Tecnologias e propiciamentos de contatos linguísticos: reflexões sobre o papel das TICs no

aprendizado de línguas estrangeiras

3
STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE USE OF
SUBTITLED VIDEOS AS A TOOL FOR VOCABULARY
ACQUISITION
Larissa Bianca Neves da Conceição Silva
Francisco Wellington Borges Gomes

1. Introduction

In the history of our species communication gradually

changed from gestures, grunts and images on cave walls to words,
either spoken or written. With time, these became the standard
way of expressing new experiences and impressions of the world.
This close relation between the knowledge of the lexicon and
communication is cleared by Neuman & Dwyer (2009), as they
define vocabulary as the words we must know to communicate
effectively: words in speaking (expressive vocabulary) and words in
listening (receptive vocabulary).
From the authors’ statement, one can imply that without
knowledge of vocabulary the communication may be impaired.
That view is also shared by Alqahtani (2015, p. 22) as he says that “a
limited vocabulary in a second language impedes successful
communication.” Because of that perspective, vocabulary may be
considered as playing an important role in second language
learning. He also points out that many researchers argue that
vocabulary is one of the most important if not the most important
component in learning a foreign language, and foreign language
curricula must reflect that.
Vocabulary Knowledge has been proving its relevance on the
acquisition of a language in various ways, such as in reading
comprehension. Laufer (1997, p. 22), apud (GATTOLIN, 2005)
argues that there is no point in reading strategies if due to lexical
insufficiency the reader is unable to understand the text or get only
a vague idea of what the author's assertion is and of the arguments
that are supporting this assertion.
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In schools, vocabulary teaching also has been given big

importance, especially with adolescents. One persistent finding is
that expanding and extending vocabulary is a critical part of the
literacy needs of all adolescents (HARMON, WOOD, HEDRIC,
VINTINNER & WILLEFORD, 2009). Despite of that, there are lots of
challenges in teaching vocabulary, even in first language teaching
contexts. On that, Bintz (2011, p 47) states that, in school, “this
need becomes particularly important and challenging given the fact
that students are required to comprehend and discuss increasingly
sophisticated readings across the content areas as they progress
through the middle grades.” He also suggests that another
challenge is that too many middle grade students are struggling
readers who have poor reading histories and negative perceptions
of reading. They may struggle because they can read words but
cannot comprehend texts and, as a result, they often end up as
reluctant or resistant readers or, at worst, non-readers.
There are also many challenges of teaching vocabulary in a
foreign language, such as homographs and homophones, L1
influence, and the lack of exposure to the language. Schmitt (2008)
explains some of these issues. According to him words with similar
forms, for example, are particularly confusing for students,
especially words that are alike in spelling (e.g.
comprehensive/comprehensible) or vowels (e.g. adopt/ adapt).
Hemchua and Schmitt (2006) (apud SCHMITT, 2008), in terms of
learner output in an L2, found that nearly one-quarter of the errors
in compositions were attributable to L1 influence. Schimitt also
states that in contrast to explicit approaches to vocabulary teaching
and learning, the key to an incidental learning approach is to make
sure learners get maximum exposure to the language.
In Brazil, a frequent challenge lays in the fact that most
schools use traditional methods for teaching vocabulary, mainly the
grammar translation method (SATELES & ALMEIDA FILHO, 2010). In
addition to that, Sökmen (1997) states that that method has been
shown to be ineffective. According to him, simply giving direct
vocabulary instruction without a clear context doesn’t lead to
acquisition. Instead, the author suggests an approach that
integrates indirect teaching of vocabulary through a variety of

