I found it depends on where your attention is focused. When the dialogue gets a little complex, your attention completely goes towards the subtitles. When it's a little simpler, you can use it to learn a few words/sentences. It's really only useful as a learning aid, giving exposure to the language and reminding you of the syntax (SOV). - M. Khaled.

"No coz not all of them are translated properly" - L. Hanney

One very interesting paper of Mitterer and Mac Queen (2009)

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0007785

Comprehension of multiple channel messages (M. Hinkin, 2009; Master of science Dissertation). See Pdf Version

http://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/handle/2097/1679

Subtitles are helpfull to understand the story littel if the language is unknown to you. But they do not help to learn the language. The way of construction of the sentences in different for every language hence one can not understand which word is used for what?

NO, it only helps understanding the story and that too not exactly. You can just get an idea what's going on. Rest depends on your grasping power.

One important variable is the number of veiweings of the same movie. In my case, i have seen more than 30 times "Some like it hot" (Billy wilder) and it seems to me that i got a large part of the dialogue information. When you see a sutitled movie for the second time, it seems that the dialogue information is more pregrant. It depens also of your language level and the complexity and connections between visual and auditory information.

Thanks for all of you for the comments.

The issue is not only to be able to understand one film better but to learn from it, i.e. to be able to transfer what you've learnt to other films or videos without subtitles, in terms of oral skills. What I'm referring to is the idea developed by Gaonac'h about cognitive overload in foreign language learning and the fact that learners 'naturally" focus their attention on low level operations and therefore do not activate high level operations that are nevertheless necessary in oral comprehension. My question is: do not subtitles reinforce the learners' natural trend to deal with low level treatments whereas they should develop orally-oriented strategies which could be transferable?

It probably depends on the learners's level in the foreing language. Are there any studies on the matter related to the learners' proficiency level in a foreign language?

Yes, The proficiency level in the two languages on screen is certainly a decisive factor. We may also add as important variables the background knowledge in cinema, screenplays and storytellings and also some individual factors as the own personal experiences of the viewers (i mean in the real life experience).

I agree with the idea that Subtitles influence low level processes (automatic reading) for all viewers (even if they don't need subtitles to understand the movies.

See Wordpress post for further informations.

http://iheartsubtitles.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/subtitles-to-learn-a-second-language-good-or-bad/

Subtitles are helpful to understand the story a little coz., one can lmagine by actions on the screens. If one knows the verbal language of the film then u can understand it a little. But the language can not be learned by the film's subtitles. More, over subtitles are not all the dialogues which are used in the films. The way of construction of the sentences is different for every language hence one can not understand which word is used for what? e.g. the way of construction of sentences in English is different and in Chinese or any other language is different from English.

It depends also on the number of times we have seen the same movie. I have seen some classic movies many times and i know the story of some of them perfectly well (like strangers on the train or north by northwest by Alfred Hitchcock). If so, we can concentrate on the dialogues and create links between translation equivalents (one in audio presentation and one in the visual presentation). It depends also on the interest of the veiwers in cinema and storytelling.

No, there is no chance of learning any language if you dont know the basics of the language.

I disagree. There is a literature that looks at the effects of learning a second language via subtitles. I would look at Y'derwalles research as well as some other Dutch folks whose names are escaping me. Anecdotally in the US, families with small children report beginning to learn English when watching Sesame Street with their preschoolers. There is also some evidence that early elementary English language learners can pick up English from watching English programs with closed captions. I've done quite a bit in this area. I have a recent publication (uploaded on this site with Piotrowski and Greenwood) that discusses this literature. Best of luck, Deb.

if subtitles are correct, and respect the original lines, yes. Definitely.

It depends on what language the subtitles are in.

This may be the Dutch group Deborah was thinking of: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0007785

Subtitles *in your native language* can actually interfere, since they can interfere with listening more attentively to the foreign language, being more salient, especially to a beginner. In my own experience, once I achieved a certain level of fluency, then the English subtitles could help to confirm/verify/hint, but I was actively and intentionally listening to the foreign language by that stage.

