HOW I BECAME FLUENT IN LANGUAGES
How
I
Became
Fluent in Languages
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Recently, I started watching YouTube
regarding how effectively we can learn another language.
It is my belief that what we do at school is not enough to learn to understand and speak foreign languages.
I came across one of those YouTubers who shared the previous research founded on a quantitative data.
That is, in short, in terms of a language-learning
“How should we watch English TV
series or movies, for example, Netflix?”
With subtitles?
Without subtitles?
With original voice?
Well, the result of this research was fascinating.
There were lots of former discussions and arguments in this regard.
But there were not so many scientific researches.
And this experiment is founded on the valuable quantitative data.
In this context, this scientific research is quite interesting.
So today, I would like to share my experiences with this research paper
to get us some insights about the previous questions to be answered.
The answer really depends on what you are looking for watching a movie.
The 2016 research came from Spain
They did an experiment on Spanish university students from age 21 to 27, who have an intermediate English level.
They separated 60 people into 3 groups, and they watch an hour English TV series.
These students did pre-English test and post-English test to view the differences(=improvement).
1st group: Watch without subtitles
2nd group: Watch with English subtitles
3rd group: Watch with Spanish subtitles
Listening, vocabulary acquisition, and overall plot comprehension were evaluated.
The improvements were seen, especially in listening.
KEY FINDINGS
FROM THE EXPERIMENT
- With English subtitles 17% improvement in listening
- Without subtitles 7% improvement in listening
- With Spanish subtitles 0% in listening
- Vocabulary acquisition showed an outstanding in with English subtitles (6%) and without subtitles (8.7%)
- Overall plot comprehension showed the best result with Spanish subtitles
According to this paper,
“Subtitles in the original language can be used to retune the link of speech sounds with perceptive categories, so that intermediate to advanced English learners can adapt to English sounds in a more efficient fashion.”
So what does it mean?
I understand that for sure, to enjoy a movie, it would be better for us to watch it with our mother tongue subtitle to understand the plot.
It is purely for the entertainment.
But for a language-learning, it is more effective to watch it with subtitles, whose language you are learning now.
It is a different attitude for the different purpose.
Think about becoming a native language speaker.
They all watch TVs without subtitles.
Learning another language is a process to be a native in terms of languages.
You don't have to be a native speaker.
We can be in the middle if we want.
I think we all have our favorite movie.
I watched the Shawshank Redemption countless times!
So I recommend this for especially beginners to improve your listening and vocabulary acquisition.
When there was neither Netflix nor Disney+ nor Amazon prime, there were caption-devices, which deal with CART – Communication Access Real-time Translation (transcribing and translating spoken text and sound into words).
If I am not wrong, it was invented for people with impaired hearing who have difficulties in hearing.
And I got this machine to watch English movies with subtitles for the purpose of learning English.
So here's what I did.
WATCH YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE
THREE TIMES
1. Watch it with your mother tongue subtitles to understand the story line
2. Watch it with original subtitles (for beginner)
3. Watch without subtitles (intermediate)
You can stop the movie sometimes and put down some expressions and words that they use or your favorite actors and actresses use.
You can also find your favorite scene and repeat the script like acting.
This will improve vocabulary acquisition for sure.
I recommend this intuitive method.
In my case, it helped me a lot. Since then I applied this to learning Spanish, Chinese and, French.
All the images on movies give you the context
and subconsciously
we can understand
that words never exist independently without real contexts.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Watching a movie with subtitles is always good for listening and vocabulary acquisition
- Try to watch your favorite movie three times
- Meanwhile, you can stop the movie and write down words and expressions
- Try to acquire language through context
- Maximize input through movies and TV programs
- Learn vocabulary through phrases and expressions
It is important to learn vocabulary in the specific context and in the phrase
Because a word almost never exists independently
It is connected with other words to mean something.
American linguist, Stephen D. Krashen further said in his acquisition theory
"Acquisition of language is a natural,
intuitive, and subconscious process of
which individuals need not be aware."
I partially agree and disagree with his main idea when I see the whole of his argument.
But based on my language-learning experience, this quote is quite true.
In brief,
his idea is that
Understanding spoken and written language input is
the only way to increase underlying linguistic competence.
I also believe that we need to acquire language
just like children come to learn mother tongue at the subconscious level.
What we do at school is a conscious learning followed and bound by "grammar",
and it mainly focuses on error correction.
There is no single answer to this question since a language learning is very abstract,
but I agreed with lots of ideas derived from him.
Especially, we need to learn a theory and a process of a language-learning
before learning a language itself.
It is interesting that we understand a lot about language at the subconscious level.
What do you think about this article?
Share your thoughts about this article.
Have a good time for Christmas.
Thanks for reading,
Hilano Aquihisa
Refer to:
1. RESEARCH ARTICLE
Watching SubtitledFilms Can Help Learning Foreign Languages
J. Birulés-Muntané1 , S. Soto-Faraco1,2* 1 Department de Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacions, Cognition and Brain Centre, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, 2 Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain *salvador.soto@icrea.ca
2. Acquisition-learning hypothesis
I've always thought watching series, movies or whatever is generally better with the original voices on. I totally understand some people want to enjoy movies or shows without having to read, or make an effort, but in my opinion, dubbing misses part of the message. Even if it's for the sake of entertainment, there are bits and touches that are lost in translation. That's why I will always stand for watching Original Versions, even though I understand people who watch dub. When just taking the learning process into account, not only does watching the original version allow for a more detailed idea of the cadence of words in sentences, and how to breathe within those sentences, but it also helps relating what you read with what you hear. As an example, I have been enjoying anime for about 15 years, and except for the bginning, when I discovered anime as Naruto on the Spanish TV, I went straight for the original version. Thanks to this, even without noticing, more and more words and expressions were unconsciously buried into my mind, and so when I started legitimately studying Japanese for the first time, I was surprised by how many words were so familiar to me. I would also like to stand on the other side for a bit, and point out that some languages have also a written barrier: for example, although I would love to go from my mother language subtitles when watching anime to Japanese subtitles, the fact that most subs are written with an abundance of kanji is a deterrent. Still, in my humble opinion, it is bttr for enjoying the nuances and for learning the language to watch whatever you enjoy on it's original version. After that, going from mother language to native subs is a matter of each persons speed to adapt, but I have no doubts it is the next change to make after watching stuff on original version.
ReplyDeleteJorge, thank you very much for sharing your version of a language-learning. I totally agree with you. And I can tell that we both of us experienced the same path!
ReplyDeleteIt is my belief that languages cannot go without what they innately possess, which entails, as you raised, the pronunciations. Those sounds that each language produce are inseparable.
In doing so, our education system is likely to teach only a language itself. In fact, a language-learning must be more than that.
What happens is, I sometimes I feel like I am a different person when I speak a foreign language. When I speak Spanish, I feel like I am more like a Spanish person.
Such a strange and interesting feeling. In a way, I believe that we should be an actor or actress when we speak a foreign language.