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meaning-focused activities. In relation to the use of meaningful

activities for vocabulary teaching, Sedita (2005) states that teachers
need to engage the best kinds of vocabulary instruction and use
technology that accommodates and supports those instructions.
Hashem and Pourgharib (2014), on the use of technology, suggest
the use of subtitled videos as a way of providing contexts for the
learning of the lexicon of a language. The authors analyzed 50
Iranian female students with ages between 14 to 25 years old at
intermediate level in the four main skills of speaking using subtitled
cartoons. They found out that the watching of standard (Persian)
subtitled audiovisual materials like animated cartoons had a
positive effect on improving vocabulary knowledge of the subjects.
Another study conducted by Yuksel and Tanriverdi (2009) examined
the effects of watching a closed-captioned movie clip on incidental
vocabulary learning in a pre-test and a post-test experimental
research. They analyzed 120 intermediate university-level students
enrolled in preparatory classes at Kocaeli University, in Turkey. Each
participant was randomly assigned to captions or non-caption
groups. The results of their study revealed that watching the movie
clips facilitated the development of the vocabulary knowledge of
the students.
The previous studies showed positive results with the use of
subtitled videos to teach vocabulary in a foreign language, despite
of the positive results, they are not conclusive. Based on that, this
research investigated the students’ perceptions on the use of
subtitled videos for learning English as a foreign language. With
that in mind, an investigation was conducted with 67 beginner who
were students of an English language extension course at the
Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), for that, a questionnaire with
open questions was applied in order to collect their perceptions on
the use of subtitled videos as a resource for learning vocabulary.
This article is divided in 4 sections; firstly, it will present and discuss
intralingual and interlingual subtitling concepts. Secondly it will
bring an overview on the researches of vocabulary acquisition
through subtitled video. Thirdly it will present the research
conducted with the EFL students to find out their perceptions on
the use of subtitled videos as an artifact of vocabulary acquisition.

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Finally, it will bring conclusions and reflections on the analysis of

students’ perceptions in relation to that tool.

2. Concepts about subtitling

The use of intralingual and interlingual subtitles to investigate

language learning has been gaining prominence in the past
decades. From the 1980s to the present day, more than sixty papers
have been published in different journals all around the world, all
reporting on experiments with different populations and target
languages (MATIELO, D’ELY & BARETTA, 2015).
Williams and Thorne (2000, p. 219) explain the difference of the
two types of subtitling stating that “subtitling can be either
interlingual, where the language of the television program appears
translated into the target language on the screen, or that it can be
intralingual, where the source language production is also used for
subtitles.”
Intralingual subtitles, also called closed captions, are widely
used by deaf and hard-of-hearing people. According to Neves
(2008) intralingual subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers
not only display words as the text equivalent of spoken dialogue or
narration but also include speaker identification and sound effects.
When referring to popularity, interlingual subtitles are the most
used, this type of subtitle is usually present in cinema and DVDs.
According to Lukyen (1991) The interlingual subtitles are written
translations, based on the original text which appear as text lines
usually positioned at the bottom of the screen. They appear and
disappear to match the original speech/dialogue.
Even though subtitling as a language learning aid seems to
regard a rather wide acceptance, it is not free of critics and
controversies. This happens mostly because subtitling is a type of
translation (GAMBIER, 2016). Translation has not been well seen by
teachers, once it was extensively used in the Grammar-Translation
Method. As Doff (1988, p. 3) states, “translation has been
denigrated as “uncommunicative’, ‘boring’, pointless’, ‘difficult’,
‘irrelevant’, [...] and has suffered from too close for an association
with its cousin: Grammar.” But translation can also be a benefic tool

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for some other authors. Widdowson (1979, p. 111), for example,

states that translation can be used to present the second language
(L2) “not as the acquisition of new knowledge and experience, but
as an extension or alternative realization of what the learner
already knows”
Titford (1983) explained the importance of the right
techniques of using translation, he states that
using techniques which require students to make
decisions about structure and to assess the
communicative consequences of these decisions can be
a useful strategy for learning a language. The teacher
can exploit translation both as an exercise which
sharpens learners’ perceptions about language
contrasts, and as one which increases their feeling for
communicative appropriateness in the L2. (TITFORD
1983, p. 56)
In the next section we will present some research studies
conducted on the use of subtitled videos as a tool for vocabulary
teaching and acquisition. This theoretical review will guide the
analysis of the data in a forward section.

