Foreign Language Acquisition: The Role of Subtitling

AbstractThe European Commission's policy aims to foster a language-friendly living environment, where different languages are heard and seen, and where speakers of all languages feel welcome and language learning is encouraged. However, the European Survey on Language Competences reveals that Europeans still need to improve their knowledge of foreign languages and there is a wide range of ability across European countries. Besides the formal language learning, there are several informal approaches that can contribute to foreign language achievement. Several studies suggest that foreign language acquisition may be facilitated by watching subtitled television programmes and movies. In this paper we present and discuss the main advantages of subtitling regarding foreign language acquisition, as well as outline suggestions through which foreign language achievement may be enhanced. A bibliographical review about the effects of subtitling on the learning of foreign languages was conducted. Furthermore, some results from cross-national surveys, such as the European Survey on Language Competences (ESLC) will be presented