The effect of subtitling modes on foreign language learning: An empirical investigation on Italian learners of English at university

The present contribution describes the results of an experimental study on the role of subtitled input in the acquisition of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) among Italian university learners. The use of subtitled video and Audiovisual Translation (AVT) is increasingly promoted as a tool to develop foreign language skills at university level, thanks to the wider availability of audiovisual resources and the growing interest in AVT as a professional domain. Subtitles added to audiovisual text grant accessibility to foreign multimodal products and promote their comprehensibility, a key prerequisite to language learning (Krashen 1981). Different subtitling modes have been shown to benefit L2 acquisition, varying in their effectiveness across learners’ proficiency level and learning environments (Danan 1992; van de Poel, d’Ydewalle 2001; Ghia 2012). In the current study, which capitalizes on previous research (Perego et al. 2016), four exposure conditions were compared to test their impact on language comprehension and vocabulary recall among intermediate-level (B1-B2) Italian EFL university learners exposed to an L2 25-minute video excerpt. A total of 80 participants were divided into 4 experimental groups varying by exposure modality. Viewing conditions included interlingual subtitling, intralingual subtitling, reversed subtitling and video-only. Comprehension and recall tests were paired with questionnaires on students’ viewing habits and attitudes towards different subtitling modes. Results document significantly higher comprehension and recall rates in the presence of subtitles among learners at an intermediate proficiency level. Among subtitle types, the reversed and intralingual modes appear to be the most beneficial. Students’ preferences for subtitle types do not always match with their learning outcome, as participants generally tended to disfavour viewing modes involving their native language. However, presence of the L1 in the input, especially in a reversed subtitling condition, also resulted in lower anxiety levels, leading to consider less traditional subtitling formats as useful L2 learning resources for students in higher education. Such resources can be exploited to promote autonomous language learning, as well as be potentially implemented in university EFL teaching programmes. In parallel, cross-national replication studies can be carried out in the near future to enable wider generalization of the results.