Teaching L2 Vocabulary Through Animated Movie Clips with English Subtitles

Abstract

Vocabulary mastery is essential for second language (L2) students. Several trends in foreign language vocabulary research and pedagogy have emerged during the 21st century. Perhaps the most significant is the technological revolution and the ever-increasing availability of English-language materials on the Internet. Thus, the present study examines the effectiveness of watching video clips with English subtitles in online classrooms to improve L2 students’ vocabulary learning and short- and long-term retention. The study consisted of a one-group, pretest-posttest quasi-experiment in which participants were taught two sets of L2 vocabulary using two methods: the presentation of subtitled clips from animated movies and first language (L1) translation and text-based activities. The participants consisted of 35 female students. The data collection was stratified into four steps: two pretests administered for both vocabulary sets before the interventions, short follow-up tests after both interventions, semi-structured interviews, and two posttests for both vocabulary sets administered at the end of the module. The data was subjected to statistical and thematic analysis. The results indicated that watching movie clips with subtitles had an effective learning result and a positive impact on students’ motivation to learn L2 vocabulary. The integration of multimedia tools and applications through the presentation of video clips with English subtitles had a powerful effect on vocabulary recognition, comprehension and retention. Participants achieved higher scores on the vocabulary posttests from watching movie clips with English subtitles than from learning vocabulary through a traditional teaching method. Therefore, the current study should serve as a foundation for future studies to validate and reference its results.