THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FILMS WITH

ENGLISH SUBTITLES ON LEARNING
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE


Student: Nguyen Thi Thu Hang
Class: English Language K31B
Teacher: Hoang Thi Ngoc Diem
Thai Nguyen, November 2010

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 EFFECTIVENESS OF FILMS WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLE ON LEARNING ENGLISH
AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

I. INTRODUCTION
With the rapid development of English-speaking countries, English has become an
international language, which makes the need of learning English to be a global trend. In
addition, the outbreak of information technology and the breakthrough of science offer
English learners a great benefit in learning a new language. A number of researches have
been conducted to discover new methods to take advantage of technology to accustom
learners to English. However, despite the popularity of English films with English subtitles in
Vietnam as well as their promising results to learning English as a foreign language, there are
very few studies on the effectiveness of this kind of film on enhancing language skills in
which Vietnamese students in general and students at Foreign Language Faculty (FLF)-Thai
Nguyen University (TNU) in particular are likely to face a lot of limitation. With the aim of
assessing the effectiveness of English subtitle films on learning English, then discovering an
effective method for teaching and learning this international language, and proposing a
helpful learning experience, this study is going to answer these following questions:
1. What is the students’ perception on the usefulness of films with English subtitle in
English learning?
2. Do students who are exposed to more English subtitle films as a part of their English
learning experience have a different perception about their learning experience?
3. Do students’ listening and reading comprehension improve when a bigger emphasis is
made in the use of films related outside as well as inside the classroom?
From the findings, this research is considered to open a new way for teaching and learning
English at FLF-TNU.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Regarding to the methodology in teaching and learning English, a lot of studies have been
conducted to explore the effective alternatives to improve four language skills: speaking,
listening, writing and reading. Of all the applications, the use of Internet seems to be the most
popular one. The research by Verdugo and Belmonte (2007) indicates that the Internet-based
technology positively contributes to the improvement of children’s linguistic comprehension
in which even though the young learners had not been expected to read at the age of six, they
had the ability to identify the distinction between the sound and the spelling of some lexis in
the stories they read. Not only providing the effectiveness in improving learners’ listening

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and speaking skills, the Internet is proved to be helpful in enhancing students’ reading
comprehension. It is highlighted that the new forms of reading (reading on the Internet) call
upon students to know how to read and write not only in the print world but also in the digital
world Dobler (2003). Referring to teaching and learning methods, M. Lynch (2009) provides
a suggestion on the utilization of short stories in English language teaching and English
language learning, in which he offers some advantages of this method including the concise
of writing with carefully selected vocabulary and lexis, the use of contemporary or colloquial
language, the insertion of authentic natural dialogue and the maintenance of high interest and
attention levels. In the article named Using English language Periodicals as Authentic
materials, M. Lynch (2007) also believes that teaching or learning English as a second
language or foreign language by using authentic material prepared for natives speakers in the
real-life condition is one of the most effective ways.
Among the monitored teaching aids, videos and films are considered to be the new ones.
After having conducted research about the effectiveness of videos with adult English
language learners, Burt (1999) concludes that videos bring to the learners a great help in
improving their language skills due to the context, content, and language used in the videos.
However, he also emphasizes the essential role of the teachers’ guidance in taking advantage
of this medium to enhance the adult learners’ skills and their acknowledgement of
communication. In addition the results from the research of Cardillo (1997) indicate that all
of studied students regarded watching videos as the most helpful ways to improve their
listening skills.
In the field of applying films on English language teaching and English language learning,
Momani (2009) comments that watching films including English films with English subtitles,
films in your own language with English subtitles, and English films with subtitles in your
own languages both has good effect on your listening comprehension. The reason is that
those kinds of films provide native English speakers’ use of idioms, their accent and
pronunciation. Moreover, upgrading listening and speaking skills by means of English films
and television, students can not only have a chance to contact with the authentic pure English,
to see authentic real-life situation, but to increase their acknowledgement of cross cultural
communication (Anonymous, 2009). It is likely that English films can play an important role
in drawing a distinction in English learning.
Furthermore, besides having positive effects in learning English, watching films is believed
to be an effective application in learning language in general. Williams (2009) suggests that,
foreign language students who desire to challenge themselves and practice listening to

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conversational Italian should watch Italian films without subtitles. Harrison (2010) also
considers films an important tool in language learning and French learning process as well
because through watching French films learners can get closer to everyday language, enrich
their vocabulary and get to know other cultural references in an easier and more relaxing
ways. In addition, according to Sibanda (2010) films are assessed as a helpful instructor in
teaching Zulu language.
In short, from the presented results, the future research should be developed bases on this
background in different settings, with different populations.
III. METHODOLOGY
In order to achieve the proposed objectives, a set of tests including pre-test, post-test, and
some other small tests as well as questionnaires will be applied in which 100 English major
students enrolling Advanced oral and written English at FLF-TNU will be selected to
participate in this research. A number of 100 students will be randomly divided into 2 equal
groups in which one group will be the experimental group who will learn listening and
reading English with English subtitle films, and the other group will be taught in the
traditional way with books for reading and audio tapes for listening. However, the same
curriculum will be applied to both groups. To ensure the objectivity of the study, the
participants selected will be second year English majors only, the other students who are
neither English majors nor the ones that have studied this course before will not be included
in this project.
The simple random technique will be utilized as a sampling technique in which it is assured
that all selected students are ready for their participation in this research and their personal
information will be strictly confidential during the time of the research.
The pre test and post test will be taken at the beginning (the 1st week) and at the end of the
course (the 15th week) for the purpose of measuring the level of students’ English listening
and reading comprehension before the application of English subtitle films on their
curriculum, then monitoring the effectiveness of this new method, and the two small tests at
week 5 and week 10 will help to check the improvement in students’ skill due to watching
films with English subtitles. In addition, a questionnaire will be distributed to participants
with the aim of asserting their perception of the usefulness for applying English subtitle films
in learning English.
For the purpose of monitoring the students’ level of English listening and reading
comprehension, the tests will be designed in forms of multiple choice questions. In the test, a
number of passages and conversations will be given then the students’ task is to provide the

