THE EFFECT OF SUBTITLED MOVIES ON LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF EFL LEARNERS

Abstract As one of the most important communication skills， listening plays a crucial role in English teaching. Therefore， it’s significant to find an effective teaching mode to improve students’ listening. This paper aimed at exploring the effect of subtitled movies on listening comprehension of efl learners.

Key words subtitle， subtitled movies， EFL， listening

中图分类号：H319.6 文献标识码：A

INTRODUCTION

With the rapid economic globalization and cultural assimilation， English has become the dominant language in international trade and communication. In order to meet the demand， almost all the colleges teach English as a second language in China. The objective of English teaching is to cultivate students’ English synthesis application ability so as to get students ready for cross-national communication in their future development.

Of the four basic communication skills （reading， writing， speaking， listening）， the skill of listening is most frequently employed （Purdy & Borisoff， 1997）. Therefore， how to improve students’ listening comprehension becomes the key concern of all EFL teachers.

The language theorist Krashen （1985） stated that “humans acquire language in only one way—by understanding messages or by receiving ‘comprehensible input’” （p.2）. That is to say， listening is all that is necessary for language acquisition. This is true to great extent， as one can only learn a new language through listening first. Brown （1987）， one of the pioneers of listening research， claimed that listening plays a foremost important role in language acquisition， and it is the basis of communication， the foundation of all life-long language activities. So it is of great importance to perform research on listening.

With the increasing access to modern facilities like TV， video and Internet， teachers have more opportunities to use audiovisual materials at all levels to effectively promote language teaching （Lewis & Anping， 2002）. Movies， as an integral part of audiovisual media， have been taken as good input in listening class. Moreover， more and more research regarding this new teaching mode has been conducted to find out its benefits and problems.

The Relationship between Movies and Listening

Learning environment makes a great difference in language acquisition and it can exert positive and negative effect on learners’ affection. Krashen （1985） claimed that providing comprehensible input in which students are interested in less anxiety situations is the best method for second language acquisition. In his theory of second language acquisition， he put forward five hypotheses， and the fifth one is Affective Filter hypothesis， which states how affective factors relate to the second language acquisition process. These factors refer to motivation， self-confidence and anxiety， they obstructing or facilitating input from reaching the language acquisition device （LAD）. The affective filter is like a “block”. When learners are highly motivated， self-confident， and with low level of anxiety， the “block” will be down， which will be more facilitative for learners to succeed in language acquisition. To the contrary， if the learners are unmotivated， lack in self-confidence， bored， stressed or nervous， the “block” will up， preventing comprehensible input from being used for acquisition.

Similar viewpoint was stated by Cook in 1993. He claimed that second language acquisition fails to take place when the learner is not plunged in meaningful languages， for instance， “classroom activities that concentrate on the forms of language rather than on meaning， or by a psychological block that prevents otherwise useful language from gaining access to the learner’s mind” （p.51）. “Psychological block” refers to Krashen’s affective filter.

The above research shows that the environment in which students are learning is an important element in second language success. The best approach for second language teaching is to devise interesting activities， creating a relaxing and easy atmosphere， in which the listening process will be naturally activated （Cook， 1996）.

Movies provide a wonderful situation for language learning where learners feel comfortable， relaxing and with less anxiety. Chinese scholar Liu （2009） adopted a multi-choice questionnaire in Renmin University of China to learn students’ motives of watching English movies. The result of the questionnaire showed that 69.6 percent of the students watched movies for entertainment and relaxation， 50 percent of the students for learning English， which suggested that movies offer a less anxiety situation for learning. Besides， Huang & Eskey （1999） suggested that movie （TV） greatly reduces learners’ fear of loss in listening for its entertaining qualities. With the function of making the “block” down， movies—audiovisual materials， which are rich in context， place a motivational， attentional， and effective effect on viewers， boosting listening process in turn （Baltova， 1994）.

Audiovisual media is closer to our real life since we can view as much as listen to it for the visual clues and context. Viewers have opportunity to observe the speakers gestures， facial expressions， and other body language， which presents authentic language and cultural information （Richards & Gordon， 2004）. Similarly， Chung and Huang （1998） stated that “dynamics of various information which can be derived from viewing the video， such as the authentic setting， accents， posture， gestures， etc. of native speakers relieve students from the boredom of the traditional class language drills.”（p.554）. Viewers might make connections between words and meanings through the combination of sounds and pictures （Huang & Eskey， 1999）.

Herron， et al （1995） noted that movie （video） is a much more effective way to present the foreign culture than other instructional materials for it allows students to hear native speakers’ communication in real life situations as well as learn useful and helpful language structures. Different from audiocassettes， visual clues and context embedded in visual materials can rule out ambiguities from the voices； on the other hand， it’s more likely to capture learners’ attention and motivate their desire to learn the language. With the improvement in listening skills， learners will gain progress in their aural， writing and reading skills （Mekheimer， 2011）.