3. Subtitled videos as a tool for vocabulary acquisition

With the last concepts of intralingual and interlingual subtitles

in mind, Markham and Peter (2003) investigated on the effects of
using intralingual subtitles and interlingual subtitles with 213
intermediate university-level Spanish as a Foreign Language
students, with the aim of examining their listening and reading
comprehension. The same video passage used previously by
Markham, Peter and McCarthy (2001) was selected for this study.
When asked about their knowledge of the Apollo 13 mission, 48
participants reported having little or no knowledge of the topic.
Those participants were then distributed in three treatment
conditions in which a 7-minute video on the preparation for the
NASA mission was exhibited: interlingual subtitles, intralingual
subtitles, and no subtitles. Participants answered a 20-item Spanish
multiple-choice comprehension test on the passage to verify their
content comprehension. The results revealed that interlingual
subtitles were more beneficial for the students’ comprehension
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than intralingual subtitles in a control group. An exact same finding

had been obtained by Markham, Peter and McCarthy (2001).
A study conducted by Harji, Woods & Alavi (2010) focused on
the effectiveness of English subtitles on the EFL learner’s vocabulary
learning, with 92 Iranian degree university students studying
Translation at Islamic Azad University of Mashhad, Iran. They were
set in two homogenized groups on the basis of their English
language proficiency level, each was randomly assigned to be
control and treatment groups. They were given two different
instructions, one practicing instructional video episodes with
subtitles and the other without subtitles. Their vocabulary learning
was tested by a Content Specific Test (CST). The mean scores of the
two groups were compared through a t-test. The results obtained
were that participants viewing the videos with subtitles could
obtain a significantly higher mean score of the CST vocabulary tests
than that of the ones who viewed the videos without subtitles.
An experimental design study conducted by BavaHarji, Alavi &
Letchumanan (2014) examined the effects of viewing captioned
instructional videos on 92 EFL learners’ content comprehension,
vocabulary acquisition and language proficiency. It also examined
the participants’ perceptions of viewing the captioned instructional
videos. The students were divided in two groups, who were
undertaking the Tape and Video Interpretation course. A randomly
assigned experimental group viewed 30 episodes of captioned
Connect with English while the control group viewed the same
episodes without captions. Adopting the quantitative approach, The
Michigan English Test, some Content-Specific Tests and a
questionnaire were administered to examine the participants as
well as the experimental group’s perception towards viewing
captioned instructional videos. Although, both groups recorded
gains, the findings were in favor of the use of captioned
instructional videos. The results showed that the effects of viewing
captioned instructional videos are greater on vocabulary acquisition
and language proficiency development than on content
comprehension. The participants’ perceptions of the use of
captioned instructional video were consistent with the results. They
felt that it enhanced their language learning but did not affect their

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comprehension of the movie and that captions were not a form of

distraction.
A study conducted by Sabouri, Zohrabi, & Osbouei (2015)
aimed to find out whether there were significant differences
between males and females in learning vocabulary when watching
subtitled movies. A quantitative analysis of watching subtitled
movies of vocabulary tests was conducted in 24 male and 22 female
upper-intermediate students taking English classes in a private
language institute located in Iran. After assigning subjects randomly
into two groups of control and treatment groups (four
homogeneous groups), they were given the same pre- and post-test
items. The statistical results showed that regardless of the genre of
subtitled movie, males and females’ scores were not significantly
different from each other. Also, with the implementation of a
subtitled movie, the participants in experimental group performed
significantly better than participants of the control groups in both
genders. Finally, it could be concluded that the use of movies with
subtitles could improve students’ engagement in learning and
retrieval of new lexical items.
Lertola (2012) obtained positive results on the use of the
subtitling practice as an effective pedagogical tool in the EFL class in
a quasi-experimental research that focused on the effects of the
subtitling task on incidental vocabulary acquisition.
Rocha & Gomes (2016), in a bibliographical study,
investigated the effectiveness of videos to increase students’
vocabulary knowledge. They concluded that the use of video is an
effective approach in enhancing L2 students’ vocabulary,
considering it could significantly facilitate the lexicon acquisition
among learners due to visual elements in association with audio
and other resources as subtitles.
Nasab & Motlagh (2017) in a study with the purpose of
surveying the impact of subtitled cartoons on vocabulary learning
improvement among EFL learners tested 40 upper-intermediate
learners which were attending to English classes. After they had
taken a placement test to ensure their homogeneity they were
divided in experimental and control groups. The first group was
exposed to subtitled cartoons with English subtitles according to the

