· Web viewDoes adding subtitles make watching movies easier? Graduation Thesis. Presented to....
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Does adding subtitles make watching movies easier?
Graduation Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
English Language and Literature
Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
by
Sayaka Kurahashi
2018
Contents
Abstract ⅣChapter One: The effect of watching movies 11.1 Introduction 11.2. Movies in language learning 2
1.2.1 Advantages of watching movies when learning 2
1.2.2 Disadvantages of watching movies when learning 3
1.2.3 What can we learn from watching movies? 5
1.2.4 Ways to watch movies 6
1.3 Learning new vocabulary from reading 7
1.3.1 Intentional learning 7
1.3.2 Incidental learning 8
1.4 Previous research on learning vocabulary from input 8
1.4.1 Waring and Takaki, 2003 9
1.4.2. Hioka (2015) Can we learn English from movies? 10
1.4.3. Kumei (2016) The effect of watching foreign movies when
learning a foreign language 11
1.5 Research Questions 11
1.6 Conclusion 12
Chapter Two: The experiment 132.1 Introduction 13
2.2 The experiment 13
2.2.1 Introduction to the experiment 13
2.2.2 Subjects 13
2.2.3 Test design 14
2.2.4 The two movie clips 14
2.2.5 Procedure 23
2.2.6 Results 23
2.2.7 Casual interview 24
2.3 Summary 25
Chapter Three: The Analysis 263.1 Introduction 26
II
3.2 Summary of the results 26
3.3 Discussion of the results 27
3.4 Research questions 28
3.5 Implications 28
3.6 Limitations of the Experiments 29
3.7 Further research 29
3.8 Conclusion 30
References 31Appendices 34
III
Abstract
There are a lot of ways to learn English, for example, listening to
English, reading English books, writing in English, and practicing to speak
English and so on. In this way, Japanese people who want to learn English
can learn in a lot of ways by themselves.
This study focused on the effect of watching movies when learning
English. Nowadays, watching movies is a popular amusement for everyone,
and according to previous research, there are 5 advantages of using English
movies. Watching movies seems to be a great way to learn English, however,
Hioka (2015) said that movies can affect only the learners who have enough
knowledge of English, so it depends on the learners. On the other hand,
Kumei (2017) said that watching movies with subtitles is a good way to
understand the contents. So an experiment was made to find out whether
subtitles affect the learning of new words or not.
In the experiment, the movie “Sleepless in Seattle” was used. The
subjects watched the movie and took a test about words and comprehension
questions after watching two movie clips. As a result, it showed that subtitles
were helpful to understand contents well and learning new words a little.
In this study, it was found that watching movies was a good way to
learn English, but it is not easy for learners to watch English movies with
English subtitles for learning new words.
IV
Chapter One: The effect of watching movies
1.1 Introduction
In Japan, after the Meiji Restoration (1868), a modern school system
which was modeled from western educational styles was made, and English
was introduced to Japan’s education system as the subject for foreign
languages. In those days, British English was the most favored to study in
Japan, but after World War Ⅱ, Japan was occupied by the United States of
America, and so now American English is the most widely studied, and most
English schools teach American English.
Movies are a kind of culture with which people can enjoy by themselves
easily, as it is a kind of amusement for everyone. In Japan, 39.8% of people
answered that they often watch movies, and 53.8% of people answered that
they sometimes watch movies which means that about 90% of people watch
movies in their daily lives. Japanese English learners may wonder if they can
watch English movies without looking at Japanese subtitles. In Chapter One, we
looked at the advantages and disadvantages to learn English with using
movies.
First, we need to understand the Japanese government’s demands for
English at schools. In 2011, at elementary schools, English classes were
introduced as compulsory education for 5th and 6th year students. On the
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National Center Test for University Admissions, English is one of main subjects
and furthermore, a listening test has been required for English as a foreign
language since 2006. As we can see, it became natural to study English for
Japanese students.
Nowadays, in Japan, globalization has been developing and learning
English has become more and more important. In Japan, the working
population is decreasing as Japan’s aging population is increasing, and it is said
that many more foreign workers are about to come to Japan in the future, and it
can be seen remarkably that a lot of Japanese companies are trying to widen
their business to overseas. In such as a world, learning English is becoming
more important for Japanese people.
1.2. Movies in language learning
There are a lot of advantages of watching movies to learn English from.
In the following it is assumed that watching movies is connected to studying
English at the classroom.
Kelly (2007) mentioned three advantages of using English, one of which
was using movies in class which she said can be engaging and helpful for
students. She also mentioned six disadvantages of watching movies.
1.2.1 Advantages of watching movies when learning
One is that “movies can extend the learning beyond the textbook.” A lot
of movies describe historical events which are sometimes difficult to understand
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for students, but movies can help them to understand complicated realities.
However, through watching the actors’ performance, students can get to feel
something about the events. It can be really helpful to learn historical events.
Then Kelly suggested that movies can be effective to aid the textbooks.
