Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By:
Ahmad Y. Totah
120141456
&
Ahmad S. Abu-Samra
120142065
Submitted to
IUG
Do EFL Learners Really Acquire the Language via Watching English Subtitled movies?
Introduction
"You can't just watch a movie, you have to study a movie"(Lewis, 2020:1). Learning English
form movies, as Abdulrazaq (2018) clarified, is an ideal technique to help learners acquire the
language through a pleasant and enjoyable situation. They are the richest materials among other
forms of media because they provide an authentic environment and realistic feelings about the
language. Also, they introduce the words and expressions associated with the nonverbal language
and give students live examples to imitate. In addition, they help in language retention, too. The
most important effect is that they help learners to acquire the everyday language which is very
However, movies cannot teach the language alone, but it can be used as an aid to the basic
study. Pimsamarn (2011) stated that the combination of the images, sounds and subtitle text make it
easy for the learners to comprehend the language. The images gives the clue and gestures to verbal
language, while the subtitle text helps learners to identify the vocabulary they already know period
however, the target language subtitle may attract the students more than the images and sounds
because they're reading scales are better than listening ones. Watching movies with the students' first
language subtitle on the other hand draws their attention to the translated text and sounds and help
them to confirm their understanding. Nevertheless, students may focus on the subtitle and ignore
what they actually hear because their reading skills and their mother language is strong when
compared to their listening and speaking skills in the target language. In spite of all of these facts
1
about using movies to acquire a new language, there are a few studies that aimed to questioning the
1. investigating the IUG EFL learners attitude towards implementing English subtitled movies
2. investigating the IUG EFL learners attitude towards implementing English subtitled movies
3. Identifying the most suitable genres of movies for teaching and learning purposes.
1. What is the IUG EFL learners' attitude towards using English movies to enhance acquiring
2. What is the IUG EFL learners' attitude towards using English movies to improve English
3. Which genre of the movies is more suitable for acquiring the English language?
little efforts are paid to investigate EFL learners perspectives of implementing them to acquire the
English language( Albiladi, Abdeen, and Lincoln, 2018). Therefore, the researchers intend to search
on this point for helping EFL learners to change the time of watching movies for fun to a time of
This study is very important as it attempts to help EFL learners to exploit learners' time and
to transform entertainment and pleasure tool into a way of interesting and funny learning. It also
provides effective ways to learn by watching films, and to make use of them to develop learners'
It was limited to a sample of…. students who enrolled at the IUG English Department
It was limited to the topics of EFL learners' attitude towards implementing English
Definition of terms:
3
IUG: Islamic University of Gaza.
Attitude: in this study, refers to the learners point of view about the topic under the study.
Literature Investigating
General Background:
Lewis (2020) argues that watching movies can be a waste of time unless it is done the proper
way. "You can't just watch a movie, you have to study a movie"(1), he comments. He mentioned five
attributes from the study-focused approach to movies. The first one is to focus and study the movie
actively. The second one is to break the movies up into smaller chunks of times for better
observation .the third one is to repeat and repeat. The fourth one is to engage and mimic what you
see. The fifth one is to know how to utilize from the subtitle. Based on this approach he, also,
recommends a method to be followed. Firstly, choose a movie with excellent subtitle in both
languages: the first and the target language. Secondly, watch the story and get to know the characters.
Then, break the movies into segments. Thirdly, write down the new words and phrases which seem
to be significant to the story or are repeated more than once. The learners should repeat this step
about five times with each segment. Fourthly, check comprehension and remembrance by turning off
the subtitle. Fifthly, review the movie with another partner or teacher for more understanding and
2. A great way to acquire the body language and other nonverbal cues
3. A more authentic language input then a textbook such as vocabulary idioms colloquial
4
Learning English form movies is an ideal technique to help learners acquire the language
through a pleasant and enjoyable situation. They are the richest materials among other forms of
media because they provide an authentic environment and realistic feelings about the language. Also,
they introduce the words and expressions associated with the nonverbal language and give students
live examples to imitate. In addition, they help in language retention, too. The most important effect
is that they help learners to acquire the everyday language which is very essential for modern English
communication. However, movies cannot teach the language alone, but it can be used as an aid to the
Many teachers are keen to using films in language teaching classrooms due to their multiple
advantages. Firstly, they are motivating and enjoyable as they are integral parts of students' lives.
