LISTENING SKILL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH INTEGRATING SUBTITLES WITH SCHEMATA ACTIVATION

Advances and increased availability of computers and DVDs have altered and expanded the field of second/foreign language education. Listening comprehension can be fostered with the addition of images. Today subtitles bring together old and new technology. The objective of this research project was to investigate the influence of schemata and subtitles on second language listening comprehensions. Two models used in this study include dual subtitling (English dialogue with Persian as well as English subtitles at the same time) with schema-activation and dual subtitling without schema-activation. The preliminary use of dual subtitling with schemaactivation was to explore their possible effects on the development of Iranian English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ listening comprehension. 50 advance EFL participants took part in this study. The learners were divided into two groups randomly. The first group of participants was labeled as dual subtitling with schema-activation and the second group as dual subtitling without schema-activation. The results confirmed the effectiveness of dual subtitling accompanied by schema activation in ameliorating EFL learners’ listening comprehension. Dual subtitles accompanied by schema activation can be recommended as a way for simultaneous attention on listening comprehension and teachers who are interested in promoting listening skill of their student can benefit from the findings of this study and use dual subtitles accompanied by schema activation in their daily program. KEYWORDS: schema activation, subtitles, dual subtitling, listening comprehension, multimedia INTRODUCTION Listening as a chief constituent plays an important role in language learning and teaching. “Listening is the most common communicative activity in daily life: we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write” (Morley, 1991, p. 82). In spite of its importance, L2 learners often regard listening as the most difficult language skill to learn (Hasan, 2000; Graham, 2003). It is believed that learning cannot begin without understanding input and “listening is thus fundamental to speaking” (Nunan, 1997, p. 47). Technology has now an important role in teaching because it is more accessible to teachers and learners of other languages. More and more often, teachers are now encouraged to implement innovative multimedia tools such as audios or videos in EFL classrooms because they seem to be more convenient, entertaining, very handy, and can develop students listening comprehension (Wang, 2012). International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World (IJLLALW) Volume 6 (1), May 2014; 253-­‐267 Abdollapour, Z EISSN: 2289-­‐2737 & ISSN: 2289-­‐3245 www.ijllalw.org 254 Technology has also played a serious role in facilitating authentic communication and the power of films as a medium is recognized by everybody. Good films can serve as a valuable pedagogical aid, both for classroom use and self-study. In fact, films present slices of life, and provide a realistic, authentic and entertaining way of improving the learners’ command of the language (Massi & Merino, 1996). THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Subtitles and Captions The National Captioning Institute defines captions as “the process of converting the audio portion of a video production into text which is displayed on a television screen”. The captions are typically white upper-case letters against a black background. Subtitles, on the other hand, are defined as ‘the permanently affixed onscreen text that represents the narration, dialogue, music, or sound effects in a program. Subtitles are typically placed at the bottom centre of the television screen’ (Multimedia digital studios, online glossary, as cited in Zarei, 2008). Both captions and subtitles are transcriptions of audio portions of television programs, appearing on the screen at the same time as the program. As standard audio and video signal transmissions are received, captions and subtitles become an additional modality. The two printed versions of the spoken passage are yet different in the linguistic element of the texts which comes along with the original speech. Captions are intralingual as the written texts are unilingual renditions of the soundtrack (Garza, 1991; Borras & Lafayette, 1994; Chung, 1996, 1999; Williams & Thorne, 2000). Katchen, Lin, Fox and Chun (2002, as cited in Etemadi, 2012) characterize six combinations of subtitles: 1) Standard Subtitling (L2 audio with L1 subtitles) 2) Bimodal Subtitling (L2 audio with L2 subtitles) 3) Reversed Subtitling (L1 audio with L2 subtitles) 4) Bilingual Subtitling (L2 audio with L2 and L1 subtitles simultaneously) 5) Bilingual Reversed Subtitling (L1 audio with L1 and L2 subtitles simultaneously) 6) No Subtitling (L2 audio with no subtitles at all) Baltova (1999) argues that subtitled films provide simultaneous exposure to spoken language, printed text, and visual information all conveying the same message, and so promote content and vocabulary learning even in relatively inexperienced learners. Wilson (2002) declares that subtitled movies motivate learners to consciously notice new vocabulary and idioms and also facilitate vocabulary acquisition without being a distraction for learners. Vanderplank (1988, p. 272-3) offers gives two benefits of subtitles. First, subtitles might have potential value in helping the language acquisition process by providing the learners with the key to massive quantities of authentic and comprehensible input. Second, subtitles help to develop language proficiency through enabling learners to be conscious of new and unfamiliar language that might be lost in the stream of speech. Zanon (2006) claims that the use of video subtitles provides both a dynamic and rich source of communicative language in use. Zanon believes that International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World (IJLLALW) Volume 6 (1), May 2014; 253-­‐267 Abdollapour, Z EISSN: 2289-­‐2737 & ISSN: 2289-­‐3245 www.ijllalw.org 255 it is dynamic because all languages are in constant change, and they are not fixed, and the best way of reflecting this is through updated video, TV and other media, and rich because the resources and techniques are multiple. Zanon (2006) also states that Zanon (2006) avows that subtitled films provide a triple connection between “image, sound in one language and text, normally in another, sound and text being typically linked by translation. This type of connection generally encourages strong associations for retention and language use. If we consider the supplementary effects that both visual images and translation on their own typically entail for foreign language learning, their combination here is necessarily very powerful” (p: 43). Wilson (2002) holds that subtitled movies help learners to consciously notice new vocabulary and idioms and they have potential to facilitate vocabulary acquisition without being a distraction for learners. Danan (2004) argues that subtitling increases comprehension and leads to additional cognitive benefits, such as greater depth of processing. The use of subtitled audiovisual material provides simultaneous exposure to spoken language, printed text and visual information all conveying the same message, it also promotes content and vocabulary learning even in relatively inexperienced learners (Baltova 1999, p. 33). It is believed that subtitles may help develop language proficiency by enabling learners to be conscious of language that they might not otherwise understand. Subtitles may bridge the gap between reading and listening skills (Borrás & Lafayette, 1994).