Two is “interest building.” In the classrooms, there are not so many
interesting lectures for students. They sometimes need stimuli to improve their
motivation, so Kelly suggested that using movies in class was good activity for
students to focus the lectures.
Three is “provide teachable moments.” Teachers can convey about some
important things for students to live and work at social places. There are many
problems, differences among countries, world cultures, and troubles of religion
all around the world. Such as topics are not easy for students to gain the ideas
and concepts, so Kelly suggests that watching movies has a role to help the
teachers to discuss such topics.
Looking at Kelly’s three advantages of using movies, watching movies
are not for learning English but for learning other things, for example, world
culture, different topics, and will have effects on the interests of students and
suggests that movies can be used to study some important things even it is
uninteresting.
1.2.2 Disadvantages of watching movies when learning
Firstly, “movies can cause students to lose focus.” Teachers need to
choose interesting movies for students, if they choose uninteresting movies
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students, might lose their desire to watch the movies. Focusing on watching
movies is very important to understand the stories, thus uninteresting movies
work nothing.
Secondly, “movies may take too much time.” Most movies are very long
to watch, for example, one hour and thirty minutes, or two hours. Kelly taught at
a school where it was the policy to watch Schindler's List (シンドラーのリスト)
with every 10th grade class. Kelly that “this took a whole week of classroom
time. Even a short movie can take up 2-3 days of classroom time. Further, it can
be difficult if different classes have to start and stop at different spots in the
movie.”
Thirdly, the “really educational part may only be a small part of the
overall.” Movies can convey ideas and concepts such as historical events, world
culture, and difficult topics. However, Kelly mentioned that really good parts to
study are quite few. Kelly said that “there are only parts of the movie that would
be appropriate for the classroom setting and truly provide an educational
benefit.”
Fourthly, “movies may not be completely historically accurate.” Movies
which are not focused on historical events but included historical facts are
needed for students to notice them, and teachers have to point out them and
explain about. If movies include fictional information, teachers tell students to be
not real, otherwise students may understand the historical events incorrectly.
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Fifthly, the “amount of homework is important to make a sure educational
experience.” Kelly said that “showing movies is not an easy way to create a
lesson.” There are reasons that teachers need to watch the whole movie before
the lesson and they have to plan the structure of their lectures. They need to
make homework and work sheets for students, and know about the movies in
detail and decide the part to teach.
Sixthly, the “perception of using movies can be bad.” Kelly said that “it is
key that if teachers pick movies wisely and properly create lessons that involve
the movies and the information that the students are learning.” Therefore,
teachers are required their skills to plan the lessons, and their sense to choose
movies for students to learn.
Looking at Kelly’s (2007) six disadvantages of using movies, it can be
seen movies might be a big burden for teachers as teachers have many things
to do before their lecture, for example, watching the whole movie, making work
sheets, and collecting information about a movie. Movies are enjoyable but
sometimes it will be an obstacle to study in class.
1.2.3 What can we learn from watching movies?
The site ‘Explore’ (2015) mentioned some advantages of watching
movies for learning English. First, it says that “learners can listen to real
English”. For Japanese learners, there is a little chance to hear native
pronounce of English, but movies can help them to do that. A lot of words in
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movies are really difficult to understand and hear, but it’s a great opportunity to
meet new words and natural expressions. In addition, if learners have their own
PC or phones, they can learn English by using movies whenever they want.
There are a lot of movies in English on the internet not only DVDs but
“YouTube” or other movie sites. Nowadays, learners can connect to the internet
to watch movies easily.
1.2.4 Ways to watch movies
There are a lot of ways to watch movies. First, listening to the foreign
voice while looking at first language’s subtitles is the typical way for Japanese
learners because if they can’t listen to English correctly, theJapanese subtitles
can help them to understand what the actors are saying.
Second, watching movies with Japanese dubbing, but this is a useless
way to learn English.
Third, listening to English with English subtitles. The writer of the site
Explore said that “learners will never learn a new thing without understanding
the meaning of the words.” This is the most important process when watching
movies. He mentioned the important point to learning new words when watching
movies, is to look up new words using a dictionary and take a note new
vocabulary and expressions to remember new things.
Fourth, listening to English while shadowing with English subtitles, is a
way to repeat what learners hear as quickly as they can. That repetition makes
them understand pronunciation and intonation.
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Fifth, repeating watching a certain movie can affect their fluency
pronunciation and intonation. Through watching a movie again and again,
learners can gradually hear new words and phrases. It is helpful to gain a way
to hear natural conversations.
Sixth, listening to English without subtitles, it is really challenging and
difficult for Japanese learners, and as was already found by Hioka (2015),
learners who have enough knowledge of English can use this way to learn new
words. Thus, this way is final step to watch when learning.
1.3 Learning new vocabulary from reading
This section will discuss intentional learning and incidental learning.
