Subtitled and unsubtitled movie and listening comprehension

Abstract

Nowadays, there are still discussions on whether or not to use subtitles in order to develop listening skills. Some educators are against the use of subtitles because they considered them as distracting elements that slow down the development of listening comprehension. On the other hand, others claim that subtitles help in the language learning process by providing authentic and comprehensible input. This research project was developed with the educational purpose of investigating the effect of watching a subtitled or unsubtitled movie on EFL learners’ listening comprehension, The study was developed at Universidad Técnica de Ambato in Ambato, with 53 students from the second semester of Pedagogía de los Idiomas Nacionales y Extranjeros major: 28 students from second semester A and 25 students from second semester B. The research project was quasi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design. The researcher randomly assigned the second semester A to treatment and the second semester B to control. The experimental group was exposed to a movie with intralingual subtitles, while the control group was exposed to the same movie without subtitles. To analyze the collected information the Wilcoxon test was used. Finally, the results showed that the subtitled movie had positive effects in the development of the listening comprehension.