On the other hand, having subtitles *in the same language* as the audio is very helpful. This study suggests that and again, in my own experience, it helps immensely to be able to "parse" what the speaker is saying, especially with repetition (of the film as suggested above, or of segments as can be done with television or video that lets you repeat). It helps with the auditory "decoding" of the spoken language and thus also exposes the person to more naturalistic language than from written materials.

Oh Yes, The effect of intralingual subtitles (same language in dialogues and subtitles) in film comprehension depends on the language proficiency and can be considered as a redundancy effect in multimedia learning (useful for beginners but not for the experts).

Or maybe for balancing out skill levels in different modalities? One might read extremely fluently, for instance, but have more limited exposure to the spoken word. I t seems to me that intralingual subtitles would then be useful for "filling the gap" while practicing auditory skills.

subtitles help to understand the film but they don't help us to learn the language. because unless you do not have any understanding or knowledge of the alphabets, phonetics and meaning of the words spoken in the film you will not be able to learn the language. Like if you are watching a Marathi movie with subtitles in English, you will be able to understand the story little bit but that will not help you to learn marathi language.

Subtitles helped me to acquire vocabulary and be able to relate the written word with the sound. I didn't necessarily watch the same movie every time yet I acquired an increased vocabulary really fast and my listening skills improved as well. It is obviously one case but I will be happy to give you details if necessary/useful.

A small pilot experiment I made (in a subtitling country) seemed to show that people watching a film in an L2 of theirs with intralinguistic subtitles obtained better scores in recollecting phrases and words from the soundtrack than people who saw the same film excerpt with subtitles in their mother tongue (L1). This latter group mainly remembered things from the L1 subtitle, rather than from the original language soundtrack.

Could it be that L1 subtitling is not that useful for language learning if the viewers are not psychologically ready and willing to learn during the viewing situation? And that the more subtitle reading is a habit, the less one bothers spending energy in truly recording anything from the audiotrack? To what extent does one end up, in daily television watching situations, just "reading" foreign films rather than watching and listening to them?

That is an interesting point made by Olli Lautenbacher. My mother tongue is Spanish. I can watch a movie in English without problem. In my homeland, however, sometimes I got movies in English with Spanish subtitles. It confused me because sometimes I tried to read instead of hearing. The problem was that since the translation is not always literal or correct I will hear inconsistencies and it affected the experience. Since I couldn't turn the subtitles off, I sometimes avoided watching films with subtitles. With time I trained myself to ignore them or stop reading.

Deborah there are some words u can come across which are used again and again and one can learn those words. but one cant learn the whole language. Moreover if subtitles are in a language u know then only u can learn those words of the language spoken. The language of the subtitles must be known to the learner.

Consistent with the paper linked by Jean-Marc Lavaur, I can say from personal experience learning Dutch that subtitles in the foreign language do help a lot. I have watched a lot of Flemish (Belgian Dutch) TV series and movies, and I read the subtitles in Dutch while watching the show (also in Dutch). This assists with following the speech and making links between the sounds and letters. Also, when you pick up new words, you can both see it and hear it. It's probably not the most effective way of learning a foreign language, but it's certainly helped me. Also consistent with the linked paper, I can't see how subtitles in your own language would possibly help learning the foreign one. They are inconsistent with each other, and will simply have the effect of making you read your own language rather than listen to the foreign one.

When we watch a movie, multiple cognitive processes are occurring at the same time - my students who read subtitles are also hearing the rhythm and melody of a language, improving their aural and oral (especially accent) competences. At the more intermediate level, it provides us with an opportunity to discuss different key words and how they have been translated. Indeed, having students working on the subtitling of a film clip helps them reflect on how language and culture work across cultures.

por supuesto que ayuda!! y por varias razones: si la persona es principiante, esta práctica le ayuda a incorporar una pronunciación correcta y de primera mano. Si la persona ya tiene conocimientos, puede aprender modismos y giros en el idioma original. La escucha en un idioma y la visualización en otro es un ejercicio excelente. Por supuesto, estoy hablando de subtítulos fieles al idioma original y de una correcta transferencia al idioma al que es traducido. Caso contrario, esto no sirve para nada.