Intentional learning is suitable for learning new words or phrases with the
learners’ high motivation and their desires to learn them. Incidental learning is
suitable to read a lot of books or watching movies. The process to read or look
at the sentences leads the learners to discover words that they don’t know.
They need to look up words to use their dictionary and they can remember the
words easily. Incidental learning helps the learners to remember words long
lasting.
1.3.1 Intentional learning
According to the site the Training Place, Bereiter and Scardamalia (1989)
mention intentional learning as "processes that have learning as a goal rather
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than an unexpected results". Intentional learning makes learners plan to learn
something and have a goal in mind and is suitable for learning new words
because there is an advantage of being focus for only learning words. However,
the learning way to remember just words leads to make learners forget them
easily.
For example, when learners try to study English words they probably
practice to write them again and again. They can remember the words then but,
they need to keep their motivation to study it.
1.3.2 Incidental learning
Kerka's research (2000) defined “incidental learning as unintentional or
unplanned learning that results from other activities“. Incidental learning is
occurred when learners aren’t conscious that they try to learn something, it is
happened unexpectedly.
For example, when Japanese learners are watching English movies, they
probably happen to see new words. If the words are already known, they could
learn how to use them unexpectedly. Unexpected situations can bring learning
new things for learners.
1.4 Previous research on learning vocabulary from input
In this section, we will look at the previous research when learning
English by reading, listening, and watching. There are a lot of ways to study
English in the world, for example, going to English conversation schools,
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listening to English CDs, the radio, and watching educational TV programs, etc,
then watching English movies is one of them.
1.4.1 Waring and Takaki (2003) How Many Times Do Students Need to
Read a Word Before They Can Learn It?
Waring and Takaki (2003) researched whether learners can learn from
reading contexts using tests of graded reading. In their experiment, the subjects
read the story and took the tests after reading. They tried to determine how
many times students need to read a word before they can learn it.
Waring and Takaki found that the subjects can learn from a graded
reader, however their memory of the words disappears after a few days.
Moreover, the subjects were able to learn words from context, but are more
successful if they meet the word several times. They also said that people can
learn some words from graded readers, and people can learn from context
(here a Graded Reader,) and correct associations between a word’s form and
its meaning only occurred less than 40% of the time during reading even if the
subjects meet the word more than 18 times.
According to this research, people can learn words from graded reading,
and if they keep reading every day, it will lead to better learning.
1.4.2 Hioka (2015) Can we learn English from movies?
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Hioka (2015, p.30) said that it is difficult for learners who have a small
knowledge of the words to learn English from movies so learning English
depends on learners’ age or competence. As she said, just watching movies
brings about little language gains. Hioka focused on listening when people are
watching movies, and she analyzed texts and took tests for find out about
vocabulary learning.
First, she looked at the advantage of watching movies, she said that
learners can listen to natural English through movies. Moreover, they can meet
English at the natural speed of speaking by native speakers and help learners
get used to hearing it. And also learners can hear informal words or slang they
cannot find in books or dictionaries.
Second, she found the best way to learn vocabulary was reading-while-
listening according to the results of Brown, Waring, Donkaewbua (2008). It also
showed that only listening was much harder than reading or reading-while-
listening.
Third, she found out learning English from movies was difficult for us
because we need 95-98% coverage of the movies to understand them. If
learners have the enough knowledge of the vocabulary, using movies for
learning would be very helpful.
According to Hioka, learners who have enough know vocabulary to
watch movies can learn from movies because words and phrases are spoken
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by native speakers and scripts are written by native speakers. This suggests
that watching movies without subtitles is difficult for Japanese learners.
1.4.3. Kumei (2017) The effect of watching foreign movies when learning a
foreign language
In this section, we are going to look at the effect of subtitles when
watching movies from Kumei (2017). She used her original questionnaire to
clarify the effect of subtitles when watching movies for learning a foreign
language.
She compared two situations, one was watching with subtitles, and the
other was watching without subtitles. As a result, she found out that watching
with subtitles has some effect, and subtitles helped people to understand
easier.
According to Kumei’s research, actually, subtitles are not related to
learning more words. As she said, subtitles don’t affect understanding the
words, but she also said that it is clear that watching movies with subtitles affect
understanding of the contents.
1.5 Research Questions
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In the next chapters, we will find out the answers to the following two
research questions by the questionnaire and experiment.
1. Do subjects remember more words from watching movies with
subtitles or without?
2. Why does this happen?
1.6 Conclusion
In this chapter we looked at the advantages and disadvantages of
watching movies for learning English, and lots of ways to watch movies. In the
next chapter, we will look at the data from an experiment to see whether
subtitles affect to learn new words or not carefully.
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Chapter Two: The experiment
2.1 Introduction
In this chapter, we will look at the experiment using a movie to ascertain
the effect of subtitles. Above the mention in Chapter One, Kumei (2017) found
subtitles help people to understand contents, but not words, then this
experiment was carried out to find out whether subtitles really don’t work to
learn new words or do so.