Secondly, they provide authentic and varied language that helps students to understand the language
because they associate listening with seeing facial expressions and gestures at the same time. Thirdly,
they give a visual context because the language is spoken inside films are real and interactive that
has a natural expressions and natural flow of speech. Fourthly, they bring variety and flexibility to
classroom by widening the range of the teaching techniques to help students to improve their four
Adel (2019) argued that Movies are not the best way to learn the language. Even, it's not a
way at all, but it may help the learner overcome some of his weaknesses as it:
1. helps the learner to understand some aspects of culture as most of the content of the films is
2. Gives the learner the opportunity to listen to the native speakers of the language.
5
3. helps learners to review the words and expressions she/he already knows.
However, it is not a good way to learn new points as it will only raise many questions for the learner
without answering them. Moreover, they cannot be exploited to repeat behind the actors as this
method does not contribute at all to the development of the level of fluency of the learner, but all
there is it will help to improve the pronunciation a little. In order to be able to benefit from films, the
learner must:
1. focus on the quality of the films and their language content, not on the number of films
watched.
3. choose of dramatic films and not action films which their linguistic content is fairly rich in
personality and their tradition of speaking, and this helps to build the character of the learner
Language teachers can take advantage of a movie treasure that addresses topics such as
immigration, xenophobia, and adaptation to a new culture, or the dilemmas one faces when one
belongs to two cultures. Although the films cannot replace actual interaction with members of other
cultures, they can provide useful preparation for those meetings by promoting understanding and
sensitivity development. Intercultural communication through films allows students to understand the
behavior of others and empathize with members of minority groups, the misunderstandings between
6
English movies are a great tool for learners to improve English language skill. Specifically,
English movies without subtitles are considered to be effective tools for enhancing language learners'
1. Enhancing learners' listening strategies by guessing and interpreting the meaning of the
3. Concentrating more on the image and sounds without the distraction of subtitles.
However, still there are many difficulties that could face learners because of their level of
1. Not recognizing all the words used by the actors and misinterpreting the meaning when
3. Getting confused and misinterpret due to the use of colloquial expressions, technical
4. Unfamiliar words and specific humor with cultural background and knowledge. (Baltova,
1999)
Pimsamarn (2011) stated that the combination of the images sounds and subtitle text make it
easy for the learners to comprehend the language. The images gives the clue and gestures to verbal
language, while the subtitle text helps learners to identify the vocabulary they already know period
7
however, the target language subtitle may attract the students more than the images and sounds
because they're reading scales are better than listening ones. Watching movies with the students' first
language subtitle on the other hand draws their attention to the translated text and sounds and help
them to confirm their understanding. Nevertheless, students may focus on the subtitle and ignore
what they actually hear because their reading skills and their mother language is strong when
Previous Studies:
Ebrahimi and Bazaee (2016) conducted an experimental study to investigate the impact of
watching standard subtitled movies on EFL learners' content and vocabulary comprehension. The
participants of the study were 44- Iranian- female -and -male students aged between 20 and 27 and
have been exposed to the English language for more than 6 years. The participants were divided into
two equal groups: The experimental group watched the movie with Standard English subtitle while
the control group watched it without any subtitles. Then, the two groups were tested in multiple
choices vocabulary and content comprehension questions. The results of the study revealed that the
subtitle had a positive impact on content comprehension of English movies, but no effect on
vocabulary comprehension.
