SUBTITLED CARTOONS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING CONTEXT: DANGERS

Abstract

Foreign language teaching and learning has evolved into a multiple process which includes not only the printed and audio, but also visual, audiovisual, subtitled audiovisual and other types of material. Many researches show that subtitled audiovisual material as well as the very process of subtitling is beneficial in various foreign language teaching and learning contexts. The aims of the article are as follows: to introduce subtitling and its use for language teaching and learning as well as to discuss possible dangers of the use of interlingual subtitles (i.e. dialogues in one language are presented in the form of subtitles in another language) of children’s cartoons in the context of incidental language acquisition in Lithuania. The descriptive comparative analysis of seven children’s cartoons concentrates on the English language learning issues related with translation of idioms from English into Lithuanian, general translation problems, subtitle segmentation and breaking. The results of the study show that not all idiomatic source language expressions retain their idiomatic aspect in the Lithuanian subtitles, even in the cases when such retention is possible; cases of inaccurate translation as well as errors in segmentation and line breaking are noted. All of these may impoverish the children’s mother tongue and diminish the process of foreign language acquisition. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7220/2335-2027.2.13