2.2 The experiment
2.2.1 Introduction to the experiment
When watching foreign movies, most Japanese people choose to look at
Japanese subtitles to understand what is being said, and few people might
choose the subtitles of foreign language. In this experiment, one movie and
questionnaire are used to find out if the effect of subtitles when watching
movies.
2.2.2 Subjects
The subjects of the questionnaire were 20 Notre Dame Seishin
University English major 3rd and 4th students ages 20-22. They are learning
English literature and language learning, for example, human abilities, slang,
memories, idioms, and motivation and so on.
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2.2.3 Test design
This experiment asked subjects to watch two movie clips and then tested
them on how many words and expressions they learnt with subtitles or not. Two
types of questionnaire for two groups, A & B, were made. Group A watched
scene one with subtitles for first, and next, they watched scene two without
subtitles. Group B watched scene two with subtitles for first, and next, they
watched scene one without subtitles. Both Group A and B took a test about 18
English words, and 10 comprehensive questions.
This experiment used same two scenes for both Group A and B. The
reason why the subjects were divided into two groups was to compare the score
of two groups with subtitles or not. In this way the effect of subtitles became
clear by the scores.
When dividing the subjects, their abilities were not considered, but the
number of people needed to be same, and the subjects were formed two
groups of 10 people each.
2.2.4 The two movie clips
Both clips came from the movie “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993). This is an
American romance movie. The main characters are Sam who lost his wife,
Jonah who is Sam’s son, and Annie who has a fiancé but she fell in love with
Sam at the end of the movie.
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Story synopsis
One day, Jonah called the radio station to ask for advice about his father,
Sam because Sam was very depressed about his wife’s death. At the same
time, Annie was listening to Jonah’s story through the radio. When Sam was
talking about his feelings and memories of his wife, Annie’s tears were running
down her face because of Sam’s story through the radio, then she felt attracted
by Sam. On the other hand, Sam dated with Victoria before he met Annie, so
the story focused on three persons Sam, Jonah, and Victoria.
In both two of the two clips, Sam, Jonah, and Victoria appear, but the
places and their conversation are different at all because information from eyes
is also important to understand the contents and both scenes are in different
places, and in one scene, Victoria is laughing and in the other scene, she’s
nervous, these features help the subjects to understand the movie easier.
Scene 1 was at a dinner time for them, Sam wanted Jonah to meet
Victoria so he invited her to his home, but Jonah believed Annie who sent a
letter to them. Jonah behaved to Victoria unfriendly. Though Sam recognized
his son’s feeling all the time, he enjoyed talking to Victoria. In this scene, we
can see their real feelings from their expression and saying.
Scene 2 is located at the airport because Victoria was getting on a plane,
so Sam and Jonah came to see her. Victoria talked to Jonah friendly but Jonah
wasn’t so. After she leaves there, Sam talked to Jonah about dating Victoria
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and the relationships between men and women. At that time. Sam finds a
woman named Annie when Jonah was starting to talk about reincarnation that
he is taught by Jessica who is Jonah’s girlfriend. Then Sam loses sight of
Annie. In this scene, we can see thoughts of Jonah and Sam clearly.
Vocabulary and comprehension questions
For each scene, 9 English words were selected and the researcher made
5 comprehensive questions, totalling 18 English words and 10 comprehension
questions. Every word was very difficult to understand for Japanese learners,
Table 1 shows the meanings referred to a dictionary.
In Scene 1, the English test words were as follows
Table 1: The test words
English
words
Part of
speech
Meanings
1 Groceries Noun Food and other goods that are sold by a grocer or
a supermarket
2 Fireplace Noun A special place in the wall of a room, where you
can make a fire
3 Bricks Noun A hard block of baked clay used for building
walls, houses etc.
4 Hinge Noun A place of metal fastened to a door, lid etc. that
allows it to swing open and shut
5 Firm Noun A business or company, especially a small one
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6 Song and
dance
Noun It is an idiom. If you make a dance about
something, you behave as if it was worse, more
important, more difficult etc. than it really is
7 Kitchen
cabinet
Noun A place of furniture with doors and shelves or
drawers, used for storing or showing things in a
kitchen
8 Box seats Noun A special seat in a theatre
9 Flip Verb To move something with a quick sudden
movement so that it is in a different position
In Scene 2, the English words are as follows
Table 2: test words from Scene 2
English words Part of
speech
Meanings
1 Snow globes Noun A toy or decoration made from glass or plastic
containing a clear liquid and a substance that
looks like snow, falls on a model of a scene
inside when the object is shaken
2 Toss one’s hair Verb To move your head/hair quickly upwards,
especially when you are angry or do not care
about something
3 Barrette Noun A small metal or plastic object used to keep a
woman's hair in place
4 Get to the Verb To discover the truth about a situation
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bottom of
5 Appreciate Verb To understand how serious or important a
situation or problem is or what someone’s
feelings are
6 Try people on Verb To try to start a relationship with someone
7 Adjustment Noun A change in the way a person behaves or thinks
8 A twitch Noun A quick movement of a muscle, especially one
that you cannot control
9 Reincarnation Noun The belief that after someone dies their soul
lives again in another body
The 10 comprehension questions
There were 10 comprehension questions for Scenes 1 and 2. These are
for Scene 1.
