Does adding subtitles make watching movies easier?
Graduation Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
English Language and Literature
Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
by
Sayaka Kurahashi
2018
Contents
AbstractⅣ
Chapter One: The effect of watching movies1
1.1 Introduction1
1.2. Movies in language learning2
1.2.1 Advantages of watching movies when learning2
1.2.2 Disadvantages of watching movies when learning3
1.2.3 What can we learn from watching movies?5
1.2.4Ways to watch movies6
1.3 Learning new vocabulary from reading7
1.3.1 Intentional learning7
1.3.2 Incidental learning8
1.4 Previous research on learning vocabulary from input8
1.4.1 Waring and Takaki, 20039
1.4.2. Hioka (2015) Can we learn English from movies?10
1.4.3. Kumei (2016) The effect of watching foreign movies when
learning a foreign language11
1.5 Research Questions11
1.6 Conclusion12
Chapter Two: The experiment13
2.1 Introduction13
2.2 The experiment13
2.2.1 Introduction to the experiment13
2.2.2 Subjects13
2.2.3 Test design14
2.2.4 The two movie clips14
2.2.5 Procedure23
2.2.6 Results23 2.2.7 Casual interview 24
2.3 Summary25
Chapter Three: The Analysis26
3.1 Introduction26
3.2 Summary of the results26
3.3 Discussion of the results27
3.4 Research questions28
3.5 Implications28
3.6 Limitations of the Experiments29
3.7 Further research29
3.8 Conclusion30
References31
Appendices34
Abstract
There are a lot of ways to learn English, for example, listening to English, reading English books, writing in English, and practicing to speak English and so on. In this way, Japanese people who want to learn English can learn in a lot of ways by themselves.
This study focused on the effect of watching movies when learning English. Nowadays, watching movies is a popular amusement for everyone, and according to previous research, there are 5 advantages of using English movies. Watching movies seems to be a great way to learn English, however, Hioka (2015) said that movies can affect only the learners who have enough knowledge of English, so it depends on the learners. On the other hand, Kumei (2017) said that watching movies with subtitles is a good way to understand the contents. So an experiment was made to find out whether subtitles affect the learning of new words or not.
In the experiment, the movie “Sleepless in Seattle” was used. The subjects watched the movie and took a test about words and comprehension questions after watching two movie clips. As a result, it showed that subtitles were helpful to understand contents well and learning new words a little.
In this study, it was found that watching movies was a good way to learn English, but it is not easy for learners to watch English movies with English subtitles for learning new words.
1
Chapter One: The effect of watching movies
1.1 Introduction
In Japan, after the Meiji Restoration (1868), a modern school system which was modeled from western educational styles was made, and English was introduced to Japan’s education system as the subject for foreign languages. In those days, British English was the most favored to study in Japan, but after World War Ⅱ, Japan was occupied by the United States of America, and so now American English is the most widely studied, and most English schools teach American English.
Movies are a kind of culture with which people can enjoy by themselves easily, as it is a kind of amusement for everyone. In Japan, 39.8% of people answered that they often watch movies, and 53.8% of people answered that they sometimes watch movies which means that about 90% of people watch movies in their daily lives. Japanese English learners may wonder if they can watch English movies without looking at Japanese subtitles. In Chapter One, we looked at the advantages and disadvantages to learn English with using movies.
First, we need to understand the Japanese government’s demands for English at schools. In 2011, at elementary schools, English classes were introduced as compulsory education for 5th and 6th year students. On the National Center Test for University Admissions, English is one of main subjects and furthermore, a listening test has been required for English as a foreign language since 2006. As we can see, it became natural to study English for Japanese students.
Nowadays, in Japan, globalization has been developing and learning English has become more and more important. In Japan, the working population is decreasing as Japan’s aging population is increasing, and it is said that many more foreign workers are about to come to Japan in the future, and it can be seen remarkably that a lot of Japanese companies are trying to widen their business to overseas. In such as a world, learning English is becoming more important for Japanese people.
1.2. Movies in language learning
There are a lot of advantages of watching movies to learn English from. In the following it is assumed that watching movies is connected to studying English at the classroom.
Kelly (2007) mentioned three advantages of using English, one of which was using movies in class which she said can be engaging and helpful for students. She also mentioned six disadvantages of watching movies.