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level of their class while the second group watched cartoons

without any subtitles. Researchers included a pre-test and a post-
test in both groups. After six treatment sessions the findings
showed that participants in the experimental group with subtitled
cartoons performed significantly better and learned more new
vocabulary compared to the control group and that subtitling was
the significant type responsible for enhancing learners' vocabulary
knowledge.
In a study conducted by Shabani & Zanussi (2015), they
examined the effect of captioned TV series on developing
vocabulary knowledge of EFL students. There were forty
intermediate male students learning English in Shokouh institute of
Nowshahr, Mazandaran, Iran. Before the experiment, a 20-item
vocabulary matching test was conducted as the pre-test. The
classes were held as two sessions a week and the participants were
randomly selected into control and experimental groups; English
captioned episodes of the American sitcom Friends were shown to
the experimental group as the same non-captioned episodes to the
control one. After that, a post-test was conducted to examine the
development in each group. The results of that study revealed that
the participants in the experimental group outperformed those in
the control group in terms of vocabulary development.
Finally, Marzban & Zamanian (2015), in a study on the
effectiveness of the subtitling task as a tool for increasing the
vocabulary knowledge found that the subtitling condition caused a
more significant L2 vocabulary retention compared to the non-
subtitling condition. 40 low intermediate EFL students between the
ages of 20 and 25, both male and female, participated in this study,
carried out at Shamim Arghavan Language Academy in Shiraz, Iran.
They were assigned either subtitling practice (experimental group)
or writing and oral comprehension tasks (control group). All the
participants took a pre-test to ensure the target words were
unknown. After the experiment, immediate and delayed post-tests
were administered.
With those studies we can assume that the research on the
acquisition of vocabulary through subtitled videos had been
showing positive results either with the use of interlingual subtitles

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or intralingual subtitles. Due to the association of images, audio and

text elements it can significantly facilitate the vocabulary acquisition
of EFL students. Despite of the positive results they are not
conclusive when it refers to student’s perceptions. With that in
mind, we aim at bringing another contribution on that issue as a
means of helping the field getting more conclusive answers. For
that we collected and analyzed some student’s ideas and
perceptions on the use of this tool in their own acquisition of
vocabulary, as described in the following section.

4. The research

This research was conducted with 67 students from the

Extension Conversation Course (CCLIC) offered by NERIC, a resource
and information center of English Language located at the Federal
University of Piaui (UFPI) in Brazil. This course has the objective of
helping with the students’ competence development, with
emphasis on the abilities of oral comprehension and oral
production. The students are part of the academic community such
as university students, professors and employees from UFPI, as well
as from non-university backgrounds. To enroll in the course the
students must be over 18 years old.
A questionnaire composed by 8 questions (subjective and
multiple choice) was designed with the objective of collecting the
student’s perceptions on the use of subtitled videos for acquiring
vocabulary. The questionnaire was applied in June 2017 and it was
divided in three sections. The first section aimed at investigating the
students’ previous experiences with subtitled videos, the frequency
with which they performed those activities to learn and the
perceptions that they had about that artifact to learn a Foreign
Language. The second section aimed at diagnosing the level of
familiarity of the subjects with the object of study and possible
tendencies to reject or accept that resource. The next section
sought to verify through the answers of the students, the attitudes
and practices of the CCLIC teachers on the use of subtitled videos.
The objective of those questions was to verify if teachers acted as
motivators for students to use those resources in and out of the

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classroom. That section also investigated if subtitled videos were

used as an instrument of teaching vocabulary and which way the
students perceived those activities as elements that could lead
them to learn the language.
The next section of this article will bring the data analysis and
the results.