1. Who said “you are so funny?” The answer is “Victoria.”
2. Does Victoria like baseball? The answer is “Yes.”
3. Has Victoria been camping before? The answer is “Yes.”
4. What time is Jonah’s bed time? The answer is “10 o’clock.”
5. What did they eat? The answer is “Dinner or potatoes.”
About questions and answers in Scene 2.
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1. Does Jonah know Victoria well? The answer is “No.”
2. Is Victoria mysterious for Sam? The answer is “Yes.”
3. Is Sam planning to marry Victoria? The answer is “No.”
4. What did Sam talk to Jonah about? The answer is “Adjustment or
Victoria.”
5. Is Jessica a girl or a boy? The answer is “A girl.”
The test booklet
A test booklet was made to present the movies, tests and
comprehension questions to the subjects. The text booklets are in the
appendices.
The movie scripts
The script of Scene 1
SAM: There she is.
JONAH: Why is she bringing those groceries?
SAM: She's cooking something for us, so prepared.
VICTORIA: Hi, Sam. Thanks. And let me guess. You must be Jonah.
JONAH: Hi.
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SAM: This it?
VICTORIA: Yeah.
SAM: The car’s down this way.
VICTORIA: Great.
SAM: She's on her sixth painter, and we’re never gonna finish this
job. Now she wants the fireplace rebricked.
VICTORIA: I know her pretty well. I could give her a call.
SAM: I've got it solved. I’m just gonna hit her with one of those
fireplace bricks.
VICTORIA: Oh that is so funny, you are so funny.
SAM: Whenever she wants anything done, she does this song and
dance about… “I don’t know. I’m stupid. You tell me. You
know better than I, but couldn’t we flip the house around so
everything on one side is now on the other, and the back
becomes the front? Could the whole house open up on a
hinge? That way I could just get in with the garage door
opener.” I just say,”yeah, we can know, we can do that. We’re
just gonna do--”
VICTORIA: “Move the kitchen cabinet.”
SAM: Jonah, bring that stuff around, alright?
JONAH: Do you like baseball?
VICTORIA: Yes, I do. In fact, my firm has box seats to the Mariners. Why
don't we all go sometime?
SAM: Hey.
JONAH: What about camping?
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VICTORIA: What about it?
JONAH: Do you like camping?
VICTORIA: I went camping once.
JONAH: You know what? We ought to start camping more often, Dad.
SAM: You’re right. Camping is good. Time for bed.
JONAH: It's only ten o'clock.
SAM: Yeah, ten o’clock. Time for bed.
JONAH: Good night.
SAM: Don’t you wanna thank Victoria: for this delicious dinner?
JONAH: Thanks for dinner. I never saw anybody cook potatoes that
way.
VICTORIA: I'm glad you liked it. Good night, Jonah.
SAM: Yeah, we don’t see a lot of potatoes around here. We’re rice
men.
The script of Scene 2
VICTORIA: Thanks for bringing me out here.
SAM: Well, he likes the planes.
VICTORIA: Can I bring something back for you? A souvenir? Does he like
snow globes? You know shake them up and the snow floats
down.
JONAH: Sure. I'd really like that. Thank you so much.
SAM: He’s eight.
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VICTORIA: He’s good at it.
SAM: I read an article about this. All children are hideous at age
eight. It’s quite normal.
VICTORIA: Well, when maybe I come back, the two of us oughta spend
some time together on our own. What do you think? Bye. Bye,
Jonah.
JONAH: Bye.
SAM: Jonah, listen to me. You don't know Victoria. I hardly know her
myself. She is, in fact, a mystery to me. She tosses her hair a
lot. Why does she do this? I have no idea. Is it a twitch?
Does she need a haircut? Should she use barrette to keep her
hair out of her face? These are things I'm willing to get to the
bottom of. And that is why I am dating her. That is all I am
doing. I’m not living with her. I am not marrying her. Can you
appreciate the difference? This is what single people do, they
try other people on and see how they fit. But everyone is an
adjustment. Nobody’s perfect. There’s no such thing as a
perfect… Come on.
JONAH: Dad, I was talking to Jessica about reincarnation. She says you
knew Annie in another life.
SAM: Who’s Annie?
JONAH: The one who wrote us. But Jessica says you and Annie never
got together in that life. So you’re hearts are like puzzles with
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missing places. And when you get together, the puzzle’s
complete.
SAM: Goddamn it.
JONAH: The reason I know this and you don’t is because I’m younger
and purer so I’m more in touch with cosmic forces.
SAM: Who told you this stuff?