In order to demonstrate the positive effect of visual clues， Baltova （1994） conducted an experiment involving 53 intermediate-level Grade 8 Canadian pupils in a core French program. They were divided into two groups to take a listening test after watching a 15-minute clip， one in video-and-sound situation， the other in sound-only situation. In the experiment， the group which watched with visual clues obtained much higher scores， almost twice as good as the group in sound-only condition. The experiment indicated that audiovisual materials have a strong impact on listening comprehension.

The Effect of Subtitles

With the advance of electronic technology， movie makers started to supplement different subtitles to movies in order to let the audience have a better understanding. Subsequently， studies on the value of subtitles were conducted by more and more scholars.

Huffman （1986） found that the audiovisual materials that greatly attract students， with subtitles， can help students comprehend realistic English conversation much more easily. If the students cannot understand the movies well， subtitles can help them form a mental visual image on what they hear （Danan， 2004）. Some researchers （Bird & Williams， 2002； Garza， 1991） conducted studies to evaluate the use of subtitles， finding that subtitles in the movies may serve to improve language comprehension by promoting additional cognitive processes. Subtitles with audiovisual clues help learners form a more accurate memory trace of the words， and make it easier for learners to identify equivalent sounds.

Subtitles can relieve the feeling of anxiety and lower learners’ extraneous load （Chang et al， 2011； Vanderplank， 1988）. Students will be anxious and frustrated， and sometimes even want to give up watching when they fail to catch an important element. Subtitles help learners relax and be more confident to follow， and encourage them to learn. Moreover， subtitles offer instant feedback to the learners to stimulate their autonomic learning. This point was demonstrated by Winke， et al （2010）. They found that listening twice to a video， first with captions and then without， may relieve learners’ anxiety， thus stimulate their selective and comprehensive listening strategies， and enhance auditory process.

Although subtitles facilitate listening comprehension， but some researchers argued that subtitles distracted learners’ attention and influenced their effectiveness of listening. In view of this problem， Vanderplank （1988） had observed Finns over a two-year period. He found that “far from being a distraction and source of laziness， captions might have potential value in helping the language-acquisition process， by providing language learners with the key to massive quantities of authentic and comprehensible language input.” （p.272-273）.

Iranian scholars Hayati and Mohmedi （2011） made further research on the effect of subtitles， especially to explore the validity of different subtitle languages. They performed an experiment targeting at intermediate learners at Islamic Azad University of Masjed Soleyman. They divided the participants into three groups， which were respectively in three conditions： L1 subtitle， L2 subtitle and without subtitle. L2 is the target language. The results reveals that the average score of L2 subtitle group is significantly higher than L1 caption group， and L1 subtitle group in turn got higher score than without subtitle group. An additional process—translation， may attribute to the less efficiency of L1 subtitle. “With L1 captions， EFL students grasped the meaning by reading L1 subtitles and simultaneously translated the L2 information for chunking the flow of L2 audio.” （p.189）

Summary

To sum up， subtitled movies are beneficial for learners to improve their listening ability. What’s more， in the field of teaching listening， it’s of great importance to select proper audiovisual materials for learners at different language proficiency.

Niu et al （2007， p.39） suggested the following practical ideas to help teachers improve the effectiveness of teaching through movies：

1. Typical movies that are educational， informative and entertaining if the first condition in successful movie teaching.

2. A functional workbook to the movies for the students to prepare before watching the movies is the second condition for effective teaching through movies.

3. Various classroom activities to induce/elicit timely and optimal output from students is the last but most important condition to create an acquisition environment for communication.

For beginning-level learners， although they can benefit a lot form the captions， they may benefit more only when the captions are brief and concise， just key words， rather than entire sentences （Guillory， 1998）. The key-word captions might be better for beginning-level learners because it may reduce their anxiety or nervousness instead of imposing a large cognitive load on them. For secondary-level learners or literate adult， given difficult target-language audiovisual materials， their listening comprehension is likely to be improved if the learners are immersed in L1 captions first （Markham & Peter， 2003）. They stated that the learners can understand difficult materials with their foreign language literacy skills in target-language captions subsequently and finally will be able to comprehend the materials without captions. For intermediate learners， captions should only be used when the audiovisual materials are difficult to comprehend （Markham， 1993）. Markham also stated that for advanced learners， captions will be helpful when the audiovisual materials are more complex or abstract.

However， teachers also should give assistance to the learners. According to the survey conducted by Chung （1996）， more than 70% students agreed that the summarized sentences， or explanation of new words， idioms and phrases， provided by the teacher before listening， were helpful to comprehend the audiovisual materials.

In conclusion， massive comprehensible input （mainly movies）， coupled with assisted instruction from the teachers， will be an effective approach to improve the listening comprehension of ESL learners.

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