4.1 data analysis: students’ perceptions

The first question sought to investigate on the student’s

previous formal experiences with subtitled videos, such as classes,
courses lectures and so on. Around 43 per cent of the informants
answered that they had no formal experiences with that tool. The
other 57 percent answered, on the other hand, that they had
formal previous experiences with subtitled videos, either by
watching movies, documentaries or series during English classes,
college classes and participating of international congresses and
lectures.
On a scale from 1 to 10, being 1 very negative and 10 very
positive, 66 percent of the students that declared to have previous
formal experiences with subtitled videos evaluated their language
learning using them as positive, grading it as seven or above seven.
One of the informants named as Student 4, justified his positive
evaluation affirming that “subtitles help to improve pronunciation,
and subtitles with images facilitates the understanding.” Student 20
also shares this view, he stated that “I listen, I identified, and I see
the vocabulary being applied on a real situation which makes it
better to learn”. In addition to that, Student 33 affirmed that “with
the use of subtitled videos is easier to acquire new vocabulary”.
The positive evaluations by the informants are in accordance
to what Harji, Woods and Alavi (2015) suggest when they say that
subtitles in videos help learners better acquire vocabulary. On the
other hand, 34 per cent of the students evaluated the experience as
6 or less than 6. Students 35 and 47 justified their negative
evaluation by explaining that due to subtitles they couldn’t pay
attention to the audio or image because they were focusing only on
the subtitles. This indicates that for some students the association

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of different semiotic modes can be distracting. It interestingly

contradicts most of studies that suggest that association as
beneficial for understanding (BAVAHAJI, ALAVI & LETCHUMANAN
2014; ROCHA & GOMES, 2016). We suggest that that perception
was motivated by the lack of familiarity with the resource. It,
however, needs further investigation.
Below, we present a chart with the informant’s evaluation on
the usefulness of subtitles for vocabulary learning, based on their
previous experiences with the resource.

Graphic 1: students’ evaluation of their language learning using subtitled

videos on a scale from 1 o 10.
1 to 6 7 to 10

34%

66%

In a question on the frequency of watching subtitled videos

for pleasure and fun, 38 per cent of all the informants answered
that they watched subtitled videos very rarely or never, while 35
per cent answered “once a week or more”, 15 per cent answered
that they used the resource every fifteen days or once in a month
and 12 per cent answered that they watched videos with subtitles
every day or almost every day. These findings show that 50 per cent
of the informants don’t use this artifact for pleasure or fun in their
daily life. Again, we suggest that the students’ issue of
understanding the subtitles and also their little ability to focus on
subtitled videos may also be related to the lack of familiarity with
this tool.
In another question on the frequency of watching subtitled
videos focusing on learning or practicing a language, 42 per cent of
the students declared to use them very rarely or never, 40 per cent
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answered “once or more in a week”, 9 per cent said every fifteen

days or once a month and 9 per cent answered they saw subtitled
videos every day or almost every day. These findings corroborate
the last chart. It shows that there are no significant differences
between the use of subtitled videos by the informants for fun and
pleasure with the use of subtitled videos to learn or practice a
language.

Graphic 2: students' frequency of watching subtitled movies for pleasure

and fun.

12%

Everyday or Almost everyday.

35%
Once or more in a week.

Every 15 days or once in a

month.
38%
Very rarely or Never.

15%

Graphic 3: students’ frequency of watching subtitled movies for learning

or practicing a language.

