Putri Anggraeni, et al / Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (1) (2017)

ELT FORUM 8 (2) (2019)

Journal of English Language Teaching

http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt

Vocabulary Acquisition (Incidental) through Watching Subtitled

Video Material

Alvin Rosales

Department of Language and Literature, Far Eastern University-Manila, Philippines

Article Info
________________ Abstract
Article History:
___________________________________________________________________
Received in 22
Subtitle refers to the time-synchronized text on a video that translates the spoken
August 2019
audio to another language. This research deals with the effect of watching subtitled
Approved in 29
November 2019
video material on the vocabulary acquisition (incidental) of the Filipino learners of
Published in 30
English with an emphasis on the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. The
November 2019 study was participated by 100 university students in a private higher education
institution in the Philippines. The study used a pretest and posttest design in which
________________
Keywords: Subtitle; the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale developed by Paribakht and Wesche (1993) was
Incidental Vocabulary employed. The results show that there is a significant difference between the pretest
Learning; Receptive and the posttest performance in vocabulary acquisition in terms of receptive and
Vocabulary Knowledge; productive vocabulary knowledge of the participants. The findings imply the
Productive Vocabulary
Knowledge; Vocabulary integration of subtitled video material in the teaching of vocabulary in Philippine
Knowledge Scale. classrooms because of its effectiveness which, up to this point, is not yet realized.
____________________
© 2019 Universitas Negeri Semarang

Correspondent Address: ISSN 2252-6706

132 Capillan Street, San Antonio
Quezon City, Metro Manila 1105
E-mail: [email protected]

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 Alvin Rosales / ELT Forum 8 (2) (2019)

INTRODUCTION
In learning English, students need to see that it covers the macro skills: reading, writing, listening,
speaking and viewing; and to effectively learn all these, they need to see the importance of vocabulary
as a language component because it can really affect the skills mentioned. In other words, without
vocabulary, learning cannot be achieved.
The question then lies on whether Filipino students are motivated to learn English or even just
learn vocabulary. One assumption would be “no” for some part, and the researcher being a language
teacher has noticed such problem. Some would say that one cause of that is that English teaching is
more teacher-centered.
The researcher came across students who shared their experiences inside the classroom as far
as language teaching is concerned. They tend to withdraw themselves from it because how it is done
is contrary to their interest. In other words, they get bored easily with the lesson and that they need
something like attractive images or animations. One means by which these needs can be well served
is multimedia technology. Multimedia can appeal to many types of learning preferences – some
students profit more from learning by reading, some by hearing and some by watching.
Writing for UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, Andresen and
Brink (2013) state that some learners can consider multimedia as a means to acquire more knowledge
and effective in improving learning (e.g. by enhancing motivation). This is probably because it
promotes a greater involvement in the learning situation. Also, learners can represent multimedia as
a way of speeding the learning process and reducing information overload.
Multimedia technology includes motion media, music, text material, graphics, illustrations,
photographs and digital software (“Educational Technology,” 2017).
Motion media, like videos, is one common multimedia technology which the students are
exposed to. They may watch it for academics, but most of the time for entertainment.
Since their first appearance, motion pictures have still got the interest of all people, from young
to old. In the case of Filipino students, they now get hooked on watching subtitled films. Hollywood
movies are not the only ones saved in their computers; there are also anime films from Japan and
telenovelas from South Korea which are watched with subtitles in most cases.
Filipino students being movie lovers is what prompted the researcher to conduct the present
study with the assumption that people can achieve learning from pleasurable activities, and since it is
evident that subtitled video materials have become a part of their lives, the researcher used it as a main
variable in connection to language learning, particularly to vocabulary learning.
Sabouri and Zohrabi (2015) concluded that the use of subtitled films can promote students’
engagement in language learning and can improve retrieval of new vocabulary words in learning
English among foreign learners. Baltova (1999) found that watching subtitled video material helped
the learners acquire more vocabulary. Gorjian (2014) stressed that learners of English as a foreign
language have improved their comprehension of the content of the video, and have increased their
vocabulary knowledge through the subtitles, especially if the video is watched significantly.
Though there are already foreign researches conducted on subtitle or subtitling or the like, the
researcher also considered that there is only a few studies known to the researcher on the effect of
watching a subtitled video material on second language vocabulary learning, and there is no study in
the Philippines as far as the researcher’s record is concerned on the effect of watching a subtitled video
material on vocabulary acquisition with an emphasis on the two aspects of vocabulary knowledge:
receptive and productive. Receptive vocabulary refers to the words that learners recognize and
understand, while productive vocabulary is the utilization of the words. Though the latter can be
written or spoken, yet in the study, the written production was only considered.

METHODS
Participants
The participants of the study were 100 tertiary students, mostly aged 18-20 and enrolled in the
Technical Writing classes of the researcher in a private HEI in Manila, Philippines.
Technical Writing is the last English subject to be taken in the institution. Thus, it was assumed
that the students enrolled in this subject are at least knowledgeable about the fundamentals of English
which they have already taken in the previous semesters. They may not be highly proficient on the
target language, but when compared to the other students who are yet to take the subjects that they
have already taken, they are more knowledgeable for the most part. This consideration has something
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to do with the written production of the participants which was an important element in the pretest
and posttest.

