Smart subtitles for vocabulary learning

Language learners often use subtitled videos to help them learn. However, standard subtitles are geared more towards comprehension than vocabulary learning, as translations are nonliteral and are provided only for phrases, not vocabulary. This paper presents Smart Subtitles, which are interactive subtitles tailored towards vocabulary learning. Smart Subtitles can be automatically generated from common video sources such as subtitled DVDs. They provide features such as vocabulary definitions on hover, and dialog-based video navigation. In our pilot study with intermediate learners studying Chinese, participants correctly defined over twice as many new words in a post-viewing vocabulary test when they used Smart Subtitles, compared to dual Chinese-English subtitles. Learners spent the same amount of time watching clips with each tool, and enjoyed viewing videos with Smart Subtitles as much as with dual subtitles. Learners understood videos equally well using either tool, as indicated by self-assessments and independent evaluations of their summaries

Aprendizaje de Vocabulario a través de Videos instructivos subtitulados

This quantitative and qualitative research paper attempts to demonstrate to what extent instructional subtitled videos influence students’ vocabulary learning. The main objective is to know how this visual strategy contributes to increasing students’ new vocabulary power in meaningful contexts. This is an action–research study, which is based on the use of qualitative and quantitative methods. The applied data collection techniques included the following: a) a pre–test, in order to identify students’ difficulties regarding vocabulary, b) three classroom observations in which three lesson plans, based on ESA (Engage, Study, and Activate) Model,  were done;  c) a teacher-researcher’s diary to reflect about students’ performance in the whole implementation process was used, d) a semi-structured interview was designed in order to collect participants’ comments on subtitled videos,  and e) a post-test by measuring students’ vocabulary knowledge for language improvement. The analysis of the data showed that the use of instructional subtitled videos helped students to learn vocabulary. The intervention stage helped participants to perform better on the post-test than the pre-test. The target words were contextualized and presented through the combination of sounds, images, and text, simultaneously. The data also showed that the participants considered that the videos were useful to remember the new words and to use them in meaningful communicative contexts. After discussing the findings of the study in the light of the theory, its implications and limitations, as well as some considerations for further research, were presented

Exploring the Educational Potentials of Language Learning with Netflix Tool: An Eye-Tracking Study

Digitization has revolutionized the industry of home entertainment services, enhancing the audience’s viewing experience and offering an abundance of choices within a new intercultural and multilingual reality. This pluralistic environment is a yet uncharted terrain of resources that could be exploited while popular culture and school curricula reach a decisive juncture. Evaluating the potentials of using new media learning tools, developed in line with the expansion of Over-the-top media services, has underpinned the objectives of this research. The analysis of eye movement data depicts the viewing patterns on three versions of the same film extract via Netflix streaming service. The first was screened with standard interlingual subtitling and the other two were viewed via Language Learning with Netflix (LLN) platform, a newly launched tool which allows the simultaneous, dual presentation of both the original dialogue and its translation. This paper aims to explore the proliferation of accessible options among different modes of audiovisual language transfer within an online participatory environment. In the emergent new media culture, the educational potentials of bilingual subtitling can challenge well-established borderlines and habit formations of viewership

Efectos de los subtítulos intralingüísticos y los subtítulos bilingües aumentados sobre el aprendizaje incidental de vocabulario en español como lengua extranjera

Research on incidental learning of vocabulary has shown that it is possible to learn lexical items by viewing audiovisual input. Additionally, there is evidence that various forms of subtitles increase this learning. Some new types of subtitling have been shown to produce greater lexical gains than traditional modalities. Among these are glossed captions and bilingual subtitles, as both facilitate access to meaning. However, it has not been determined which of these subtitles generates more vocabulary learning when both include glosses. This study investigates the effects of glossed captions and glossed bilingual subtitles on the incidental learning of receptive vocabulary through audiovisual input. The quasi-experimental design included 82 intermediate-low level Spanish learners from an American university in a non-immersion context. Although learning gains were low, the results indicate that both types of subtitles promote vocabulary learning at the level of the association between form and meaning. The results did not show significant differences in the effects of the two types of subtitles. While most of the participants used the glosses available on the written text, no evidence was found that this affected the benefits obtained from the treatment. Different learning patterns of the items were observed according to their lexical frequency. Both treatments produced the highest vocabulary gains in the mid-frequency band.Las investigaciones sobre aprendizaje incidental de vocabulario han demostrado que es posible aprender unidades léxicas a partir del visionado de input audiovisual. Además, existen evidencias de que diversas formas de subtítulos incrementan este aprendizaje. Algunos nuevos tipos de subtitulado han mostrado mayores ganancias léxicas que las modalidades tradicionales. Destacan entre estos los subtítulos intralingüísticos aumentados, o con glosas, y los subtítulos bilingües, puesto que ambos facilitan el acceso al significado. Sin embargo, no se ha determinado cuál de estos tipos de subtítulos genera mayor aprendizaje de vocabulario cuando ambos cuentan con glosas. El presente estudio investiga los efectos de los subtítulos intralingüísticos y bilingües aumentados sobre el aprendizaje incidental de vocabulario receptivo mediante el visionado de input audiovisual por parte de aprendientes de el2/le en contexto de no inmersión. Se trata de un estudio cuasiexperimental en el que participaron 82 estudiantes, de una universidad estadounidense, de nivel intermedio-bajo en español. Aunque las ganancias léxicas fueron pequeñas, los resultados indican que ambos tipos de subtítulos pueden favorecer el aprendizaje de vocabulario a nivel de la asociación entre forma y significado. Los resultados no registraron diferencias significativas en los efectos de los dos tipos de subtítulos. Si bien la mayoría de los participantes usó las glosas disponibles en las pistas escritas, no se evidenció que esto incidiera en los beneficios obtenidos del tratamiento. Se observaron distintos patrones de aprendizaje de los ítems según su frecuencia léxica, siendo la banda de frecuencia léxica media la que recoge mayores ganancias