Everyday or Almost
9% everyday.
Once a week or more.
42%

40% Every 15 days or once

in a month.

9% Very rarely or Never.

In the questionnaire, the students were also asked if they

believed that the use of videos could help to learn a foreign
language. While 96 per cent answered positively only 4 per cent of
the students answered negatively. Student 28 explained why he
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believed that videos could help learning a foreign language stating

that “I can see how they really have a dialogue in their daily life and
which expressions are most used”, Student 52 also shares this view,
as he said “I can observe their culture and also learn how to
pronounce words and expressions”. Student 48 asserted that when
he watches subtitled movies, he always learns a new word.
Those positive results on using subtitled videos to acquire
vocabulary were also obtained by many studies, such as Rocha &
Gomes (2017), Sabouri, Zohrabi, & Osbouei (2015) and Lertola
(2012). It also shows that language students recognize the
importance of the use of authentic material in Foreign Language
classes. According to Gomes (2006):
the authenticity is provided by material extracted from
real communication situations and not produced or
adapted specifically for didactic purposes, that allows
learning with contact with linguistic forms that the
students do not know, freeing them from the controlled
materials language, motivating them to develop strategies
of how they can produce the best. (GOMES, 2006, p.13)

Those materials acted as motivators to the student’s as they

could know more than lexical items but as cultural aspects such as
slangs, expressions and so on.
To explain their negative perceptions of learning a Foreign
language with videos, students 51 and 24 affirmed that when
exposed to subtitled videos they couldn’t understand what was
being exhibited on the screen because the speeches were displayed
very quickly. It reinforces the idea that the lack of familiarity with
the resource as well as the lack of proficiency in the Foreign
language may result in cognitive stress to some learners and,
therefore, affect the way they perceive subtitled videos. In order to
prevent those issues from happening the teacher must select the
adequate material for student’s comprehension. Those videos
should be chosen based on the student’s language proficiency and
background knowledge (ZHANG, WANG, WU & HUO, 2011) apud
(HASHEMI & POURGHARIB, 2014).
When asked which kind of videos would be the best for
learning vocabulary in a Foreign language, 52 per cent of the
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students pointed to the audio in the foreign language and subtitles

in Portuguese (interlingual subtitles) as the best type. It was
followed by movies with subtitles and audio in the foreign language
(intralingual subtitles), which was chosen by 34 per cent of the
informants. On the other hand, 11 per cent chose subtitles and
audio in the Foreign language and 3 per cent chose only audio in
the foreign language without subtitles as the best type.

Graphic 4: students’ beliefs on subtitled videos as a tool that could help

learning a foreign language.
Answered Yes Answered No
4%

96%

Those results indicate that, on the perceptions of the

students, the interlingual subtitle is the best type of caption to learn
vocabulary in a Foreign Language. This type of subtitle uses the
translation of the audio to the mother tongue of the audience
These findings reaffirm that translation can be a benefic tool, if
used with the correct techniques (TITFORD, 1983), such as the use
of subtitles in accordance to the level of proficiency of the students.
Below, we present a chart on the best type of subtitles to learn a
language according to the students’ perceptions.
In the questionnaire, the students were also asked if they felt
motivated by their English teachers to use subtitled videos in and
out of the classroom. While 88 per cent of the students answered
that they felt motivated only 8 per cent answered that they didn’t
feel motivated by their teachers. Student 8 explained why he felt
motivated by arguing that “the teacher always brings videos to the
class and also advises us to search for more videos at home to

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improve our knowledge”. Student 67 shared this view arguing that

