Effects of pedagogical movie Persian subtitles on vocabulary improvement: the case of Iranian EFL learners

Abstract

Throughout the history of language teaching, using subtitles has had their particular advocates in teaching English as a second language. This study was conducted to investigate the impacts of Persian subtitled movies on vocabulary knowledge improvement of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To achieve this goal, out of 35 participants, 20 female learners from a language institute in Isfahan, took part in the study. Their ages were between 12 to 16 years old and they were randomly divided into two homogenous groups (controllable and uncontrollable subtitle groups) based on Oxford Placement Test (OPT). As the pretest of the study, a content specific vocabulary test was administered which consisted of 30 multiple-choice items and was developed by the present researchers. Instructional materials included 10 parts of a movie, titled "Tangled" (produced in 2010). During 10 sessions of treatment, vocabularies were instructed to the participants. Experimental group was instructed watching a controllable subtitled movie (English dialogues with repeated Persian subtitles) while control group was instructed using the same audiovisual materials but without any repetition; watching an uncontrollable subtitled movie (English dialogues with unrepeated Persian subtitles). After treatment, as the posttest, the two groups were administered a test similar to the pretest and under the same conditions. Based on the findings of analysis of covariance on the pretest and posttest vocabulary test scores, the results indicated that the group using controllable Persian subtitles outperformed than the other group. Material designers and instructors can use the findings of this investigation to include movies with Persian subtitles for learners to learn more vocabulary due to the fact that these learners have learnt to appreciate the importance and the value of vocabulary, including its effectiveness in communicative tasks.