1.2.1 Advantages of watching movies when learning
One is that “movies can extend the learning beyond the textbook.” A lot of movies describe historical events which are sometimes difficult to understand for students, but movies can help them to understand complicated realities. However, through watching the actors’ performance, students can get to feel something about the events. It can be really helpful to learn historical events. Then Kelly suggested that movies can be effective to aid the textbooks.
Two is “interest building.”In the classrooms, there are not so many interesting lectures for students. They sometimes need stimuli to improve their motivation, so Kelly suggested that using movies in class was good activity for students to focus the lectures.
Three is “provide teachable moments.”Teachers can convey about some important things for students to live and work at social places. There are many problems, differences among countries, world cultures, and troubles of religion all around the world. Such as topics are not easy for students to gain the ideas and concepts, so Kelly suggests that watching movies has a role to help the teachers to discuss such topics.
Looking at Kelly’s three advantages of using movies, watching movies are not for learning English but for learning other things, for example, world culture, different topics, and will have effects on the interests of students and suggests that movies can be used to study some important things even it is uninteresting.
1.2.2 Disadvantages of watching movies when learning
Firstly, “movies can cause students to lose focus.”Teachers need to choose interesting movies for students, if they choose uninteresting movies students, might lose their desire to watch the movies. Focusing on watching movies is very important to understand the stories, thus uninteresting movies work nothing.
Secondly, “movies may take too much time.” Most movies are very long to watch, for example, one hour and thirty minutes, or two hours. Kelly taught at a school where it was the policy to watch Schindler's List (シンドラーのリスト) with every 10th grade class. Kelly that “this took a whole week of classroom time. Even a short movie can take up 2-3 days of classroom time. Further, it can be difficult if different classes have to start and stop at different spots in the movie.”
Thirdly, the “really educational part may only be a small part of the overall.” Movies can convey ideas and concepts such as historical events, world culture, and difficult topics. However, Kelly mentioned that really good parts to study are quite few. Kelly said that “there are only parts of the movie that would be appropriate for the classroom setting and truly provide an educational benefit.”
Fourthly, “movies may not be completely historically accurate.” Movies which are not focused on historical events but included historical facts are needed for students to notice them, and teachers have to point out them and explain about. If movies include fictional information, teachers tell students to be not real, otherwise students may understand the historical events incorrectly.
Fifthly, the “amount of homework is important to make a sure educational experience.” Kelly said that “showing movies is not an easy way to create a lesson.” There are reasons that teachers need to watch the whole movie before the lesson and they have to plan the structure of their lectures. They need to make homework and work sheets for students, and know about the movies in detail and decide the part to teach.
Sixthly, the “perception of using movies can be bad.” Kelly said that “it is key that if teachers pick movies wisely and properly create lessons that involve the movies and the information that the students are learning.” Therefore, teachers are required their skills to plan the lessons, and their sense to choose movies for students to learn.
Looking at Kelly’s (2007) six disadvantages of using movies, it can be seen movies might be a big burden for teachers as teachers have many things to do before their lecture, for example, watching the whole movie, making work sheets, and collecting information about a movie. Movies are enjoyable but sometimes it will be an obstacle to study in class.
1.2.3 What can we learn from watching movies?
The site ‘Explore’ (2015) mentioned some advantages of watching movies for learning English.First, it says that “learners can listen to real English”. For Japanese learners, there is a little chance to hear native pronounce of English, but movies can help them to do that. A lot of words in movies are really difficult to understand and hear, but it’s a great opportunity to meet new words and natural expressions. In addition, if learners have their own PC or phones, they can learn English by using movies whenever they want. There are a lot of movies in English on the internet not only DVDs but “YouTube” or other movie sites. Nowadays, learners can connect to the internet to watch movies easily.
1.2.4 Ways to watch movies
There are a lot of ways to watch movies. First, listening to the foreign voice while looking at first language’s subtitles is the typical way for Japanese learners because if they can’t listen to English correctly, theJapanese subtitles can help them to understand what the actors are saying.
Second, watching movies with Japanese dubbing, but this is a useless way to learn English.
Third, listening to English with English subtitles. The writer of the site Explore said that “learners will never learn a new thing without understanding the meaning of the words.” This is the most important process when watching movies. He mentioned the important point to learning new words when watching movies, is to look up new words using a dictionary and take a note new vocabulary and expressions to remember new things.
Fourth,listening to English while shadowing with English subtitles, is a way to repeat what learners hear as quickly as they can. That repetition makes them understand pronunciation and intonation.
Fifth, repeating watching a certain movie can affect their fluency pronunciation and intonation. Through watching a movie again and again, learners can gradually hear new words and phrases. It is helpful to gain a way to hear natural conversations.
