Facultad de Filosofía y Letras

Departamento de Didáctica de la Lengua y la Literatura

TRABAJO DE FIN DE MÁSTER

MÁSTER EN PROFESOR DE EDUCACIÓN SECUNDARIA

OBLIGATORIA Y BACHILLERATO, FORMACIÓN PROFESIONAL Y
ENSEÑANZA DE IDIOMAS

The use of subtitles as a way to enhance oral skills in ESL

Alumna: Blanca Dorothy A Mbabi Turrión

Tutora: Natalia Barranco Izquierdo

Valladolid, 2021/2022
 ABSTRACT

The content of this paper revolves around the implementation of subtitles in the ESL
classroom. Audiovisual media has been part of the language learning class since the late
1900s and both teachers and learners have struggled in some instances when it comes to
their application in the second language classroom. Nevertheless, as numerous studies
have already manifested subtitled media are resources that can help develop the learners’
oral communicative competences if they are apply properly. Not only is it essential to
choose an appropriate video but also the type of subtitles that more suits the learners
and the purpose of the activity. For this reason, through the series of activities depicted
in this proposal and by using authentic visual materials with different types of subtitles,
we meant to motivate the students during the lessons and assist them during their
learning process to enhance their oral skills while they collaborate with their peers.

Key words: Communicative competences, subtitles in language learning, types of

subtitles, teaching proposal, second language, secondary education.

RESUMEN

El contenido de este trabajo gira en torno a la implementación de subtítulos en el aula de

ISL. Los materiales audiovisuales fueron introducidos en las aulas a finales del siglo XX
y tanto profesores como alumnos siguen considerando difícil, en ocasiones, su
aplicación en el aula de la segunda lengua. A pesar de esto, numerosos estudios han
probado que estos recursos, aplicados de manera apropiada pueden ayudar a desarrollar
las destrezas orales de las competencias comunicativas. No solo es esencial elegir un
video adecuado, sino que el tipo de subtítulos deben adecuarse al grupo de estudiantes y
a los objetivos que la actividad quiera cubrir. Por esta razón, y mediante el
planteamiento de una serie de actividades, la utilización de materiales auténticos
empleando diferentes tipos de subtítulos, se busca motivas y asistir a los alumnos a
través de su proceso de aprendizaje.

Palabras clave: Competencias comunicativas, subtítulos en el aprendizaje de

lenguas, tipos de subtítulos, segunda lengua, educación secundaria.

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..5
2. Theoretical Framework……………………………………………………………7
2.1.Subtitles and dubbing in Europe……………………………………………….7
2.2.Subtitles and language learning………………………………………………...9
2.3.Types of subtitles.……………………………………………………………..13
2.4.The application of subtitles in the classroom…………………………………16
2.5.Subtitles and the communicative competence……………………………..….18
3. Justification……………………………………………………………………....20
4. Objectives of the proposal………………………………………………………..23
5. Context…………………………………………………………………………...23
6. Methodology……………………………………………………………………..24
7. Activities of the proposal………………………………………………………...25
8. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..48
9. References………………………………………………………………………..50
10. Appendix…………………………………………………………………………54

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 1. INTRODUCTION

Language learning is one of the most important competences in the multicultural

society we currently live in and has been recognized by the Common European
Framework (CEFR) as “a lifelong task to be promoted and facilitated throughout
educational systems from pre-school through to adult education” (2001, p.5). As the
world has moved toward a more global community it has become a requirement to
know how to speak in at least one foreign language as interlingual communication has
become essential in every field of life. However, after more than half a century since the
implementation of language studies in schools, most of the students leave the system
without ever truly being able to fluently speak the other language.

Nowadays, there are many new resources like black boards, tablets and digital books,
to assist us through language teaching and language learning, in contrast to a few
decades ago when tools were limited to books, chalks, and white board. While these
supports are still very important, there are multiple innovations when it comes to putting
listening activities into practice. Instead of the former usage of an aural recording, now
it is more frequent for teachers to play an audiovisual document, in many cases,
accompanied with subtitles.