Depending on how you view the film, I suppose you could learn things. I have been using shorts and YouTube clips with subtitles for a few years now - all of them with my French students. I have found out that if there are subtitles (even scanty ones or subtitles that actually differ from what is said), people will rely heavily on the reading experience and will concentrate less on the viewing and listening experience. I suppose this is because learners are less inclined to trust their ears and instead tend to trust their eyes! I have never dealt with blind or deaf students - with them, it must be very different :)

In laguage teaching, it is important to present one's students with a variety of stimuli - both written and spoken text. It is also important to do it simultaneously because when one is learning, all these ways of getting the information are divided! They are not combined into a whole as it is for a native language or a language in which we are proficient. It is important for students to establish links between spoken and written text, and to be able to differentiate between the two (simultaneously!).

So... to answer your question, I think is DOES help to use subtitles on OVs. But it should be done with the conscious effort to also listen and not only read :)

Here is some side reading:

http://www.ed.gov.nl.ca/edu/k12/curriculum/guides/english/primary/readandviewcomp.pdf

http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/engl_teach_read_view_comprehension.pdf

http://www.actf.com.au/education-program/reading-viewing-for-comprehension

In learning French, I would exhaust myself watching French films repeatedly over and over until i knew their dialogues very well. First, I would watch the film to understand its dialogue with my native subtitles, then watch it with french subtitles, after the third or fourth viewing, I would remove the subtitles and attempt memory recall. Words, phrases, context, grammatical rules- all this as I was learning in the classroom I would apply to my viewing. I was willing, and psychologically I was very ready. My mother learned her English from watching soap operas as a housewife tending to me as an infant, and so did one of my aunts. I have read of other instances, even certain famous personalities who acquired English speaking capacity with the help of viewing some sort of media- particularly film. It always depends on the individual.

It's great to have some personal experiences :) I learned French exclusively by reading books. Which may explain my persistent accent when speaking the language. I know a few people who have actually learned English by watching films in OV without subtitles but they are all from Northern Europe. I do not know if there is any study centred on that group of languages (Danish, Finnish, Swedish) but they are all very good at English in general, not only those who watch films in OV.

Absolutely. We must consider people who are not privileged with a formal education and only have limited access to the language they fancy to learn. We must also consider the intention behind the viewing, as well as the "ear" that is lent to the experience. In order to enhance my learning experience and apply the syntax rules i learned in class, i started reading books in French and paid careful attention to sentence structure. it also helps that my first language is Spanish, which is what my parents spoke at home, while I learned English at school and with the rest of the world.

I must also add that in wanting to learn french, I understood that it is not ever just about learning a country's language, but in also understanding above all a country's culture, heritage, traditions, custom and history. The language is a result of all these things, and this is fundamental when wishing to learn language.

When i was living in Brasil, i have seen many movies with english dialogues and portuguese subtitles (my mother tongue is french). as a result, i made strong links in my memory betwen english-portuguese translation equivalents and i learned a lot. as Caroline said, it depends also on how many times do we see the same movie.

Carolina Rodrígues, yo también aprendí inglés mirando las "soap operas" cuando era muy joven, y me fue excelente. Your mom is a genius!!

Jean Marc, cela dépend aussi de son don naturel. Les sous-titrages jouent vraiment un rôle très intéressant comme catalyseur dans l'apprentissage d'une langue, car les éléments visuels font le reste! (J'en suis une preuve vivante)

Bien sûr, les connaissances et les expériences cinématographiques, culturelles et personnelles des spectateurs sont très variées.

Merci à tous pour ces commentaires en plusieurs langues !

halo Mercedes! hay que ser inventivo, y como se dice: la necesidad es la madre de la invencion. Jean Marc, je suis aussi la preuve vivante, et ma mère aussi! C'était mon plaisir.

Carolina, me enterneció grandemente la petite anecdote de tu mamá. A todos estos intelectuales de "rompe y rasga", como dicen los españoles, habría que recordarles más seguido que el instinto de supervivencia y la voluntad funcionan mejor que cualquier teoría académica de paso. Dale mis enormes respetos a la señora Rodrígues. Un abrazo!!