Sixth, listening to English without subtitles, it is really challenging and difficult for Japanese learners, and as was already found by Hioka (2015), learners who have enough knowledge of English can use this way to learn new words. Thus, this way is final step to watch when learning.
1.3 Learning new vocabulary from reading
This section will discuss intentional learning and incidental learning. Intentional learning is suitable for learning new words or phrases with the learners’ high motivation and their desires to learn them. Incidental learning is suitable to read a lot of books or watching movies. The process to read or look at the sentences leads the learners to discover words that they don’t know. They need to look up words to use their dictionary and they can remember the words easily. Incidental learning helps the learners to remember words long lasting.
1.3.1 Intentional learning
According to the site the Training Place, Bereiter and Scardamalia (1989) mention intentional learning as "processes that have learning as a goal rather than an unexpected results". Intentional learning makes learners plan to learn something and have a goal in mind and is suitable for learning new words because there is an advantage of being focus for only learning words. However, the learning way to remember just words leads to make learners forget them easily.
For example, when learners try to study English words they probably practice to write them again and again. They can remember the words then but, they need to keep their motivation to study it.
1.3.2 Incidental learning
Kerka's research (2000) defined “incidental learning as unintentional or unplanned learning that results from other activities“. Incidental learning is occurred when learners aren’t conscious that they try to learn something, it is happened unexpectedly.
For example, when Japanese learners are watching English movies, they probably happen to see new words. If the words are already known, they could learn how to use them unexpectedly. Unexpected situations can bring learning new things for learners.
1.4 Previous research on learning vocabulary from input
In this section, we will look at the previous research when learning English by reading, listening, and watching. There are a lot of ways to study English in the world, for example, going to English conversation schools, listening to English CDs, the radio, and watching educational TV programs, etc, then watching English movies is one of them.
1.4.1 Waring and Takaki (2003) How Many Times Do Students Need to Read aWord Before They Can Learn It?
Waring and Takaki (2003) researched whether learners can learn from reading contexts using tests of graded reading. In their experiment, the subjects read the story and took the tests after reading. They tried to determine how many times students need to read a word before they can learn it.
Waring and Takaki found that the subjects can learn from a graded reader, however their memory of the words disappears after a few days. Moreover, the subjects were able to learn words from context, but are more successful if they meet the word several times. They also said that people can learn some words from graded readers, and people can learn from context (here a Graded Reader,) and correct associations between a word’s form and its meaning only occurred less than 40% of the time during reading even if the subjects meet the word more than 18 times.
According to this research, people can learn words from graded reading, and if they keep reading every day, it will lead to better learning.
1.4.2 Hioka (2015) Can we learn English from movies?
Hioka (2015, p.30) said that it is difficult for learners who have a small knowledge of the words to learn English from movies so learning English depends on learners’ age or competence. As she said, just watching movies brings about little language gains. Hioka focused on listening when people are watching movies, and she analyzed texts and took tests for find out about vocabulary learning.
First, she looked at the advantage of watching movies, she said that learners can listen to natural English through movies. Moreover, they can meet English at the natural speed of speaking by native speakers and help learners get used to hearing it. And also learners can hear informal words or slang they cannot find in books or dictionaries.
Second, she found the best way to learn vocabulary was reading-while-listening according to the results of Brown, Waring, Donkaewbua (2008). It also showed that only listening was much harder than reading or reading-while- listening.
Third, she found out learning English from movies was difficult for us because we need 95-98% coverage of the movies to understand them. If learners have the enough knowledge of the vocabulary, using movies for learning would be very helpful.
According to Hioka, learners who have enough know vocabulary to watch movies can learn from movies because words and phrases are spoken by native speakers and scripts are written by native speakers. This suggests that watching movies without subtitles is difficult for Japanese learners.
1.4.3. Kumei (2017) The effect of watching foreign movies when learning a foreign language
In this section, we are going to look at the effect of subtitles when watching movies from Kumei (2017). She used her original questionnaire to clarify the effect of subtitles when watching movies for learning a foreign language.
She compared two situations, one was watching with subtitles, and the other was watching without subtitles. As a result, she found out that watching with subtitles has some effect, and subtitles helped people to understand easier.
According to Kumei’s research, actually, subtitles are not related to learning more words. As she said, subtitles don’t affect understanding the words, but she also said that it is clear that watching movies with subtitles affect understanding of the contents.