Audio recordings have been used as learning devices to encourage students to used
oral output of the target language since the 1960s; however, in a world where the
consuming of audiovisual content is part of the student’s daily lives, these resources
have progressively been implemented in the L2 classroom. The 21st Century has seen an
increase of TV series, movies, clips, video games, among other media sources that are at
every one’s disposal. As a consequence of this, the audience is being exposed to
languages and culture of people around the world but unless a person controls more
than one language the viewers can be very limited to the media they receive. Thus,
subtitling has become an easy practice to adapt international visual media, and at the
moment, there is a wide range of platforms and social media (Netflix, Disney+,
YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) using subtitles and captions as supporting tools to
helps people around the word understand content in many different languages.
Moreover, nowadays young people are more familiar with watching shows and clips
with subtitles, and they are adding captions and subtitles to the media they share online
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with their followers. All these considered, it is not strange that subtitles have become a
frequent instrument used in language teaching in many classrooms, as they can assist
students with their understanding of the content, as well as with their SL oral skills.

In the following paper, there will be a brief analysis of the first instances of subtitles
in contrast with the dubbing of foreign media and their impact in European society
when learning a second language. We will explore the benefits of visual media as it
allows the students to increase their motivation not only with the cultural aspects of L2
learning but also when attaining vocabulary and grammar in context and in an appealing
manner. According to Lafiti et al. there is a “need to find a good way to exploit
audiovisual materials to their full potential has been urgently felt” (2011, p.19). These
resources sometimes can be challenging for the students as it is hard for them to fully
understand the vocabulary used in them, especially if we are working with authentic
materials, so subtitles can be a plausible solution for some of this problems.
Additionally, numerous studies will be analyzed to examine the effects of using
subtitles and captions as teaching materials. Research carried out by Vanderplank
(1988), King (2002), Talaván (2006), Danan (1992), the European Commission (2011),
Etemadi (2012), among others have highlighted the learner’s response to the usage of
intralingual over interlingual subtitles or vice versa, while other centered on the idea
that some types of subtitles, if not all, are distracting and are an impediment for the
student’s learning process. Of course, they are those which embrace the idea that even
when the subtitles are in the foreign language, they can be a great support for learners
that still struggle with oral comprehension. Moreover, there will be an analysis of the
different applications of subtitles in the second language classroom as some literature
focuses on the more active approach when using these resources in the classroom than
others. Finally, for the purpose of this paper, we would be using subtitled visual media
as a resource for secondary school students to improve their language learning. Through
the proposal of a series of activities using subtitled videos aimed to the different cycles
of ESO, the students will improve their L2 oral comprehension and production through
the acquisition of vocabulary they can apply in real context.

The objectives of the study are the following:

1. To find out how progressive exposure to subtitles affects ESO students.

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 2. To explore if vocabulary acquisition is possible watching audiovisual materials in
L2.

3. To determine how much fluency due to motivational and low anxiety factors can
the students acquire.

4. To find out what are the best strategies when using subtitles in relation with the
age and language level of the students.

5. To clarify what types of subtitles adapt better to each language level.

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1. SUBTITLING AND DUBBING IN EUROPE

Subtitles, as defined by Díaz-Cintas (2012), are a linguistic practice, which offers a

written translation or transcription of the dialogues spoken by the actors, as well as the
discursive elements and the soundtrack on screen that are in another language. They
were first introduced with the appearance of the silent films in 1903; back then, they
were known as intertitles and consisted on pieces of text written in paper and displayed
in between scenes (Gaudreault and Barnard, 2013). This technique allowed for an easy
way to translate media into many different languages. Henceforth, many countries
around the world used this tool to bring their people closer with international films.
Dubbing, on the contrary, is another type of media adaptation that was presented with
the introduction of talking films in the 1920s as an alternative to subtitles. The dubbing
industry was expensive and not many countries could spare the price of it at the time.
Only Germany, Spain, France and Italy, who had the financial capacities to afford it,
introduced dubbing as the main audiovisual adaptation method. Additionally, in the
1930s the nationalism and the normalization of the language in these countries was an
essential factor which led them to choose dubbing over subtitling (European
Commission, 2011).

