The2020/21 study from NESTA which involved 450,000 children watching videos showed that 98% of viewers did not change the setting and there were zero complaints at having subtitles on screen. 40% of children already watch BBC iPlayer with the subtitles on without complaint.
Amin Saed, Arash Yazdani, Mohsen Askary. Film Subtitles and Listening Comprehension Ability of Intermediate EFL Learners. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and Translation, Volume 2, Issue 3, June 2016, Pages: 29-3. See abstract.
Anca Daniela Frumuselu, Sven De Maeyer, Vincent Donche, Mara del Mar Gutirrez Colon Plana, Television series inside the EFL classroom: Bridging the gap between teaching and learning informal language through subtitles, Linguistics and Education,
The most sustained push for SLS on TV for reading literacy has been in India, through research, sustained TV pilots and policy (Kothari and Bandyopadhyay, 2020; forthcoming Stanford Social Innovation Review; available on request). However, the positive impact of subtitle use on reading literacy has also been affirmed in several English and non-English speaking countries. Taken together, these studies consistently prove that exposure to subtitles which match the audio directly, contribute to reading development and language acquisition.
Several other studies have confirmed that reading along with SLS is inescapable, but the subjects have almost always been good readers. Hence, the critical question is, would struggling readers, especially those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, also try and engage automatically with SLS?
A number of longitudinal studies have come out of the SLS project in India. Kothari and Bandyopadhyay (2014) evaluated the impact of SLS after sustaining it for 5 years on a weekly hour-long programme of Hindi film songs telecast nationally in prime time. Among school children who could not read a single letter in Hindi at the baseline (2002), 70% in the high-SLS viewing group became functional readers by the endline (2007) as compared to 34% in the low-SLS group. In the 15+ age group, 14% in the high-SLS and 5% in the low-SLS group went from non-decoding to functional-reading. Adults gained too but children benefited substantially more in what can be described as a schooling + SLS effect.
PlanetRead (2018b) conducted a year-long study in 10 primary schools in rural Delhi serving children in Grades 1-5 from low-income families. In 5 treatment schools, the teachers showed all the children in Grades 1-4, 30 minutes of animated stories in Hindi with SLS, three times a week. From a comparable starting point, the average reading score in the treatment schools was 70% higher than the control schools. The impact of the intervention on reading was most apparent in Grades 2-3, pointing again to the strong complementarity of SLS, during the early stages of reading acquisition.
Koskinen, P.S., Bowen, C.T., Gambrell, L.B., Jensema, C.J. & Kane, K.W. (1997). Captioned television and literacy development: Effects of home viewing on learning disabled students. Paper presented at the Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
Acosta Matos, Hctor A. (2003). The Effects of Closed Captions upon the Listening Comprehension of Students Learning English As a Second Language in an Intermediate School in Puerto Rico. MA Thesis: University of Puerto Rico at Mayagez.
Wei, Jung-Kuei (2003). The Effect of Meaningful-Making Technology on Learning a Foreign Language. Integrating Video Clips with Two Captioning Modes on a Simulated German-Learning Website. Ed.D. Thesis: Idaho State University, Pocatello.
Hernandez, Sylvia Sepulveda (2004). The Effects of Video and Captioned Text and the Influence of Verbal and Spatial Abilities on Second Language Listening Comprehension in a Multimedia Learning Environment. Ph.D. Thesis: New York University.
Barbosa, Edilene Rodrigues & Pereira, Germana da Cruz (2006). La utilizacin de pelculas subtituladas en el desarrollo de la proficiencia oral de alumnos de Lengua Espaola. In: Actas del Primer Congreso Virtual E/LE. La enseanza del espaol en el siglo XXI. Mlaga: Ediciones EdiEle.
Gomes, Francisco Wellington Borges (2006). O Uso de Filmes Legendados como Ferramenta para o Desenvolvimento da Proficincia Oral de Aprendizes de Lngua Inglesa. Dissertao de Mestrado: Universidade Estadual do Cear.
Cunha, Tiago Martins da (2007). O Uso de Filmes Legendados e do Ensino Comunicativo de Lnguas no Desenvolvimento da Proficincia Oral em Nvel Bsico de Lngua Estrangeira. Dissertao de Mestrado: Universidade Estadual do Cear.