Using movies in teaching English language is so prevalent among language teachers to help
students acquiring a new language. In fact, there is a little effort spent in investigating the learner's
attitude towards media including movies. Therefore, Albiladi, Abdeen, and Lincoln's (2018)
qualitative study aimed at investigating adult learners' opinions about using movies to improve
language competency among learners. The sample of the study consisted of 25 adult learners chosen
purposively from different states of the United States. Interviews results revealed that language
8
learners believe that movies are effective tools that improve their linguistic skills in terms of
speaking, listening, reading, vocabulary, and writing. Also, they believe that movies help them to
The assumption that perceptual learning of the sounds of a foreign language, English, will
improve the perceptual skills of the non-English spoken learners made watching English-spoken
movies with subtitles very common. Birules and Soto- Faraco (2016) conducted a study to examine
the impact of watching subtitles movies on the language acquisition of the learners. The participants
language. They watched one-hour episode of English TV drama with English, Spanish and no
subtitle. The participants had a pre and posttests in listening and vocabulary to test their speech
perception and vocabulary acquisition in addition to a final plot comprehension test. The findings
indicated that the participants had a significant development in the listening skills after the English
subtitle, and there are no significant differences between the three subtitles and capillary acquisition.
Indeed, the plot comprehension was the best under the Spanish, native language, subtitle. The
researchers recommended for more studies in which the exposure time to the language is longer.
Goctu's (2017) study Investigated EFL learners' perspectives and awareness of using English
movies in classrooms to develop their English language skills. The sample consisted of 25
intermediate level EFL students at Georgian university period the participants watched the English
movie at home, and the movie was analyzed at the lecture. Then, students were asked seven
questions to reflect their awareness of implementing movies in EFL classrooms. The results showed
that students had a positive attitude towards using movies to improve language skills. Although there
weren't many movies materials in the past time, there are a vast range of educational movies that are
9
Kabooha's (2016) study aimed at studying Saudi EFL learners and teachers attitudes towards
implementing English spoken movies in language classrooms to improve students' language skills.
Participants of the study were 50 female intermediate level students at their preparatory-year
program at Abdul-Aziz University in Saudi Arabia. To achieve the objectives of the study, the
researcher used two data collection tools: students' questionnaire; and students and teachers' semi-
structured interviews. Also, teachers were asked to write reflective composition about implementing
movies in their classrooms. The results revealed that both students and teachers had positive attitudes
towards using movies in teaching and learning English to improve the four language skills.
According to the results, the researchers recommended some educational methods to utilize movies
in the classrooms and provided well selected movies to increase student motivation.
Many researchers stated that one of the most essential and supplementary tools in EFL
classrooms all movies. They are implemented to stimulate EFL students. However, few studies were
dedicated to investigate the relationship between students' movie preference and effective learning.
Therefore, Yaseen and Shakir (2015) aimed at investigating this relationship. The sample of the
study consisted of 15 to 18 years old 12 male and eight female students from Iraqi school in Kuala
Lumpur- Malaysia. To collect the needed data, the researchers used two posttests. The results
showed that movies helped students to visualize the reading text and enhance their information
attention and retrieval. Also, the results indicated that the visual learners preferred to watch movies
similar to their learning materials while kinesthetic and auditory learners interested in any type of
movies.
Liando, Sahetapy, and Maru (2018) investigated the perceptions of the English major
students toward watching movies to improve listening and speaking skills. The participants were 67
English major students who involved in listening and speaking classes in a university in North
Sulawesi. They used a three-part questionnaire. The findings revealed that the participant were aware
11
of the effectiveness of English movies on developing listening and speaking skills. However, they
thought that the effects of movies were more on developing listening skills than speaking ones. Also,
the subtitle has a positive impact on conversations' comprehension. English movies are considered to
be more effective than other medias on language teaching. Therefore, the researchers recommended
for more studies in the same topic and other topics such as the effectiveness of the different subtitles
Damronglaohapan and Stevenson (2013) aimed at examining the students' attitudes towards
using short English movies and TV series clips on YouTube to acquire the English language and
improve listening skills. The participants were 78 third -year students enrolled in English
conversation course. To collect the required data, the participants watched ten clips, two clips /a
week for five weeks, and answered related exercises.in addition to two questionnaires, one after each
clip and another at the end of the project to elicit students' attitudes towards their experience. The
findings revealed that students had positive attitude towards implementing clips to support the
classroom instruction. Also, the majority of the participants indicated that clips are more effective
than textbook CD and they assisted them to improve their listening skills and vocabulary and
expressions understanding. Tracking students' attitudes changing through the project, the results
indicated that they were most engaged by comedy clips and least by drama clips.
