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EXTRAMURAL ENGLISH ACTIVITIES AND INDIVIDUAL LEARNER DIFFERENCES
more than subtitles in learners’ L1 (interlingual subtitles). The study also found
that, regardless of language, the subtitles reduce the cognitive burden on lan¬
guage learners, meaning that the comprehension of the content of the videos
is easier when using subtitles. In their mixed-methodology research, Winke
et al. (2010) examined the effect of using L2 subtitles or no subtitles on learn¬
ers’ L2 proficiency. Participants watched three short videos in the L2, followed
by a vocabulary and comprehension test. The results of the research show that
participants who watched videos with L2 subtitles outperformed those who
watched videos without subtitles significantly on the vocabulary and compre¬
hension tests. In the second half of the research, learners’ use of subtitles was
investigated in a qualitative manner through interviews. The main finding of
the qualitative part of the study was that learners find it useful to involve
multiple modalities (visual and auditory) in the learning process by using
subtitles, especially because subtitles may be used as a “linguistic crutch” if
learners do not hear the dialogue well. In a quantitative study, Wang (2019)
examined Chinese EFL university students and found that the groups using
subtitles when watching videos yielded statistically significantly better results
than the group in which no subtitles were used. When investigating EFL learn¬
ers, similar results were obtained in the Japanese (Ashcroft et al. 2018, Rodg¬
ers—Webb 2017), the Arabic (Murshidi 2020) and the French (Guichon—
McLornan 2008) contexts, too. Studies investigating L2 learners other than
EFL, such as Spanish as a Foreign Language (Markham et al. 2001) and French
as a Foreign Language (Montero Perez et al. 2014) had similar findings to that
of studies investigating EFL learners, which leads us to the conclusion that
films and movies, particularly with subtitles, and even more specifically, L2
subtitles, may prove beneficial for both EFL and other L2 learners, too.
Longitudinal studies were also carried out to investigate the long-term
effect of video subtitles on the vocabulary of language learners (Bianchi¬
Ciabattoni 2008, Pujadas-Muñoz 2019). In Pujadas and Muñoz's (2019) study,
for instance, there were two groups of EFL learners who were exposed to
videos in class on a regular basis. In one of the groups, vocabulary items were
taught in advance, followed by videos in English, while in the other, there was
no pre-taught vocabulary; learners only watched the videos in English. Later,
learners were tested on their vocabulary knowledge, and the results show that
the group where vocabulary items were pre-taught to learners outperformed
groups in which vocabulary items were taught only after watching videos. The
study conducted by Bianchi and Ciabattoni (2008) also confirms the findings
of Pujadas and Muñoz (2019). In the Italian context, they examined the short¬
and long-term impact of subtitles among students learning English as a foreign
language and found that students who watched English-language films with
Italian subtitles performed better in comprehension tasks in the short term
than learners using no subtitles.
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JI