Research has shown that different help options lead to an improvement of content comprehension and vocabulary acquisition during audiovisual input, such as subtitles (Mohsen 2016). Previous studies (see e.g. Montero Perez 2022) have mainly looked at English in combination with Romance languages for academic language learning, showing that language proximity is a relevant predictor for vocabulary learning (Puimège & Peters 2019) and thus the consideration of two languages from one language family seems interesting. It becomes even more relevant when one of these languages is learned as an additional foreign language after English, because the learners' plurilingualism can then be taken into account in audiovisual media (subtitling modes other than the learners' source or target language) (Muñoz-Basols 2019).
Taking the 'Dual Coding Theory' (Paivio 1990) and the 'Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning' (Mayer 2009) as a basis, the present quasi-experimental study zooms in on German secondary school learners of the closely related neighboring language Dutch, which they acquire as an additional foreign language after English. An intervention was conducted in regular Dutch courses with more than 300 learners of different language levels. All learners divided into the five subtitle conditions 1=without, 2=Dutch, 3=German, 4=English and 5=Dutch/German (dual) watched the 15-minute short film 'Spelletjesavond' with Dutch audio. Before and after the repeated film exposure, learners were presented a randomized vocabulary tasks to measure form recognition and meaning recognition/recall (similar to Peters & Webb 2018), as well as a content comprehension task (similar to Hayati & Mohmedi 2009). The general results so far show that both the control group (without subtitles) and the experimental groups (with subtitles) have significantly improved their vocabulary in Dutch and that the No- and Dutch-subtitles conditions are the least effective to comprehending the film content. In addition to the overall results, learner- (e.g., language level) and item-inherent factors (e.g., parts of speech; global/detail comprehension) also will be considered.
Hayati, A. & Mohmedi, F. (2009). The effect of films with and without subtitles on listening comprehension of EFL learners. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(1), 181–192.
Mayer, R.E. (2009). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mohsen, M. A. (2016). The use of help options in multimedia listening environments to aid language learning: A review. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(6), 1232–1242.
Montero Perez, M. (2022). Second or foreign language learning through watching audio-visual input and the role of on-screen text. Language Teaching, 55(2), 163–192.
Muñoz-Basols, J. (2019). Going beyond the comfort zone: multilingualism, translation and mediation to foster plurilingual competence. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 32(3), 299–321.
Paivio, A. (1990). Mental Representations: A dual coding approach. New York: Oxford University Press.
Peters, E. & Webb, S. (2018). Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition through Viewing L2 Television and Factors that Affect Learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 40(3), 551–577.
Puimège, E. & Peters, E. (2019). Learners' English Vocabulary Knowledge Prior to Formal Instruction: The Role of Learner‐Related and Word‐Related Variables. Language Learning, 69(4), 943–977.