The Instruments
One subtitled film and the Vocabulary knowledge Scale (for the pretest and posttest) were employed
in the study.

Subtitled Film
As for the subtitled film, the researcher used “El Pasajero, a 37-minute Spanish short film which he
downloaded from Youtube. El Pasajero, first released in 2008, is an award-winning film in the
International Film Festival. It was directed by Andres Faucher and starred by Jorge Palacios and
Dimas Gonzalez. El Pasajero (“The Passenger” in English) is about a taxi driver and his passenger.
Using a gun, the desperate taxi driver attempts to rob his passenger who offers to buy the gun which
will lead to an event that no viewer will ever expect.
The researcher purposefully selected the film because no one among the participants has ever
watched it prior to the testing.

The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale

For the pretest and posttest, the researcher used the same instrument which was the Vocabulary
Knowledge Scale developed by Paribakht and Wesche (1993) to measure the vocabulary knowledge
of the participants along with their receptive and productive knowledge. This scale is a control scale
of how well words are known and what control one has over them. The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale
format falls into the following five categories:

1. I don't remember having seen this word before.

2. I have seen this word before, but I don't think I know what it means.
3. I have seen this word before, and I think it means __________. (meaning/synonym/translation)
4. I know this word. It means _______. (meaning/synonym/translation)
5. I can use this word in a sentence: ___________. (If you do this section, please also do category

In scoring the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale, the researcher used the rubric showed in Table 1.

Table 1. The Rubric in Scoring the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale

Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge

Score Meaning of Score
0 The word is not familiar at all.
0 The word is familiar but its meaning is
not known.
0 An incorrent meaning or synonym or
translation is given.
1 A correct meaning or synonym or
translation is given.
Productive Vocabulary Knowledge
Score Meaning of Score
0 The word is not used in sentence
writing.
0 The word is not used with semantic
appropriateness in a sentence.
1 The word is used with semantic
appropriateness in a sentence.

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Data Gathering Procedure

The procedure was carried out in three phases: first, administering the pretest; second, watching of the
video material, and third, administering the posttest.

First Phase
The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale was used in administering the pretest to measure vocabulary
knowledge of the participants, along with their receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. The
test has five target vocabulary words from the film which are low frequency words. Two of them are
adjectives; another two are nouns; and one is a verb.
Regarding the pretest, the researcher told the participants not to use any kinds of dictionary,
and not to talk to any participants during the test. This could make sure that their answers are actually
based on their background knowledge of the vocabulary items.
After they answered the pretest, the participants were told not to check the words in a dictionary
and not to discuss them among themselves inside and outside the testing area. This could make sure
that their answers on the posttest later would be based on the vocabulary knowledge gained from
watching the subtitled video material presumably.

Second and Third Phase

The second (watching the subtitled video material ) and the third phase (posttest) took place a month
later. Yuksel and TanrÖverdi (2009) suggested that a pretest and a posttest must be separated by a
longer period.
To achieve the objective of the study which is on the subconscious learning of the vocabulary
items from watching the subtitled video material, the researcher made sure that the participants were
unaware that they would be tested after watching (posttest).
The participants watched the film twice, however on the second time there are few scenes that
were skipped or disregarded like in the opening and in the end which do not actually detract from the
purpose of the study. Sabouri and Zohrabi (2015) stated that subtitled movies could have an effect on
vocabulary recognition if learners watch the movie more than once.
After watching, the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale with the same vocabulary items was used in
administering the posttest to measure the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of the
participants.
In the study, the researcher used a basic statistical tool, the Mean. He also used the frequency
and percentage distribution of the participants based on their pretest and posttest performance in
vocabulary acquisition in terms of receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge.
For the statistical hypothesis test, the researcher used the Z-test, a basic inferential statistical
tool to see if there is a difference on the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of the
participants before and after watching the subtitled video material.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The Performance in Vocabulary Acquisition before Watching
As shown in Table 2 below, the mean score for the receptive vocabulary knowledge of the target
words of the participants was 1.51. The result shows that half of the participants was able to give the
correct meaning of the word ‘salsa’. This means that ‘salsa’ having the highest frequency is the least
difficult word that could be given a correct meaning. Salsa in the study refers to a type of music or a
form of dancing. An example of that in a sentence is ‘Hector and Alfredo are dancing salsa’. Out of
the 5 target words, ‘temperamental’ got the lowest frequency that no participant or 0% of the
participants got its correct meaning/synonym. In the study, temperamental refers to a performance
being unpredictable. An example of that in a sentence is ‘His temperamental computer always annoys
him; sometimes it would start and sometimes it would not’.