“the teacher recommended some videos and websites” and
Student 65 affirmed that “the teacher suggests that listening to
words while watching and reading subtitled videos can facilitate the
learning”. On the other hand, Student 15 explained why he didn’t
feel motivated by arguing that “it was never talked about that tool
in the classroom”, similarly, student 13 explained that “the most
used tool in and out of the classroom was the textbook”.
Those results indicate that the use of subtitled videos isn’t a
uniform practice by the teachers in the extension course. While
some of them constantly use that tool, other teachers rarely use or
indicates subtitled videos. With those positive results on the use of
this artifact to learn vocabulary obtained so far, we suggest that the
insert of subtitled videos in the classroom is a strategy that should
be rethought by the course.
On the following question, it was asked if videos were used in
their English classes, 45 per cent of the students answered “very
rarely”, 14 per cent answered “never” followed by 14 per cent that
answered “once a month”, 8 per cent answered “every 15 days”
and only 1 per cent answered “every classes and once a week”. This
result interestingly contradicts the finding of the last question on
teacher as motivators. Although 88 per cent of the students
answered positively, this result showed that subtitled videos are not
a widely used feature in the classroom, which may directly
contribute for students’ issues to understand the subtitles when
this tool is used.
In the following question, answered only by the students who
informed that videos were used in English classes, it was asked
which percentual of those videos were subtitled. 38 per cent of the
students affirmed that between 76 up to 100% of the videos used in
the English class were subtitled. In the same question, in case the
teacher used that tool, it was asked if the students thought that
that tool was used properly. 81 per cent of the students answered
positively and 14 per cent answered negatively. Student 21 justified
his positive answer as he said that “the videos are connected to the
studied subjects and they help in the comprehension of the content
and also bring relevant additional information”. Student 16 also

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shared that view, he explained that “the dynamics becomes more

understandable after watching videos”. Those results reaffirm that
for the majority of language learners the combination of visual,
audio and print media attributes positively to language proficiency,
as also stated by BavaHarji, Alavi & Letchumanan (2014).
On the other hand, to explain his negative perceptions on
how teachers were using that tool, Student 21 suggested that the
videos used in the classroom was from an old material. He
explained the importance of using current videos stating that “the
videos should bring characters of current interests, that really hold
the attention”. Student 41 corroborated that perception and
explained the technology that was used to show those videos, he
justified his negative perception by stating that “the TV is too small,
and I can barely see the videos”. These findings reinforce the
importance of selecting the adequate material according to each
class and the resources available, such as current videos that match
the context of the students and generate interests. We also
reinforce that the materials should be chosen based on the
student’s language proficiency and background knowledge (ZHANG,
WANG, WU & HUO, 2011) apud (HASHEMI & POURGHARIB, 2014).
Bringing to class audiovisual materials in which the students see
little or no purpose could only lead to feeling that they do not
belong in the English classroom.

5. Conclusion

This study aimed at collecting and analyzing the students’

perceptions on the use of subtitled videos for vocabulary
acquisition of a Foreign Language. For that, a questionnaire was
applied with students from the first level of an Extension Course
located at the Federal University of Piauí, in Brazil. The data analysis
showed positive results on the use of subtitled video as a tool for
learning vocabulary. Although some of the students had negative
perceptions on the use of this technology, 96 per cent of the
informants suggested subtitled videos as a benefic tool to learn
vocabulary.

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Tecnologias e propiciamentos de contatos linguísticos: reflexões sobre o papel das TICs no
aprendizado de línguas estrangeiras

We suggest that one of the main issue presented previously

by the students in using this tool to learn, such as the low focus to
see the image and read the subtitles on the screen, was caused by
the lack of familiarity that some of them had with subtitled videos in
and out of the classroom.
With those positive findings, we also suggest that the
insertion of videos in the classroom can be a good tool in helping
learning vocabulary in a Foreign Language. This tool provides the
integration of more than one semiotic mode, such as subtitles,
audio and movie images on the screen which can facilitate the
understanding of new words. Therefore, the course and teachers
should choose adequately, currently and contextualized material in
order to the students don’t feel displaced in the classroom.
We hope that this research can contribute to futures studies
in the field, such as further researchers on students’ perceptions on
subtitled videos.

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