Many people have linked the use of subtitling with better language knowledge and
fluency, but this is not always the case. Portugal is a subtitled center country which
shows not much difference with Spain when it comes to foreign language level in
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international surveys, while Germany, a dubbing country, tends to be above the average.
A study conducted by the European Commission on the relation between language
learning and subtitles have shown that in those countries where foreign language media
is shown with subtitles instead of dubbing their language level “is close to mother-
tongue level” (2011, p.11). The countries with the best results were: Denmark, Finland,
Netherland, Norway and Sweden and the data showed that these nations had actually
acquired a high proficiency level of their general population in their L2. Moreover, not
all the dubbing center countries really show a low second language proficiency of their
population. As it has already been stated, Germany is known for having good L2
communication skills in general; while countries like Spain, Italy and France, overall,
lack a good control on foreign languages. A study focusing on the percentage of
responses and ability to communicate in another language, directed by the European
Commission in 2005, placed countries like Spain and Italy were under the 36%, while
Germany was over the 50% mark with a 71% of population with a high level of second
language communication abilities. In other words, we could say that the decision of
subtitling over dubbing is not fully linked to the language learning and proficiency of
each nation.

In countries like Spain where the dubbing industry was well established from early
on, subtitles are sometimes perceived in a negative spectrum. The subtitling culture was
–and still is in part– lacking and has even been considered a nuisance by many (Talaván,
2006). Subtitles were introduced into the language learning classes as a useful support
that allowed students of all ages to better understand visual media; however, for this
same reason, today many people not only believe that the subtitles take their attention
away from the actions playing on the screen, but also considered the text tiring to read
(Ibíd, 2006). Another popular belief, mentioned by Talaván, is that the subtitles create a
sense of dependence on the students as they may focus on reading instead of actually
paying attention to the audio of the video. Nonetheless, this is not always the case. At
the very least, studies have proven that subtitles contribute to “create a feeling of
security on learners, helping them in the long run to feel ready to watch foreign
television or films unsupported by text” (cited in Talaván, 2006, p. 43). Moreover, there
have even been studies concluding that students can improve their vocabulary and
understanding of other languages resulting in better exam scores, as in the TOEFL test
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which focuses more on common and everyday native’s usage of language than other
exams. There was evidence that those who stated that watching subtitled movies and
TV shows obtained 16.9% better grades than their peers that frequent dubbing media
(online, 2019).

2.2. SUBTITLES AND LANGUAGE LEARNING

Listening exercises as part of language learning obtained significance in the late

1960s; however, since then there have been many changes of perception of how these
activities should be put into practice in the classroom. At first, the learner was a passive
agent that received oral information repeatedly while the different recordings were
played multiple times till they were memorized. In the last decades though, the
importance is placed in the quality of the input, which helps students to be exposed to
real spoken language and scenarios (Field, 1998). This idea links with Stephen
Krashen’s hypothesis of comprehensible input, or the “input hypothesis”, which
defended that L2 learners acquired language through input that could be understood but
that at the same time was challenging. Krashen stated that a person acquires a language
only if the person understand the language “that contains structure that [are] ‘a little
beyond’ where [they] are now” (1982, p.21), this paradox, –as Krashen described it–
implies that “we use more than our linguistic competence to help us understand” (1982,
p.21). Thus, the information has to be accompanied and supported by any materials or
resources (images, objects, etc.) that can help the input to be comprehend by the learner.
Moreover, he underlined the importance of meaning over the learning grammar –
contrary to common compulsory language education–, accepting the use of any tools
necessary so communication can be established between the speakers. In other words,
the use of videos with onscreen subtitles would provide this meaningful input for the
students, while they can still be challenged by the information without getting frustrated
with what they are not capable of fully understanding.