Gibbs, Charles (2009). Learner-controlled captioning: a new frontier? Exploring the impact of learner control on the development of listening skills in a multimedia environment. MA Thesis: Concordia University, Montreal.
Harvey, Myrcea Santiago dos Santos (2009). O uso didtico do gnero filme legendado na aprendizagem de leitura de textos do gnero jornalstico/noticioso em ingls. Um estudo com alunos de uma escola pblica de Fortaleza. Dissertao de Mestrado: Universidade Estadual do Cear.
Kent, Heidi B. (2010). The Efficacy of Enhanced Subtitles plus Explicit Grammatical Instruction on the Acquisition of L2 Grammatical Structures. In: Cooper, Angela et al. (eds.), Simon Fraser University Working Papers. Vol. 3. Proceedings of the 26th Northwest Linguistics Conference. Burnaby: Simon Fraser University.
Tsai, Feng-Hung (Will) (2010). Integrating Feature Films with Subtitles to Enhance the Listening Comprehension of Students Attending College in Taiwan. Ed.D. Thesis: Alliant International University.
Rodgers, Michael Patrick Hindley (2013). English language learning through viewing television. An investigation of comprehension, incidental vocabulary acquisition, lexical coverage, attitudes, and captions. Ph.D. Thesis: Victoria University of Wellington.
vila Molero, Mara Inmaculada (2015). Mejora de la comprensin auditiva del ingls como segunda lengua mediante material audiovisual subtitulado. Tesis Doctoral: Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla.
Frumuselu, Anca Daniela (2015). Subtitled Television Series inside the EFL Classroom: Long-Term Effects upon Colloquial Language Learning and Oral Production. Doctoral Thesis: Universitat Rovira i Virgili/Universiteit Antwerpen.
Bahrani, Taher & Tondar, Sima (2016). The Effectiveness of Exposure to Documentary Films with and without Subtitle As Authentic Language Input on Listening Comprehension of Intermediate Level Language Learners. Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods 6.6, 86-94.
Matielo, Rafael (2016). Intralingual Subtitles, Interlingual Subtitles, and L2 Vocabulary Learning. An Exploratory Study with Brazilian EFL Students. Tese de Doutoramento: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianpolis.
Faqe, Chiaye Khorsheed (2017). The Effectiveness of English Movie Subtitles in Vocabulary Learning among Iraqi Kurdistan EFL Learners. Soran University EFL Learners As an Example. International Journal of Current Advanced Research 6.3, 2590-2594.
Sevik, Mustafa (2017). Does Bimodal Subtitling Effect Listening Comprehension in EFL Contexts? In: Kksal, Dinay (ed.), Researching ELT. Classroom Methodology and Beyond. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 55-64.
Barnau, Anna (2018). Enhancing Foreign Language Learning through Captioning Videos. In: Vlkov, Silvie (ed.), Trends in Language Education at Tertiary Level in Language Centres at Czech and Slovak Universities III. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Foreign Language Education. Palack University Olomouc, 7-16.
Acaro Jimnez, Lorena Mishel (2019). The effects of watching videos with and without English subtitles as a supplementary material to foster the writing productive skill of EFL in a high school. A comparative study. Trabajo de titulacin: Universidad Tcnica Particular de Loja.
Gesa Vidal, Ferran (2019). L1/L2 Subtitled TV Series and EFL Learning. A Study on Vocabulary Acquisition and Content Comprehension at Different Proficiency Levels. Doctoral Dissertation: Universitat de Barcelona.
Surez, Maria del Mar & Gesa, Ferran (2019). Learning vocabulary with the support of sustained exposure to captioned video. Do proficiency and aptitude make a difference? Language Learning Journal 47.4, 497-517.
Alharthi, Thamer (2020). Can Adults Learn Vocabulary through Watching Subtitled Movies? An Experimental Corpus-Based Approach. International Journal of English Language and Literature Studies 9.3, 219-230.
Majuddin, Elvenna (2020). Incidental and intentional acquisition of multiword expressions from audio-visual input. The effects of typographically enhanced captions and repetition. Ph.D. Thesis: Victoria University of Wellington.
Baranowska, Karolina (2022). Exposure to English as a foreign language through subtitled videos. The impact of subtitles and modality on cognitive load, comprehension, and vocabulary acquisition. Ph.D. Thesis: Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan.
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