The Impact of Using English Subtitled Movies on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Acquisition

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People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

UNIVERSITY OF 08 MAI 1945-GUELMA ﺔﻤﻟﺎﻗ -1945 يﺎﻣ8ﺔﻌﻣﺎﺟ FACULTY OF LETTERS AND LANGUAGES تﺎﻐﻠﻟا وبادﻵا ﺔﯿﻠﻛ DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ﺔﯾﺰﯿﻠﺠﻧﻻا ﺔﻐﻠﻟا ﻢﺴﻗ

A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master Degree in Anglophone Language, Literatures and

Civilizations

Board of Examiners

Chairman: Mr. ZEMMOURI Ayachi University of 8 May 1945 - Guelma

Supervisor: Mrs. BOUSSAAD Fahima University of 8 May 1945 - Guelma

Examiner: Mrs. CHERIET Meriem University of 8 May 1945 - Guelma

Submitted by: Supervised by:

Ms. ARAB Sabrina Mrs. BOUSSAAD Fahima

Ms. DJENANE Asma

2015/2016

The Impact of Using English Subtitled Movies on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary

Acquisition

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DEDICATION

I will never forget my parents, Mohand Ameziane and Keltoum BOUZEMBOUA, whom I love so much. I am so thankful for all what they have done for me and for their love and encouragement along my studies.

I also would like to express my gratitude to my sister and brothers and to all my close friends especially my partner Asma.

ARAB Sabrina

I dedicate this work in the first place to my beloved mother Fatima Zohra for her affection, love, encouragement and prayers for days and nights make me able to get such success and honor.

I dedicate my work to my family for its unwavering support; my lovely elder sister Houda and my amazing brother MOSLEM and his helpful wife Ramla for their valuable support.

A special feeling of gratitude goes to my supervisor Ms. BOUSSAAD Fahima, she was for me more than a supervisor, I’m so lucky to be her student and I thank her for the endless motivational support and encouragements.

I dedicate my work to my close and lovely friend RAHABI ASMA, I deeply thank you for everything you have done for me, and I can never forget your help and unbelievable kindness.

I dedicated to all my friends and my teachers, especially my friend ARAB Sabrina.

DJENANE Asma I

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Praise be to God for having endowed us with strength and patience to accomplish our research work.

Our acknowledgment goes in the first place to our supervisor, Ms. BOUSSAAD

Fahima, for her patient guidance and enthusiastic encouragement. We are profoundly grateful to her valuable support.

In the second place, it goes to all our teachers who taught us during our educational career. Thus, this work would have been impossible without them.

We would like to express our appreciation to those who answered the questionnaire which so generously contributed to this work.

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ABSTRACT

The present study attempts to investigate the impact of using English subtitled movies on EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition. It explores learners’ attitudes towards pedagogical subtitled movies as an effective learning tool for the improvement of their vocabulary knowledge, drawing on the opinions of 82 participants from third year students in the department of English at University 08 May 1945, Guelma. All the participants from six groups were asked to watch three English subtitled movies; The Great Gatsby, Troy, and Avatar. These interesting movies have been selected to be viewed before answering the online questionnaire which was posted in third year students’ Facebook group and sent by email to other students for a period of 15 days. After viewing the movies, the participants answered 16 relevant multiple choices, agreement scale, open-ended and closed-ended questions. The finding results provide insight into the benefit that might be gained through watching authentic English subtitled movies which offer learners with a variety of

vocabulary items and rich cultural background. Besides, the data collected from the online questionnaire reveals that participants have positive attitudes towards learning vocabulary from subtitled movies. The study suggests that English subtitled movies should be

integrated into EFL classroom to enhance learners’ vocabulary acquisition.

Keywords: subtitled movies, vocabulary acquisition, bimodal subtitled, EFL learners,

EFL classroom.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AVT: Audio Visual Translation EFL: English as a Foreign Language L1: Mother Language

L2: Second Language

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The Age of the Participants. 40

Table 2: The Students’ Choice to Study English. 41

Table 3: The Participants’ Way of Learning English Vocabulary. 43

Table 4: The Students’ Favorite Kind of Movies 44

Table 5: Period of Watching English Subtitled Movies for Learning Purpose. 46

Table 6: The Learners’ Attitudes toward Watching English Subtitled Movies. 47

Table 7: Difficulties in Grasping English Vocabulary while Watching Movies without Subtitle. 48

