Oldal 78 [78]
EXTRAMURAL ENGLISH ACTIVITIES AND INDIVIDUAL LEARNER DIFFERENCES
4.5.3 Watching films and series
The third topic was watching TV, movies, and series in English. As these are
typical pastime activities for the general population, it is no surprise that most
students watch movies and TV shows on a regular basis. There are differences,
however, in the preferences of students in terms of the language of the content
they consume. Paul mostly watches everything in Hungarian because he has
a preference for the Hungarian dubbed versions of movies and (television)
series. In his words: “TV shows I don’t [watch so much in English] because I
like to watch them more in Hungarian.” Christian, on the other hand, consumes
media in English because he thinks that it is an opportunity to improve his
command of English, a conclusion drawn in the literature, too (Chapple—Cur¬
tis 2000, King 2002, Keene 2006, Liando et al. 2018, Lin—Siyanova-Chanturia
2014, Qiang et al. 2007). Krisztián explains this follows:
Well, I watch movies and TV shows as well. I think it helps a lot with learning Eng¬
lish, and it’s entertaining. Basically, you're watching something that is interesting,
and you learn lots of new words, expressions. I usually watch TV shows in Eng¬
lish, and when I don’t understand something, I pause it and look the word up ina
dictionary.
Christian seems to demonstrate more awareness of the benefits of watching
films and (television) series in English. This idea is in line with the literature
on the benefits of using films as authentic L2 input for incidental learning (Lin
et al. 2014).
He also adds that he uses English subtitles when watching movies and TV
shows in English, but the same is not true for all participants. Valentina, for
instance, only uses subtitles when the characters speak too fast. In her words:
“Sometimes I use subtitles, but if I understand everything, I don’t even use
subtitles; maybe in English in case they speak too fast and I wouldn't be able
to understand it.” In her utterance, Valentina unknowingly reflects on the
literature, which also emphasizes the importance and benefits of using subti¬
tles in comprehension as they reduce the cognitive burden and help viewers
understand what they hear with more ease (Guichon—McLornan 2008, Markham
et al. 2001, Montero Perez et al. 2014, Winke et al. 2010). In contrast, Charlie
watches everything in English without any subtitles because he likes films and
(television) series more in English and, as he puts it, “you have to wait a lot for
the subtitles.” By this, he means that films and (television) series are released
much later, usually several months later, in Hungary. This applies to Lina as
well, who claims that movies with characters speaking in an American accent
are not difficult to understand, and she only uses subtitles if there is more
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