Furthermore, the subtitled audiovisual materials allow the students to be exposed to

comprehensible linguistic input that motivates them to deepen their knowledge in a
foreign language. When learning a language, motivation is a valuable factor for Krashen
because if the students are motivated they are more likely to achieve their
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communicative goals. Additionally, two other factors that help with improving language
fluency and comprehension are: high self-confidence and low anxiety. Krashen states
that “low anxiety appears to be conducive to second language acquisition” (1982, p.31),
meaning the students need to feel confident with their abilities to be able to
communicate in a comfortable environment; this is what Krashen also calls the
“affective filter”. If the student is too anxious or worried about their performance they
will not be able to express themselves to the best of their capacities. Following this line
of thought, subtitled visual media can increase the motivation as well as lower the
affective filter of students, reinforcing their learning without frustrating them. Of course,
for this, it is essential the video is chosen according to the level and capacities of the
students; otherwise, the purpose of the activity can have an adverse effect and instead
make the learners feel frustrated and demotivated with this kind of activity.

Delving deeper into this idea, in the “Study on the use of Subtitling” done by the
European Commission in 2011, four different variables were mentioned as to explain
the level to which subtitling can contribute to language learning stating that while the
materials can help the students with their learning process, motivation is not everything:

1. The first factor is the need of the students to be familiar with subtitled media
previously for it to help them make some progress with their language skill, as
those that are “accustomed to subtitling develop learning strategies more quickly
than those accustomed to dubbing” (European Commission, 2011, p.16).

The assumption of subtitles representing another channel of information when facing

an audiovisual resource that could prevent the students from concentrating on the aural
track has been a common negative assumption since they were first introduced in the
classrooms. Furthermore, there is also the belief that the subtitles can add a level of
difficulty to the understanding from the viewer’s point of view, especially if both the
aural and text are in a FL. Nevertheless, it has been confirmed that students can adapt to
processing the textual and audiovisual input to favor their learning process.
Vanderplank (1988) considered this finding a paradox because while he expected the
students to feel overloaded by the captions and the other channels of information that
was not the case:

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 Subjects reported that by the end of the study, they could use the sub-titles so
flexibly and could manage such larger chunks of text and sound (which of course
had the same semantic content) that in fact they had spare processing capacity
which could be used for maximizing the potential usefulness of the language in
the programme, in both speech and text. (p.276)
Reading captions while paying attention to the audio-visuals is a progressive process
that results in the student organizing and enhancing their understanding of the content
and language presented to them. Not only will the subtitles not overload the learners
once they grow accustomed but they will have time to spare to better process the
meaning of the content of the clip. In the case of interlingual subtitles, Talaván also
mentioned that a subtitled video provides a “triple connection” between the images, the
sound, and the text in different languages that allows a stronger association for retention
and language use (Talaván, 2006). Through this connection of concepts and contents the
students are able to use their mother tongues previous knowledge as an asset to reach a
better understanding of certain words and grammatical structures. Once learners have
practiced, the associations they establish between image, text and audio will benefit
their language learning process through visual media materials.

2. The second element is the level of the student, as it will depend on the learner’s
proficiency, the type of subtitles used when teaching them (European
Commission, 2011)

Some skeptics considered that the use of subtitles –and specially captions– are a
problem because “the activity becomes reading skills or vocabulary development rather
than listening comprehension training” (King, 2002, p.517), however, the skill and the
comprehension level of the student will be the factors that will determine what type of
subtitles should be used in each occasion. Not all subtitles work with all students as
their level and knowledge of the language is not the same. Drilling and gap filling
activities can be solved without a real understanding of the language; the same happens
when we use captions with students with little oral processing abilities. A student will
be able to read and answer some easy questions about what they have seen in the video
without truly understanding the content, for this reason it is important to choose the
subtitles according to the level and abilities of target students. Subtitles and captions can
be of great assistance to learners if they are applied accordingly in the classroom while
eliminating the initial difficulties they might bring. On one hand, Danan defended a
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division in the usages of subtitles differing on the skills of the students arguing that
captions could be a positive tool “with easier to understand audio input supplementing
in-class instructions or for advanced students” (2004, p.75). This means that using
captions with low level students would require an unchallenging video with an
additional guided explanation of the content and language from the teacher to the
students. On the other hand, she supports subtitles “may be most useful for less skilled
learners needing first language input or with complex films and news broadcasts
assigned for independent, out-of-class viewing in relation to more holistic goals,” (2004,
p.75) thus, subtitles will be more meaningful to low level students’ learning and in cases
where the materials use are too challenging. These ideas depicted by Danan also link
with the following factor of the European Commission study.