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correct answers for the questions following each passage and conversation. The questionnaire
including 10 to 15 close-ended questions about the attitude of learners toward the application
of English subtitle films on listening and reading comprehension courses will be prepared to
deliver to participants at the end of the course. The question items will be designed with a
number of available choices and there will be rooms for students to provide their own
opinions.
To make sure that all participants’ related information is confidential, the data collected from
the tests and questionnaires will be coded and then analyzed by SPSS software with the
expectation of providing a reliable statistics.
IV. TIMELINE
In this study, the results are expected to be produced after 15 weeks which will be broken into
3 periods of every 5 weeks.
The first 5 week will be utilized to make students gradually familiar with the application of
films with English subtitles, the requirement; therefore will be not very hard. In the first
week, a pre-test will be prepared for students with the aim of assessing their levels of
listening and reading comprehension. Every week, a short extract from a film with English
subtitles will be selected focusing on a certain topic to show in the class. After each class,
students will be required to do some listening related practices in class and some other
reading exercises concerned with the content of the film will be asked as their homework. By
the end of week 5, students will have to complete a small test related to listening and reading
comprehension skills.
In the second period (from week 6 to week 10) the same activities will be repeated, however
the length and the content of the films will be a little challenging. Another small test will be
taken by the end of week 10.
The final period (from week 11 to week 15) will be the time to complete the research.
Listening and reading activities with the use of English subtitle films will be the same as the
two previous periods, but the requirement of the exercises will be more difficult. In week 14,
the questionnaire will be distributed to students, and after week 15, they will take the post-
test with the same level of difficulty as the pretest but in a different way of questioning. The
treatment and the collection of data in the combination with the results of all the test and
questionnaire will be expected to produce a reliable result.
V. EXPECTED RESULTS
After conducting this study, the results are expected to indicate that the second year English
majors at FLF-TNU will not only find their interests in learning English by watching films

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with English subtitles but they can realize the usefulness as well as the necessity of this
application on their learning program. As a result, they will draw some necessary differences
in their learning experience in order to get more positive effects on improving their language
skills. Moreover, it is hoped that studied students after taking advantage of this method will
achieve a noticeable improvement on listening and reading comprehension, especially when a
bigger emphasis on the use of English subtitles films is made outside and inside the class. In
brief, the motivation that the students may get from the application of films in listening and
reading class, the students’ confidence about their enhancement of English language skills as
well as their comfort when leaning English are the biggest expectations of this research.

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VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Anonymous. (2009, September 7). English movies to teach: how to improve college
students an effective way of English listening and speaking ability. Retrieved from
http://eng.hi138.com/?i93042
2. Burt, M. (1999, August). Using videos with adult English learners. Retrieved from
http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/video.html
3. Dobler, E. S. (2003, September). Reading on the Internet: The Link between Literacy and
Technology. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 47. Retrieved from
http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp?
HREF=/newliteracies/jaal/9-03_column/index.html
4. Harrison, L. (2010, May 18). How French cinema can help improve your language skills.
Retrieved from http://www.cactuslanguagetraining.com/en/french/view/how-french-
cinema-can-help-improve-your-language-skills/
5. Lynch, L. M. (2005, November 27). Developing Listening Comprehension Skills in IDI
English Language Students. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Developing-
Listening-Comprehension-Skills-in-IDI-English-Language-Students&id=103318
6. Lynch, L. M. (2007, May 29). Using English Language Periodicals as Authentic
Materials. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-English-Language-
Periodicals-as-Authentic-Materials&id=584645
7. Lynch, L. M. (2009, April 2). Making Effective Use of Short Stories in English Or
Foreign Language Teaching. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Making-
Effective-Use-of-Short-Stories-in-English-Or-Foreign-Language-
Teaching&id=2176776
8. Momani, M. M. (2010, July 7). How to improve your English. JOURNAL OF HUMAN
SCIENCES, 43. Retrieved from http://www.ULUM.NL
9. Reading comprehension. (2010, October 26). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_comprehension
10. Sibanda, G. (2010, May 1). Teaching Zulu language and culture through film.
Retrieved from
http://blc.berkeley.edu/index.php/blc/post/teaching_zulu_language_and_culture_throu
gh_film1/

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11. Verdugo, D. R., & Belmonte, I. A. (2007, February). Using digital stories to improve
listening comprehension with Spanish young learners of English. Language Learning
& Technology, 11, 87-101. Retrieved from http://llt.mus.edu/vol11num1/ramirez/
12. Williams, M. M. (2009, February 5). Romantic movies improve Italian language
skills. Retrieved from http://www.suite101.com/content/romantic-movies-improve-
italian-language-skills-a95204