Nowadays, it is taken for granted that watching films can affect the learners positively. They
are thought to be major contributors to the acquisition of the language. Therefore, Keser and Acar
(2017) aimed at investigating the impact of watching films on learners' communication skills. The
Health who conformed to the criteria for inclusion. .The researchers adopted experimental research
with one group. The data collection methods were a pretest, a posttest, a questionnaire, and a
communicative skills rating scale. The results of the study showed that there was a statistically
11
significant difference between the pretest and the posttest of the participants. Thus, it was approved
movies to develop listening comprehension skills. 66 first-year English major students at APIU (Asia
Pacific International University) who had to study English as a second language were the participants
of the study. The researchers adopted a questionnaire from another previous study to elicit students'
attitudes. The findings indicated that movies had a positive effect s on enhancing the students'
comprehension skills. Also, learners with higher proficiency level had more positive attitude towards
using English movies. Based on these results, the researchers recommended for more studies with
different groups of participants, other media than English movies, and other instruments to get more
information.
The study of Gomathi, Geetha and Raa (2017) studied the use of vocabulary affected by
media with a special reference to the movie Slumdog Millionaire. 60 female and male Indian first-
year engineering students were the participants of the study. The researchers used a pretest, a posttest
and semi-structured interviews to achieve the objectives of the study. The results indicated that there
was significant improvement in vocabulary learning according to the pretest and posttest. Therefore,
teachers were recommended for using films in language teaching as it can be entertaining and
Stewartn and Pertusa (2004) Argued that the attempt of the language teachers to ease
learners' comprehension of films in the target language by turning on the target language subtitle it
promotes learners to use their reading skills instead of improving their listening ones. Therefore,
watching films with a closed subtitle reinforces what students here visually. by conducting a
conversation classes watching English subtitled films with another group watching the same films
12
with Spanish closed captioning come up they concluded that: watching films with the target language
subtitles made learners read the translated text due to their strong reading skills and their first
Masria (2019) aimed at investigating the relationship between watching English movies with
first language subtitle and popular knowledge and listening comprehension. The participants of the
study were 78 EFL Arab learners at the university level. The researcher used the first language
subtitle to improve understanding of the second language throw matching the sounds with the
meaning period the findings indicated that extensive viewing movies has positive impact on
improving oral vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension. The results revealed that the
priority knowledge was a strongly associated with vocabulary acquirement through watching movies.
Methodology
Research type:
To go along with the objectives of the study, the researchers design a questionnaire that is
consisted of 14 closed-ended items that attempts to the gather the participants' point of view of the
effectiveness of watching movies on enhancing language acquisition and improving language skills
as well as the most suitable genre of movies to learning purposes. The validity of the questionnaire
items is approved by the prof. and instructor of the Advanced Writing course, Dr. Kamal
The sample of the study consists of 20 undergraduate students from The English department
at the IUG. They share the same characteristic; for example, they are all EFL learners and their ages
are between 19 and 22 years old They are randomly selected to make the reserve more reliable and
objective.
Procedure:
On 18th Dec. 2020 and after the validity of the questionnaire had been approved by Dr.
Kamal Murtaga, the researchers chose a sample of the students randomly and sent them the link of
the electronic version of the questionnaire on Google drive to reply on it. Then, they sent their
replies via the same website. It took one days to finish the process of data collection.
The data that collected via the questionnaire are all objective data. Therefore, the researchers
analyzed them manually using the simple percentage. the questionnaire papers analyzed are 20
papers.
Results:
According to the suggested Advantages of using movies on acquiring the language, the
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Table One.
1. Watching English subtitled movies can enhance EFL and learners listening 90% 10% 0%
skills.
2. Watching English subtitled movies can enhance EFL learners speaking skills. 70% 15% 15%
3. Watching English subtitled movies can enhance EFL learners writing skills. 65% 20% 15%
4. Watching English subtitled movies can enhance EFL learners reading skills. 65% 15% 10%
5. Watching subtitled movies helps EFL learners to acquire new vocabularies 90% 10% 0%
and expressions.
