Today I’ll try my best to convince you to use English subtitles when watching your favorite movie, TV show, or YouTube channel. Why? Because using them might end up greatly benefitting your English!
Historically, countries have been divided into two main categories: the ones subtitling movies and TV programs, and the ones dubbing them. Subtitling refers to the fact the actual words of the characters appear at the bottom of the screen, either in the original language or in a translation, while dubbing means that the original voices of the characters are replaced by the ones from the country’s language.
In Spain, dubbing is the privileged approach. Why? Because of Franco, who implemented the compulsory dubbing of movies—both as a way to crush regional languages and to be able to censor content that wasn’t to the taste of the dictatorship:
“Queda prohibida la proyección cinematográfica en otro idioma que no sea el español, salvo autorización que concederá el Sindicato Nacional del Espectáculo, de acuerdo con el Ministerio de Industria y Comercio y siempre que las películas en cuestión hayan sido previamente dobladas. El doblaje deberá realizarse en estudios españoles que radiquen en territorio nacional y por personal español.”[1] Citada orden April 23rd, 1941.[2]
As of today, Spanish people still reject subtitled content, with only 4% of the people going to the cinema choosing to watch the movie in its subtitled version.[3] Unfortunately for us, a recent scientific paper has shown that people from countries that privileged original and subtitled versions of movies and TV shows tended to speak better English than the ones who didn’t:
“Continuous exposure to English-language media contents help people learn English and, thus, the citizens of countries where foreign films and programs are shown in their original version in television will likely speak, on average, better English than those that live in countries where television is dubbed.” From “TV or not TV? The impact of subtitling on English skills,” Micolaa, Fenoll & al., Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Jan. 2019.
Alright, so watching dubbed versions doesn’t help you learn better English.
Second step, should you be using subtitles in your own language or English subtitles? A study by two scientists from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra has shown that using English subtitles truly helped develop different skills, mainly listening:
“The results of the listening skills tests revealed that after watching the English subtitled version, participants improved these skills significantly more than after watching the Spanish subtitled or no-subtitles versions.”[4]
Another study has showed that viewing content with English subtitles also strongly helped reinforcing vocabulary.[5]
Conclusion:
- Spanish people might have an issue with English due to its dubbing tradition.
- Using English subtitles helps improving your English in many ways.
- Using Spanish subtitles or no subtitles at all is a bad idea.
Are you really convinced? Because I can still sense some resistance among you. Some of you might think that “oh but I won’t understand the plot of the story if I use subtitles in English because I will focus too much on the words.” Well, that’s not exactly true:
“However, it is remarkably positive that English subtitles did not add sufficient cognitive load as to disrupt overall plot comprehension due to dual task costs, as plot comprehension with English subtitles still outperformed plot comprehension without subtitles.”[6]
Using subtitles in English doesn’t make you understand less than if you were using no subtitles. Now, it appears that some people do not enjoy using subtitles because they find it tiring to read them—interestingly enough, the ease with which you can read appears to be directly related to your reading capabilities to begin with:
“Subtitle reading patterns largely depends on the type of viewers. Fluent readers have been found to have no difficulty following subtitles.”[7]
The better reader you are, the easier it will be for you to enjoy the presence of subtitles; therefore, it is perfectly understandable that you find it more of a challenge to watch subtitled content if you also never read anything. That’s the reason why I’m constantly inviting my students to spend at least five minutes a day reading some kind of content in English to practice their reading capabilities—and I believe reading subtitles can be a fitting option. Conclusion: I truly want you to make the extra effort to use and read subtitles in English. It will greatly improve your level at the cost of minimal effort. The change might be hard at the beginning, but anybody can get used to it.
[1] Basically, all movies were to be either in Spanish and shot in Spain, or dubbed in Spanish in Spanish studios and by Spanish actors.
[2] Referenced in Diego Galán, “La Lengua española en el ciné,” Centro Virtual Cervantes: Anuario del Instituto Cervantes 2003, 2002.
[3] Icíar Ochoa De Olano, “Dubbing Still Reigns in Spanish Cinemas,” surinenglish.com, April 9, 2018.
[4] Birulés-Muntané y Soto-Faraco, “Watching Subtitled Films Can Help Learning Foreign Languages.” PLoS ONE 11(6), June 26, 2016.
[5] Bava Harji, Woods & al., “The Effect Of Viewing Subtitled Videos On Vocabulary Learning,” Journal of College Teaching & Learning (TLC), November 2010.
[6] Birulés-Muntané y Soto-Faraco, “Watching Subtitled Films Can Help Learning Foreign Languages.” PLoS ONE 11(6), June 26, 2016.
[7] Kruger, Szarkowska and Krejtz, “Subtitles on the Moving Image: an Overview of Eye Tracking Studies,” Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media, February 7, 2015.