JONAH: Jessica.
SAM: I sincerely hope you’re not marrying Jessica.
2.2.5 Procedure
The subjects were divided into two groups; A and B, both groups took the
same vocabulary test of English words and comprehension questions from the
movie script after watching each scenes. Both groups watched two scenes, one
with English subtitles, and the other without subtitles. First, Group A watched
scene one with subtitles and next, they watched scene two without subtitles.
Group B watched scene two with subtitles for first, and next, they watched
scene one without subtitles. Therefore, two groups watched the scenes in a
crossed-design.
2.2.6 Results
First we will look at the data for the amount of words learnt. Then we will
look at the data for the comprehension questions.
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Table 3: Data for the amount of words known in the two conditions by Group A
and B.
Without Subtitles With Subtitles
Group A 0.89 2.00 2.89
Group B 1.33 2.33 3.67
2.22 4.33
Table 4: Data for the comprehension questions in the two conditions by Group A and B.
Without Subtitles With Subtitles
Group A 7.20 9.20 16.40
Group B 4.40 7.80 12.20
11.60 17.00
Table 3 shows the result of the vocabulary test for Groups A and B. Both
groups had better scores with subtitles than without subtitles. Table 4 shows the
result of the comprehension questions for Group A and B. Both Groups A and B
got higher score with subtitle than without subtitles. It can be said that subtitles
help them to understand the conversation.
2.2.7 Casual interviews
The subjects were asked two questions; whether they have ever watched
the movie before, and whether it was easy or not. There were two subjects who
have watched the movie, and the all subjects including the two subjects
answered it was difficult test.
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Questionnaire data shows watching movies while reading subtitles help
learners to understand the contents well.
2.3 Summary
This chapter tried to find out the effect of subtitles while watching movies,
and found that subtitles can help learners to understand not only the contents
but also some words in the movie. In the next chapter, we will discuss this in
more detail.
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Chapter Three: The Analysis
3.1 Introduction
In Chapter One, we looked at previous data about learning English by
using movies, and in Chapter Two, the effect of subtitles when learning new
words. In this chapter, we are going to look at the results of data from the
experiment in Chapter Two in detail.
3.2 Summary of the results
Both Tables 3 and 4 showed the accuracy rate of the answers of Group
A and B. Table 3 showed that the data for the amount of words known in the
two conditions; without or with subtitles by Group A and B. First, about without
subtitles Group A got 0.89, and Group B got 1.33. Next, about with subtitles,
Group A got 2.00, this score is 1.11 higher than without subtitles, and Group B
got 2.33, this score is also 1.00 higher than the condition of without.
Table 4 showed that the data for the comprehension questions in the two
conditions; without or with subtitles by Group A and B. First, about Group A,
they got 7.20 in the condition without subtitles, and in the condition with
subtitles, they got 9.20, this score is 2.00 higher. Group B got 4.40 without
subtitles, and with subtitles, they got 7.80, this score is 3.4 higher.
If we compare the score of Table 3 with Table 4, it can be seen the
difference the results of words known and the comprehension questions. The
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amount of words known of Group A was 2.89, and the amount of the
comprehension questions was 16.40. The amount of words known of Group B
was 3.67, and the amount of was 12.20. Group A got lower point than Group B
for words, but for the comprehension questions, Group A got higher point than
Group B.
3.3 Discussion of the results
. 18 words which were chosen for the test were difficult for Japanese
learners to understand. For example, in Scene 1, the word ‘firm’ sounds like
‘farm’ several subjects answered the meaning this ‘farm’, and the expression
‘song and dance’ means complain but most subjects answered the meaning of
‘song and dance’ in Japanese. In Scene 2, for the word ‘snow globes’ they
might have heard only ‘globes’, and many subjects answered the meaning of
‘globes’, and the word ’reincarnation‘ means soul lives again but many subjects
answered the meaning of ‘carnation’ they might thought from the sound
carnation. Thus all 18 words were really difficult to understand.
However, the 10 comprehension questions were not very difficult. If the
subjects can listen to the correct words and watch the movie carefully they can
answer them easier than on the word test. For example, ‘what time is Jonah’s
bed time?’ This question is from Jonah, he said “it’s only ten o’clock” but also
Sam said “Yeah, ten o’clock.” In the scene, the subjects had chance to hear that
“ten o’clock” twice, it might be helpful to answer the question. In this way
comprehension questions were made easier than words test. Group A got
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higher scores for the comprehension questions than Group B, but the score of
Group A’s word test was lower than Group B. It can be said from this results,
Group A understand the contents from information by watching, listening and
reading subtitles even if they didn’t understand the meaning of the words.
3.4 Research questions
This section will answer the research questions from Chapter One.
1. Do subjects remember more words from watching movies with subtitles or
without subtitles?
It was found clearly from the experiment that subtitles affect the
understanding contents and words. It can be said that the condition of with
subtitles is helpful to remember words.