6. Watching subtitled movies helps EFL learners to acquire the grammar 35% 35% 30%
structures of the target language.
7. Watching English subtitled movies enhances EFL learners EFL learners 85% 5% 10%
awareness of the cultural background.
8. Watching English subtitled movies provides EFL learners with authentic 65% 20% 15%
environment to acquire the language.
According to the suggested disadvantages of using movies on acquiring the language, the
Table Two
1. Watching the English subtitled movies, the learners focus on reading the 15% 80% 5%
subtitle and ignore the spoken language.
2. Watching English subtitled movies can't replace the actual interaction with the 30% 40% 30%
native speakers of the target language.
3. Watching English subtitled movies is an integral technique and cannot be used 55% 30% 15%
alone to acquire the language.
4. Watching English subtitled movies may affect the learners negatively and get 65% 15% 20%
them confused because of the fast speaking of the actors.
5. Watching English subtitled movies can't help in acquiring the daily language of 50% 40% 10%
the native speakers because it is content is fictional and not real.
15
According to the most beneficial genre of movies to help in acquiring the language, the
Chart One
Discussion:
Most respondents agreed on the advantages and potentials of using watching movies in the
target language to acquire the language, such as improving speaking, listening, reading and writing
skills, and contributing to the acquisition of new vocabulary and expressions. However, the
participants' opinions varied significantly on the advantage of using watching movies to acquire the
grammar structures of the target language. This variation is due to the fact that the grammar rules of the
language learned by students in schools and the grammar structure used by the actors in the films are, to some
extent, different, which makes students thinks that "English is crazy" and full of irregularities and that the
speakers do not follow the grammar rules. Another reason is that while watching movies, students may catch
Similarly, most participants agreed on the disadvantages of watching movies to acquire the
language, such as that it cannot be considered a main means of learning the language and that the
16
speed with which the actors speak may lead to confusion of learners and influence them negatively.
Also, they considered the films to be ineffective in learning the language because the dialogue inside
them is not real and fictional. However, most participants did not agree that the subtitle may distract
learners from the spoken language to the subtitle reading, so this point cannot be considered a
disadvantage at least for this sample. In addition, the participants' opinions varied significantly on
whether watching movies can replace the actual interaction with the native speakers of the target language
or not. A significant number of the participants didn’t find watching movies as an alternative to the
actual interaction with the native speakers of the target language. This can be attributed to the passive
status of the learner as he/she is in the position of the recipient and cannot interact with speakers
To sum up, the participants had a positive attitude towards using movies to enhance language
acquisition and improve language skills. Thus, the first two questions of the study were answered.
These findings were in line with those of Ebrahimi and Bazaee (2016), Goctu (2017), Albiladi,
Abdeen, and Lincoln's (2018), and many other previous studies mentioned in the literature
investigation section. The answer of the third question of the study was that the majority of the
participants chose drama and comedy to be the most appropriate genres of movies to help in
acquiring the language. These results were consistent with what has been proposed before by Adel
(2019) as he suggested that the content of the dramatic films and not the action films helps to build
Recommendation:
Based on the results of this study, watching subtitled movies can be an effective tool in
facilitating acquiring a new language if it's implemented properly. Therefore, many researchers have
17
suggested successful ways to take advantage of watching movies and turn it from time to fun to time
to learn. For instance Lewis (2020) argued that watching movies can be a waste of time unless it is
done the proper way. "You can't just watch a movie, you have to study a movie"(1), he commented.
He mentioned five attributes from the study-focused approach to movies. The first one is to focus
and study the movie actively. The second one is to break the movies up into smaller chunks of times
for better observation .the third one is to repeat and repeat. The fourth one is to engage and mimic
what you see. The fifth one is to know how to utilize from the subtitle. Based on this approach he,
1. Choose a movie with excellent subtitle in both languages: the first and the target language.
2. Watch the story and get to know the characters. Then, break the movies into segments.
3. Write down the new words and phrases which seem to be significant to the story or are
repeated more than once. The learners should repeat this step about five times with each
segment.
