Language Learning from Subtitled TV Series in the Primary EFL Classroom
[eng] Even if audiovisual materials have been shown to offer several advantages for L2 learning (Danan, 2004), in previous literature very little attention has been paid to L2 learning from multimodal input in young low-proficiency learners (d’Ydewalle & Van de Poel, 1999; Matielo et al., 2015;...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de la UB |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/201785 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/201785 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/688923 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Educació primària Ensenyament de llengües estrangeres Subtitulació Sèries de televisió Multimodalitat Primary education Subtitles Television series Multimodality |
| Sumario: | [eng] Even if audiovisual materials have been shown to offer several advantages for L2 learning (Danan, 2004), in previous literature very little attention has been paid to L2 learning from multimodal input in young low-proficiency learners (d’Ydewalle & Van de Poel, 1999; Matielo et al., 2015; Alexiou, 2015). Furthermore, most of the studies conducted so far are one-off studies, while there is scarce longitudinal research on extensive viewing with young populations in instructional settings (Gesa, 2019; Avello, 2023). In this study, two groups of Spanish/Catalan students learning English as FL at primary school, watched one episode a week of the animated TV series Curious George with the audio in English but subtitles either in Spanish (L1S, N=47) or English (L2S, N=45) over a period of 5 months. After each episode, students were immediately tested on episode comprehension and L2 written word-form recognition. In order to explore the role of several variables on their scores, before the intervention learners answered a questionnaire enquiring about previous out-of-school exposure (OSE) to audiovisual materials. They were also tested on language aptitude, L1 / L2 Reading Speed (RS) and L2 receptive Vocabulary Size (VS). Finally, in order to examine possible changes in their viewing behaviour when they were repeatedly exposed to multimodal input over a long period of time, they answered the same video watching questionnaire before and after the intervention. Results showed that both groups were understanding the videos and learning vocabulary from them: although differences between the groups were not always significant, the L1S group consistently scored higher in comprehension, while the L2S group was better at L2 word-form recognition of known and new words appearing in the episodes. Linguistic aptitude was revealed to be closely related to episode comprehension in both groups, and to vocabulary scores especially in the L1S group. Regarding possible proficiency effects, L2 VS had a significant effect on L2 comprehension in both groups, whereas RS was only significantly related to the scores obtained by the L1S group. It was also observed that the L1S group required less time to read the subtitles than their L2S peers since the beginning of the study, as participants’ RS was better in the L1. No significant changes were observed in the viewing behaviour of the two groups, although the L2S group showed a significant shift in their lexical learning perception at the end of the intervention, as they perceived that they had learned more vocabulary. Findings also showed that those participants who had been previously exposed to multimodal input at home did not actually obtain significantly higher results in the tests than their peers who had not been. The outcomes from this dissertation suggest that exposure to multimodal input promotes L2 comprehension and vocabulary learning in young low-proficiency L2 learners. However, they also indicate that gains are not always evident and do not present a clear ascending order as amount of exposure accumulates. The findings also point towards the important role of language aptitude and L2 VS for L2 learning through audiovisual materials. The results of the study, which are discussed considering the previous research available on the topic, also offer new insights into extensive viewing with young learners for teachers and practitioners. |
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