Teachers’ Perception on the Use of Subtitles as a Teaching Resource to Raise Students’ Motivation when Learning a Foreign Language

This paper explores the application of subtitling techniques in the context of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The article focuses on the use of subtitles as a teaching resource in order to raise students’ motivation and promote independent learning. Beyond enhancing students’ engagement in the classroom, introducing subtitling activities also allows to work with CLIL’s 4Cs (Content, Communication, Cognition and Culture): audiovisual products are culture-embedded and they provide specific contents (for the subject being taught, for instance); also, they can contribute to stimulate communication among students and trigger cognition processes. The use of subtitling as a teaching resource in foreign language learning has been approached by a reduced number of scholars and, so far, its application in relation to CLIL has not been investigated from an academic point of view. Leaving aside the implications of using Audiovisual Translation in order to improve students’ motivation and contribute to reinforce the creation of new learning environments, subtitling can also render positive results as long as vocabulary acquisition is concerned. In the particular context of CLIL, code-switching or translanguaging can also be targeted by working with inter / intra linguistic subtitles. This work reports on data from a research project developed in the University of Oviedo in the academic year 2012 / 2013. The proposal, led by the author of this paper, was intended to assess the application subtitling may have in several subjects (at both, undergraduate and graduate courses), including not only English but also French, Spanish and Asturian. Students taking these subjects subtitled audiovisual materials in order to complete several activities and projects. On a second stage, the project focused on the application of subtitling as a teaching resource in the framework of CLIL by training students of the Master in Content and Language Integrated Learning, who would develop a teaching unit based in the subtitling of video-clips in their school placement period, working with a group of students of Primary Education. So far, the project has rendered rather good results in terms of students’ motivation and commitment in the classroom. Moreover, the perception of the teachers engaged in this research suggests that subtitling as a teaching resource can be particularly effective when teaching content subjects through an additional language, as the 4Cs of Content and Language Integrated Learning promoted and approached with task-based activities in which students assume an active and communicative role. In order to assess teachers’ perception regarding the use of subtitles in the classroom, this research relies on quantitative and qualitative methodology: a 30-item questionnaire and administered after the school placement of the teachers was concluded; in addition, personal interviews were conducted with the teachers to have feedback on the implementation of this experiment and class-observation was carried out by means of visits to the participating schools.