5. Review the movie with another partner or teacher for more understanding and learning.
For a second instance, Adel (2019) recommended that the learner, in order to be able to benefit from
films, must:
1. Focus on the quality of the films and their language content, not on the number of films
watched.
18
3. Choose of dramatic films and not action films which their linguistic content is fairly rich in
personality and their tradition of speaking, and this helps to build the character of the learner
Conclusion:
in this study, the researchers aimed at investigating the IUG EFL learners' attitude towards
implementing English subtitled movies to enhance language acquisition and improve language skills;
and Identifying the most suitable genres of movies for teaching and learning purposes. The
researchers adopted a quantitative analytical method to achieve the previous objectives. The
participants were 20 undergraduate EFL learners from the IUG. They were asked to replay to a 14-
item questionnaire. The results showed that watching English subtitled have many advantages, from
the participants' point of view, which can enhance language acquisition and improve language skills
if it's implemented properly. In addition, the results revealed that drama and comedy are the most
suitable genres of movies for teaching and learning purposes. Based on results, the researchers
recommended some techniques to be followed when using movies to acquire a new language.
19
Works Cited:
Abdulrazaq, A. (2018). Can we learn English by watching movies? Retrieved 23 rd Nov. 2020, from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alaa_Muzahim_Abdulrazaq/publication/331703085_Ca
n_we_Learn_English_by_watching_Movies/links/5c88cd5d45851564fad9e5e9/Can-we-Lear
n-English-by-watching-Movies
Adel, I. (16th July 2019). The best way to learn from English movies: How to learn English from mo-
vies? [Video file]. Retrieved 14th Nov. 2020, from You Tube. https://youtu.be/geXShcjBnSA
Albiladi, W., Abdeen, F. & Lincoln, F. (2018). Learning English through movies: adult English lang-
uage learners' perceptions. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, (8)12, 1567-1574. Retr-
/pdfs.semanticscholar.org/862a/824f850d9456e7dd983df8b9c4fb601e886a.pdf&ved=2ahUK
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3TfFH
authentic bimodal video in core French. Canadian Modern Language Review, (56)1, 32-48.
Birules, J. & Soto- Faraco, S. (2016). Watching subtitled films can help learning foreign languages.
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Donaghy, K. (2014). How can film help you teach or learn English? Retrieved 22 nd Nov. 2020, from
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-can-film-help-you-teach-or-learn-english
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Goctu, R. (2017). Using movies in EFL classrooms. European Journal of Language and Literature
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Kabooha, R. (2016). Using Movies in EFL Classrooms: A Study Conducted at the English Language
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Keser, I. & Acar, G. (2017). The Impact of Watching Movies on the Communication Skills of Nurs-
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23
Appendix one
A Questionnaire on EFL Learners Perspectives of Watching English Subtitled Movies to Acquire the
English Language
Dear students:
This questionnaire aims at investigating your perceptions of using English subtitled movies to help
EFL learners to acquire the English language. If you don't mind, can you reply to the following items?
Thank you.
1. Watching English subtitled movies can enhance EFL and learners listening
skills.
2. Watching English subtitled movies can enhance EFL learners speaking skills.
3. Watching English subtitled movies can enhance EFL learners writing skills.
4. Watching English subtitled movies can enhance EFL learners reading skills.
24
Item Yes No Don't
know
1. Watching the English subtitled movies, the learners focus on reading the
subtitle and ignore the spoken language.
2. Watching English subtitled movies can't replace the actual interaction with
the native speakers of the target language.
3. Watching English subtitled movies is an integral technique and cannot be
used alone to acquire the language.
4. Watching English subtitled movies may affect the learners negatively and get
them confused because of the fast speaking of the actors.
5. Watching English subtitled movies can't help in acquiring the daily language
of the native speakers because it is content is fictional and not real.
Which genre of English subtitled movies is the most suitable for acquiring the target
language?
1. Action
2. Comedy
3. Drama
4. Fantasy
5. Horror
6. Mystery
7. Romance
8. Thriller
25