3. The purpose of the activity should also be taken into consideration as it will
mark what type of subtitles are used for each activity as “intralinguistic
subtitling is better suited to learning grammar and spelling (…) while
interlinguistic subtitling is more useful for building vocabulary” (European
Commission, 2011, p.16).

In the same manner there are activities that help improve the reading or writing of the
students, depending on the type of subtitles used in a task the learner will enhance
different skills that would be harder to acquire with other types. According to Danan,
research has “demonstrated the positive effects of captioning on productive skills such
as verbatim recall and retention, reuse of vocabulary in the proper context, as well as
communicative performance in specific oral and written communication tasks” (2004,
p.69). Same language subtitles and captions not only allow the students to get familiar
with the pronunciation of the written words they see on screen but also help retain the
word in a certain context facilitating the proper use of this lexicon in oral production.
Moreover, second language subtitles or interlinguistic subtitles are useful tools to
remember vocabulary by association with the mother tongue, as well as perceiving
grammatical and syntactic structures (Talaván, 2006).

4. Finally, the teacher will need to have in mind the similarities between the L2/FL
and mother tongue (European Commission, 2011).

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 The difference between languages can add a level of difficulty if when learning the
foreign language the teacher doesn’t take into consideration the specific characteristics
of the language he/she is teaching. The subtitled audiovisual materials are supposed to
mediate between the two cultures and languages when watching audiovisual materials
so the students need to know what to expect when facing these tools and the task of the
teacher is to make these materials as accessible to them.

In other words, it is essential to contemplate the level of the student, their familiarity
with the subtitles and captions, as well as, the elements of the language or culture we are
going to teach the student through said material, and finally, the similarities and
differences of the mother tongue e with the second language before using this resource
in the classroom. All of this in addition to the usage of an adequate video will motivate
and lessen the initial anxiety the students may have and will lead them into improving
their language skills.

2.3. TYPES OF SUBTITLES

In this section, we will define and explain all of the different categories of subtitles
and some of the studies defending and opposing the uses of each of them. There are two
major categories of subtitles known and used for academic purposes: the interlinguistic
subtitles and intralinguistic subtitles. The interlinguistic category is at the same time
subdivided into the standard subtitles (audio in L2 and text in L1), and reversed subtitles
(audio in L1 and text in L2), while the intralinguistic or bimodal subtitles have both the
soundtrack and the onscreen text in the same language. Moreover, other two important
categories are the captions or hard-of-hearing subtitles and the bilingual subtitles where
the in media text is found in two different languages.

The standard subtitles are the traditional onscreen text that can usually be found in
foreign media on TV and movie theaters as the L2 audio is accompanied by L1 text. An
early study which analyzed the value of standard subtitles in short clips concluded that
the subtitles might be an important factor on the students, including with the incidental
and maintenance language processes (De Bot, et al., 1986). This kind of subtitles work
in the ESL classroom as good supports of oral input and have been considered by some

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as more effective than intralinguistic subtitles due to the presence of the L1. The mother
tongue in this case would force the learner to establish connections between both
languages through translation and their previous knowledge which would favor the
students’ learning process (cited in Díaz-Cintas, 2012).

Reversed subtitles are those interlinguistic subtitles where the text is in the foreign
language and the audio is in the L1. They are not as commonly known as the standard
subtitles but there are studies that have proven their effectiveness as language learning
materials. Danan (1992) maintained reversed subtitles to be “the most promising
combination for processing second language information” (p.500) as having the aural
track in the mother tongue and the written text in the L2 improved significantly the
understanding of the content by the students in comparison to standard subtitles. She
also argued that while many teachers do not consider translation an adequate method of
teaching the second language, it is necessary for beginners as the comparison allows the
new information to be related to the previous knowledge. The subtitles in the foreign
language also help the students acknowledge syntactic elements and word order that
otherwise could go unnoticed in a spoken text (Ibíd., 1992). In other words, the
comparison and the association of both languages through this kind of subtitles make
the students achieve a significant learning experience, instead of feeling overwhelmed
by incomprehensible input in the foreign language.