Je ne sais pas si la méthode fonctionne bien pour tous les nieveaux.

http://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/how-to-improve-your-french-with-french-movies

Quelques-unes de mes recherches en français et en anglais sur Slideshare

http://fr.slideshare.net/jeanmarclavaur

Querida mercedes, ud. Ha dicho lo que yo estaba pensando...la supervivencia es donde de todo viene. A veces pienso q la persona más inteligente es el único que puede, no sólo sobrevivir con la menor cantidad de recursos que tienen, pero a su vez hacerse una vida llena de riquezas por sí mismos. My mother has taught me many tricks in life.

jean-marc, mille fois merci pour votre recommandation. Je suis là maintenant.

Claro, Carolina; con la experiencia de gente como ella, estos foros llenos de alarde de conocimientos se reducen a nada. En cuanto al resto, pienso exactamente igual que vos.

Cher Jean-Marc,

Je suis sûr que ça fonctionne plus ou moins, mais ça peut vraiment dépendre qui est le spectateur. (I continue in English, in theory, other languages are not allowed (!) at RG :-( )

My remark is that this may work in cases when the language of the movie is not similar to the native language of the spectator. In my case, I am native Hungarian and in case of English or German movies I could and still can learn expressions this way. These languages are very different (Hungarian-English, Hungarian-German), so this way one can learn many expressions (how to ask politely, express anger, be sarcastic, give orders, etc.)

Agreeing with Olu, my further remark is that it is VERY important that the subtitles should be GOOD (almost perfect) translations of the spoken text. Since they must be short and well readable, it is a hard task to create them. Once I watched a broadcast in Hungarian with (really good) English subtitles. It was an interview with an artist, who uses intentionally a lot of (Hungarian) expressions from different levels and styles of the language, and so I could see that how difficult it is to create short but correct subtitles.

Amicalement, hasta la próxima, Balázs

Yes, definitely. However, the method and type of movie is also important.

For instance, cultural centers which also promote a foreign language and culture abroad (e.g. Cervantes centers) maintain DVD catalogues. It is best to consult with librarians and teachers which movie would best work for you.

Choose stories you are familiar with or which are not packed up with information (children's films, fairytales, movies you've already seen in your language) so that you can concentrate on the elements of language rather than the content. Style matters as well - a documentary would be easier to follow and speech would be more articulate compared to popular movies.

Besides, there are some films especially created for language learners. For Spanish, I would recommend Destinos - http://www.learner.org/series/destinos/. It is a telenovela but it is not as slow as you might think. The method was developed by Bill VanPatten who is a professor of Spanish - https://sites.google.com/site/bvpsla/

The series is designed so that viewers can really follow the story, even with little or no prior knowledge of Spanish, the aim being to immerse them in the overall sonority and logic of the language before starting any textbook 'standard' activities. Subtitles can be turned on and off. Grammar-wise, various structures and tenses are being introduced over time/episodes, therefore watching the episodes a number of times and then section by section is really efficient, at least for me.

Many thanks, Hristina, for the links. The type of movie can also induce the relation between dialogue and visual information. I will see destinos.

I have not really studied this but I wanted to put in my 2 cents. I am currently watching some korean dramas (hallyuwave) and I can tell you that you cannot learn a language from reading subtitles at most you can learn basic things like: Hello, how are you?, my name is..., brother, sister, etc. It has sparked an interest to learn the language and it helps with pronunciation and to imitate their inflections in language. 

I am learning Japanese by watching the show The Americans.  The Japanese subtitles and language are different, so my Japanese teacher translated all of the spoken Japanese into Japanese characters.  We then translated into English.  It works for me because I am interested in the show.  I now have a range of very useful phrases such as illegal operatives (非合法 工作員),  don't stand in my blind spot (視覚に 立たないでくれ) and I warned them (警告は した).   I think some of the general word structure is sinking in.  My point is really that if you enjoy the basic material you are happy to watch it tens of times to learn the language.

On my experience, I am Thai people. My native is Thai language. Many time i watch an international movie for me, there are English language or Japanese language I like to listen a langue from films not subtitle because meaning of sub tittle is too not exactly because of translation are depend on translator and some time feeling and experience of them are related.

if you just watch a movie by subtitle it help you if checking new words, grammars and watch it again without subtitle.