2. Why does this happen?
In Chapter One, according to Waring and Takaki (2003) research,
reading is helpful to learn new words, it is related this results. Watching movies
while reading subtitles seems to be a good way to learn new words. With only
listening, learners cannot see the correct spelling and they might misrecognize
words.
3.5 Implications
We looked at the results of the experiment, and we found watching
movies with subtitles is helpful to remember words, however, the effect was not
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large, so it is not easy for learners to watch English movies with English
subtitles. It seems necessary to do some practice, for example, repeat watching
of the same movie, look up unknown words in the dictionary, and shadowing. In
this way the methods of learning will be better. If learners can’t remember words
at all, they can listen to real conversations, pronunciation, and intonation by
watching movies which might improve their listening skills.
3.6 Limitations of the Experiments
There are several limitations of this study. Firstly, the experiment had
difference of difficulty between words test and the comprehension questions. If
easier words had been used, the results might have been different and there
might not such gaps in scores between the words and the comprehension tests.
Secondly, one movie was used this time so there was need to discuss from little
data. More movies were needed.
3.7 Further research
This study focused on the effect of subtitles when watching movies for
learning words, as a results, subtitles affected understanding contents better
than words. Guessing meanings of the words is difficult only from watching
movies, however there we found that that learners can meet new words, and
that is an opportunity to find new words. How do subtitles affect learners? This
question is still unanswered. Furthermore, in this study only 18 words were
chosen and all words weren’t used in the research, we don’t know how many
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words learners can listen when with subtitles or not, and the relationship
between listening and reading wasn’t found.
3.8 Conclusion
In this study, we looked at the effect of subtitles when learning new
words by using movies. Subtitles seem to be really helpful to understand the
stories but so much the words, but watching a movie only once doesn’t improve
learning much because they didn’t learn many new words. When learners learn
English by using movies they should repeat watch the same movies, look up
unknown words in the dictionary, and so on. Watching English movies seem to
be really helpful for learners because there are several advantages; they can
listen to casual conversation, real intonation, and pronunciation, etc. Thus
according to this study, watching movies is not really so good for learning new
words.
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References
Papers
Brown, R. & Waring, R. & Donkaewbua, S. 2008 Incidental vocabulary
acquisition from reading, reading-while-listening, and listening stories,
Reading in a Foreign Language, 20 (2): 136-163
Bereiter, C. & Scardamalia, M. (1989). "Intentional Learning as a Goal of
Instruction," in Knowing, Learning, and Instruction, edited by L. Resnick.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Hillsdale, New Jersey, pp. 361-392
Kerka, Sandra. 2000 Trends and Issues 2000 Alert No.18, Incidental learning
Hioka, M. 2015 Can we learn English from movies? A text analysis. Thesis
presented to Notre Dame Seishin University
Kumei, M. 2016 The effect of watching foreign movies when learning a foreign
language. Thesis presented to Notre Dame Seishin University
Waring, R. and M. Takaki. 2003 How Many Times Do Students Need to Read a
Word Before They Can Learn It? Reading in a Foreign Language
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Webpages accessed
Edutech wiki, Incidental learning
http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Incidental_learning Accessed November 17, 2017
Explore, The most effective way to improve your ‘real’ English: watch movies.
https://app.griffith.edu.au/explore-student-blog/improve-your-english-watch-movies/ Accessed November 17, 2017
Creativity & Languages Learning languages out of a classroom, The difference between incidental learning and deliberate learning and why it matters to language learners.
http://www.creativityandlanguages.com/2012/04/the-difference-between-incidental-learning-and-deliberate-learning-and-why-it-matters-to-language-learners/ Accessed November 20, 2017
Kelly. M. Pros and Cons of Using Movies in Class
https://www.thoughtco.com/pros-and-cons-movies-in-class-7762 Accessed November 17, 2017
NTT, コムリサーチ映画館での映画鑑賞に関する調査.
http://research.nttcoms.com/database/data/001454/ Accessed October 21, 2017
The raining place, Intentional leaning.
http://www.trainingplace.com/il/ Accessed November 20, 2017
Though Co, Pros and Cons of Using Movies in Class.
https://www.thoughtco.com/pros-and-cons-movies-in-class-7762 Accessed November 20, 2017
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Wikipedia, English in Japan.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AB%E3%81%8A%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B%E8%8B%B1%E8%AA%9E Accessed October 18, 2017
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Appendices
A. The two booklets
Does adding subtitles make watching movies easier?
Group A
Hello, I’m Sayaka Kurahashi. Thank you for coming today, and please
take the tests after watching two scenes of a movie.✎
Name
The movie-”Sleepless in Seattle”
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Outline
Sam, who lost his wife is the hero in this movie and he moved to Chicago with
his son whose name is Jonah. One day, Jonah called the radio to ask for advice
about his father Sam, because he was very depressed about his wife’s death. At the
same time, Annie was listening to Jonah’s story through the radio and, Sam was
talking about his feelings and memories of his wife. Annie’s tears were running down
her face because of Sam’s story, and though she is engaged to Walter, she felt
attracted by Sam who she has never met before.