Table 8: The participants’ Preferred Subtitles. 50

Table 9: Dialogue used in Movies for Daily Life. 51

Table 10: Effect of Subtitled Movies on Learners’ Language Learning. 52

Table 11: Subtitled Movies and Vocabulary Learning. 53

Table 12: Teaching Vocabulary through Subtitled English. 54

Table 13: Sentences Learned from Movies. 56

Table 14: Motivating Student to Watch Movies. 58

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: An Image from the Movie of Troy. 12

Figure 2: An Image from the Movie of Avatar. 13

Figure 3: An image from the Movie of The Great Gatsby. 14

Figure 4: The Age of the Participants. 41

Figure 5: The Students’ Choice to Study English. 42

Figure 6: The Participants’ Way of Learning English Vocabulary. 43

Figure 7: The Students’ Favorite Kind of Movies. 45

Figure 8: Period of Watching English Subtitled Movies for Learning Purpose. 46

Figure 9: The Learners’ Attitudes toward Watching English Subtitled Movies. 48

Figure 10: Difficulties in Grasping English Vocabulary while Watching Movies without Subtitle. 49 Figure 11: The participants’ Preferred Subtitles. 50

Figure 12: Dialogue used in Movies for Daily Life. 51

Figure 13: Effect of Subtitled Movies on Learners’ Language Learning. 52

Figure 14: Subtitled Movies and Vocabulary Learning . 54

Figure 15: Teaching Vocabulary through Subtitled English. 55

Figure 16: Sentences Learned from Movies. 56

Figure 17: Motivating Student to Watch Movies. 58

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TABLE OF CONTENT

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1

1. Literature Review 2

2. Statement of the Problem 3

3. Research Hypothesis 4

4. The Research Design 4

5. The Structure of the Study 5

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO SUBTITLING

6

Introduction 6 I. Definition of Subtitling 6 I. 2. Historical Background 9 I. 2.1. Appearance of Subtitling 9 I. 2.2. Old Technique 9 I. 2.2.1. Optical Method 9

I. 2.2.2.Mechanical and Thermal Process 9

I. 2.2.3.Chemical Process 9

I. 2.3. Recent Subtitling 10

I. 2.3.1. Laser Subtitling 10

I. 3.1. Introduction to Translation to Subtitling 11

I. 3.2. Film Translation and Subtitling 11

I. 3.2.1. Types of Film Translation 11

I. 4. Types of Subtitling 12

I. 4.1. Intralingual Subtitling 12

I. 4.2. Interlingual Subtitling 13

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I. 4.3. Dual Subtitling 13

I. 5. Technical Considerations in Subtitling 15

I.5.1.Font Color and Background 14

I.5.2.Typeface 14

I.5.3.Italics 15

I.5.4.Space 15

I.5.5.Line Length 15

I.5.6.Punctuation 15

I.5.7.Spatial Dimensions and Maximum Number of Lines 16

I.5.8.Characters per Line 16

I.5.9.Number of Lines 16

I.5.10.Subtitling and Images 17

I.5.11.The Multimodality of Language 17

I.5.12.From Speech to Writing 17

I.5.13.Temporal Dimensions of Subtitles 18

Conclusion 21

CHAPTER TWO: THE EFFECT OF ENGLISH SUBTITLED MOVIES ON

VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

22

Introduction 22

II. 1. Roles of Subtitling 22

II. 1.1. Krashen’s Second Language Acquisition Theory 22

II. 1.2. Dual Coding Theory of Multimedia Leaning 22

II. 1.3. Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning 23

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II. 1.4. Information Processing Theory 23

II. 2. The Effect of Bimodal Subtitling 24

II. 3. Learning Culture through Subtitled Movies 26

II. 4. Vocabulary Acquisition and Multimedia Materials 28

II. 5. The Potential Effectiveness of English Subtitled Movies 29

II. 6. The Pedagogical Use of Subtitled English Movies for Vocabulary Improvement 30

II. 7.Subtitled Movies as Vocabulary Tasks 32

II. 7.1. Classroom Activities 33

Conclusion 34

CHAPTER THREE: FIELD WORK

36

III. 1. Population and Sampling 36

III. 2. Means of Research 36

III. 2.1. The Questionnaire 36

III. 2.2. Materials 37

III. 2.2.1.Selection Criteria 38

III. 2.2.2. Description of the Questionnaire 39

III. 2.2.3. Administration of the Questionnaire 41

III. 2.2.4. Analysis of the Questionnaire 42

III. 3. Discussion of the Results 62

Conclusion 63

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General Conclusion 65

Limitations and further researches 66

REFERENCES

68

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I:

Students’ Questionnaire