a 1h-long episode of a TV drama in its original English version, with English, Spanish or no subtitles overlaid. Before and after the viewing, participants took a listening and vocabulary test to evaluate their speech perception and vocabulary acquisition in English, plus a final plot comprehension test. The results of the listening skills tests revealed that after watching the English subtitled version, participants improved these skills significantly more than after watching the Spanish subtitled or no-subtitles versions. The vocabulary test showed no reliable differences between subtitled conditions. Finally, as one could expect, plot comprehension was best under native, Spanish subtitles. These learning effects with just 1 hour exposure might have major implications with longer exposure times."
Discussion
"The most relevant finding to emerge from this study was a significant improvement in listening scores of ESL speakers, after watching a TV episode in English, with English subtitles (17% increase vs. 7% for no-subtitles and 0% for Spanish subtitles condition)."http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0158409The Effect of Interlingual and Intralingual, Verbatim and Nonverbatim Subtitles on L2 Vocabulary Comprehension and Production
"Abstract—The present study sought to investigate the effect of verbatim and nonverbatim interlingual and intralingual subtitles on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production. To this end, four groups of 30 language learners studying conversational English in two language institutes in Qazvin participated in the study. Each of the groups watched the same movie with a different type of subtitling: a) verbatim interlingual, b) nonverbatim interlingual, c) verbatim intralingual and d) nonverbatim intralingual subtitles. The participants
also received a vocabulary pretest and vocabulary comprehension and production post-tests. Two separate Two-Way ANOVA procedures were used to analyze the obtained data.
The results revealed that nonverbatim subtitles resulted in more vocabulary comprehension regardless of whether they were interlingual or intralingual, whereas intralingual subtitles were more conductive to vocabulary production irrespective of whether they were verbatim or nonverbatim."http://www.ikiu.ac.ir/public_files/profiles/items/1341223609.pdfintralingual = the language of the audio track (usually L2)
interlingual = translation into another language (usually L1)