On the other hand, Sam was thinking about dating with a woman, considering
Jonah. One day, he asks Victoria for a dating.
Characters (both appear 2 scenes)
・Sam, who lost his wife.
・Jonah, who is Sam’s son and called to the radio and believes Annie.
・Victoria, who is dating Sam.
Please watch Scene 1. (subtitles)
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In this scene, Jonah met Victoria for the first time, and Victoria cooked
dinner for them at Sam and Jonah’s home.
Word test
Please translate these words from Scene 1 into Japanese. If you don’t
know the words, please guess thinking about the scene.
1 Groceries _____________________________
2 Fireplace _____________________________
3 Bricks _____________________________
4 Hinge _____________________________
5 Firm _____________________________
6 Song and dance _____________________________
7 Kitchen cabinet _____________________________
8 Box seats _____________________________
9 Flip _____________________________
Please answer these questions about Scene 1.
1. Who said “you are so funny?” ___________________
2. Does Victoria like baseball? ___________________
3. Has Victoria been camping before? ___________________
4. What time is Jonah’s bed time? ___________________
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5. What did they eat? ___________________
Please watch Scene 2.
In this scene, Victoria is about to get on a plane, and Victoria, Sam, and
Jonah are at the airport.
Word test
Please translate these words from Scene 2 into Japanese. If you don’t
know the words, please guess thinking about the scene.
1 Snow globes _____________________________
2 Toss one’s hair _____________________________
3 Barrette _____________________________
4 Get to the bottom of _____________________________
5 Appreciate _____________________________
6 Try people on _____________________________
7 Adjustment _____________________________
8 A twitch _____________________________
9 Reincarnation _____________________________
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Please answer these questions about Scene 2.
1. Does Jonah know Victoria well? ___________________
2. Is Victoria mysterious for Sam? ___________________
3. Is Sam planning to marry Victoria? ___________________
4. What did Sam talk to Jonah about? ___________________
5. Is Jessica a girl or a boy? ___________________
Thank you for your help.
Sayaka Kurahashi
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Group B
Does adding subtitles make watching movies easier?
Hello, I’m Sayaka Kurahashi. Thank you for coming today, and please
take the tests after watching two scenes of a movie.✎
Name
The movie-”Sleepless in Seattle”
39
Outline
Sam, who lost his wife is the hero in this movie and he moved to Chicago with
his son whose name is Jonah. One day, Jonah called the radio to ask for advice
about his father Sam, because he was very depressed about his wife’s death. At
the same time, Annie was listening to Jonah’s story through the radio and, Sam
was talking about his feelings and memories of his wife. Annie’s tears were
running down her face because of Sam’s story, and though she is engaged to
Walter, she felt attracted by Sam who she has never met before.
On the other hand, Sam was thinking about dating with a woman, considering
his son, Jonah. One day, he asks Victoria for a date.
Characters (both appear 2 scenes)
・Sam, who lost his wife.
・Jonah, who is Sam’s son and called to the radio and believes Annie.
・Victoria, who is dating Sam.
Please watch Scene 2. (subtitles)
40
In this scene, Victoria is about to get on a plane, and Victoria, Sam, and
Jonah are at the airport.
Word test
Please translate these words from Scene 2 into Japanese. If you don’t
know the words, please guess thinking about the scene.
10 Snow globes _____________________________
11 Toss one’s hair _____________________________
12 Barrette _____________________________
13 Get to the bottom of _____________________________
14 Appreciate _____________________________
15 Try people on _____________________________
16 Adjustment _____________________________
17 A twitch _____________________________
18 Reincarnation _____________________________
Please answer these questions about Scene 2.
1. Does Jonah know Victoria well? ___________________
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2. Is Victoria mysterious for Sam? ___________________
3. Is Sam planning to marry Victoria? ___________________
4. What did Sam talk to Jonah about? ___________________
5. Is Jessica a girl or a boy? ___________________
Please watch Scene 1.
In this scene, Jonah met Victoria for the first time, and Victoria cooked
dinner for them at Sam and Jonah’s home.
Word test
Please translate these words from Scene 1 into Japanese. If you don’t
know the words, please guess thinking about the scene.
10 Groceries _____________________________
11 Fireplace _____________________________
12 Bricks _____________________________
13 Hinge _____________________________
14 Firm _____________________________
15 Song and dance _____________________________
16 Kitchen cabinet _____________________________
42
17 Box seats _____________________________
18 Flip _____________________________
Please answer these questions about Scene 1.
1. Who said “you are so funny?” ___________________
2. Does Victoria like baseball? ___________________
3. Has Victoria been camping before? ___________________
4. What time is Jonah’s bed time? ___________________
5. What did they eat? ___________________
Thank you for your help.
Sayaka Kurahashi
43