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Table 2. Students’ Receptive and Productive Vocabulary Knowledge (Pretest)

Receptive Productive
Target Words f % f %
temperamental 0 0 0 0
salsa 50 33.11 12 42.86
fleeting 10 6.62 4 14.29
tropic 43 28.48 4 14.29
devalue 48 31.79 8 28.57
Total 151 100 28 100
Mean 1.51 0.28

For the productive vocabulary knowledge, the participants were tested if they could write the
five target words: temperamental, salsa, fleeting, tropic and devalue with semantic appropriateness in
a sentence. And as shown, the productive vocabulary knowledge of the target words of the participants
has the mean score of 0.28. The result shows that only twelve of 100 participants were able to write the
word ‘salsa’. Next to that is ‘devalue’ which was used by only 8 of the participants. ‘Tropic’ and
‘fleeting’ were used by only 4 participants and for ‘temperamental’, no one was able to use it with
semantic appropriateness in a sentence.

The Performance in Vocabulary Acquisition after Watching

After watching the subtitled video material, the mean score of the receptive vocabulary has increased
to 3.39 while the mean score of the productive vocabulary has increased to 2.93 as shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Students’ Receptive and Productive Vocabulary Knowledge (Posttest)

Receptive Productive
Target Words f % f %
temperamental 28 8.26 25 8.53
salsa 97 28.61 92 31.40
fleeting 36 10.62 26 8.87
tropic 83 24.48 4 22.53
devalue 95 28.02 8 28.67
Total 339 100 293 100
Mean 3.39 2.93

The result shows that for on the receptive vocabulary knowledge of the participants, ‘salsa’ got
the highest frequency of 97 while the lowest is ‘temperamental’ with the frequency of 28. On the
productive vocabulary, salsa also got the highest frequency of 92, while the lowest is still
‘temperamental’ with the frequency of 25.

The Difference between the Pretest and Posttest on the Receptive and Productive Vocabulary
Knowledge
As shown in Table 4.1, the z-Test value of -13.20 was obtained for the receptive vocabulary
knowledge, and is smaller than the alpha value, and is significant.

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Table 4.1. Differences between the Pre-test and Posttest (Receptive)

Test Mean SD Alpha Value Z Value

Pretest 1.51 1.06
0.05 -13.20
Posttest 3.39 0.95
Decision: Rejected
Remark: Significant

On the difference between pretest and posttest performance in terms of productive vocabulary
knowledge of the participants, Table 4.2 shows the z-Test value of -19.84 which is is smaller than the
alpha value of 0.05, and is also significant.

Table 4.2. Differences between the Pre-test and Posttest (Productive)

Test Mean SD Alpha Value Z Value

Pretest 0.28 0.62
0.05 -19.84
Posttest 2.93 1.81
Decision: Rejected
Remark: Significant

The results on both the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of the participants after
watching the subtitled video material mean that there is significant difference between the pretest and
the posttest performance in the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of the participants of
the target words. Thus, the null hypothesis is rejected.

DISCUSSIONS
Watching subtitled video material, as shown in the results of the study, has a positive effect on the
vocabulary acquisition of the learners of English as second language in terms of their receptive and
productive vocabulary knowledge which is also translated as “there is a significant difference between
their pretest and posttest performance in both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge”.
Another significant thing shown in the results is that the performance in the receptive vocabulary
knowledge of the target words of the participants is greater than their productive vocabulary
knowledge. This is what exactly Songbo (2010) pointed out that receptive vocabulary knowledge is
usually larger than the productive. Receptive vocabulary being larger in size than the productive
vocabulary was identified by Harmer (2001) as passive vocabulary of words. Passive vocabulary of
words, though known by the learners, yet they cannot produce them, and in the case of this study, in
writing.
Speaking of receptive vocabulary being larger than productive, Loewen and Sato (2017)
concluded that knowledge of the different word knowledge aspects seems to be more robust and be
acquired earlier than productive knowledge. The mean score that the participants gained for their
productive vocabulary knowledge of the target words was 0.28. This result actually shows what
Loewen and Sato (2017) pointed out, and if it would be tried to see the difference between the receptive
and productive vocabulary knowledge of the participants of the target words in the pretest, 24.6%
would be the result, so it would mean that the receptive knowledge of the participants is 24.6% larger
than their productive vocabulary knowledge. In other words, receptive vocabulary knowledge is four
times larger than productive vocabulary knowledge.
From the results gathered, it can be inferred that because the learner recognizes and understands
the word does not necessary mean that he or she can produce it. However, it should be noted that after
watching the subtitled video material, the productive vocabulary knowledge of the participants was so
close to their receptive vocabulary knowledge which can be considered a substantial increase.

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CONCLUSIONS
It was revealed that the receptive vocabulary knowledge of the participants was larger than their
productive vocabulary knowledge which is also pointed out in the past studies. This is the case before
and after watching the subtitled video material.
In the results obtained, it was found out that there was a considerable improvement on both the
receptive and productive knowledge of the participants after watching the subtitled video material.
And, it was revealed that there is a significant difference between the pretest and the posttest on both
receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge; thus, the null hypothesis is rejected.
This study also suggests multimedia facilities to be provided in both private and public schools
in the Philippines which are needed in the use of subtitled video material in the teaching of vocabulary.

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