The bimodal or intralinguistic subtitles are in the same language as the audio, thus in
the ESL classrooms they tend to be in the target language. In most cases, they tend to be
used with students with a medium or high level of understanding and not with beginners
as if they are not familiar with the target language this type of subtitles could negatively
impact their motivation and anxiety. In her study, Etemadi (2012) defended the use of
subtitled movies as useful tools to help motivate learners but also to help them improve
their comprehension. Bimodal subtitles in movies were proposed with the purpose of
investigating the level of understanding of the content and vocabulary of the students.
She selected a group of 44 university students in English Translation majors in a
university in Iran, who were shown two documentaries, one with bimodal subtitles and
the other one without any subtitles, after which they were tested on the knowledge
acquired. The results proved that the participants did understand more efficiently the

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movie with bimodal subtitles than the one lacking them. Etemadi also noted that the
subtitles did not affect the vocabulary recognition as each video was only played once.

Captions appeared in the 1970s as a way to help deaf and hard-of-hearing people
follow the actions and conversations display in audiovisual media and “unlike foreign-
language subtitles, [they] translate into writing the same language that is heard in
speaking, which is why captions are also called same-language subtitles” (Gernsbacher,
2015, p.195). They can actually be considered another type of intralinguistic subtitles
category but unlike bimodal subtitles they transcript all the spoken information into the
text and add complementary information for the easier understanding of the deaf or
hearing difficulties viewers. In other words, they not only include the dialogue but also
short explanations with the actions of the characters, song lyrics and other elements that
can assist with the overall understanding of the audiovisual media. For this reason,
researchers decided to apply them to language teaching classes as useful tools to assist
the students when facing foreign media. One of the first studies with captions was
conducted by Robert Vanderplank (1988), believing that if the subtitles could help the
hard-on-hearing people they could also assist EFL students with their learning. The
videos he played the subjects (foreign university students in the UK) included different
dialects and registers and very few pauses were made during the time of watching the
shows. Using a large variety of BBC programs and after a period of nine week the
students reported learning a great deal of vocabulary and expressions that they could
implement to their everyday life. Investigations also suggested that been able to see the
written word strengthens the possibility of the viewer to easily recognize it when listening to
them:

Presenting text and sound versions of a word can qualitatively change the
phonological representation of the word in the student’s mind: that is, the text
serves to improve the recognition of that auditory presented word, even when text
is not present in later presentations. (Bird & William, 2002, p.510)
This connection made between the aural and written text impacts positively in
students that are learning the language as they can acquire vocabulary in a significant
manner, meaning they will be able to easily reproduce it later on.

In the case of Japan and other Asian countries, as Talaván explains, there are studies
that focus on teaching vocabulary using bimodal and standard subtitles simultaneously;

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as well as, the uses of captions to help with their understanding (1992). These are also
known as bilingual subtitles and involve two different types of subtitles shown in the
screen along the video. As argued by Liao and his peers, contrary to what one could
think having an additional channel of input added to the visual content could imply, the
bilingual subtitles did not represent a cognitive overload of information for the
participants. The research was done with Chinese students of the English language and
revealed in most cases that the subjects paid more attention to the L1 subtitles, but they
still read both onscreen text input. However, the effect they had on the student’s
comprehension is mostly based on the personal capacities the students present to
integrate all the information channels into their learning process (Liao et al., 2000).

2.4. THE APPLICATION OF THE SUBTITLES IN THE CLASSROOM

As it has been displayed in the previous section the different categories and types of
subtitles entail different uses and purposes. There are many ways the subtitles have been
introduced in the second language classroom, for example, various researchers as those
mentioned by King (2002), take a more passive approach to the student's exposure to
subtitled media. In these cases, the students are mostly passive viewers using their
personal strategies to understand to the best of their capacities the language and content
of the clip or movie. The viewing tends to be followed by a questionnaire or a
discussion to test the knowledge they have acquired from the video, and in occasions
the test is accompanied by a rewatch of a few scenes or the whole clip, this are the cases
of the investigations conducted by Vanderplank (1988), Danan (1992) and Etemadi
(2012).

King also noted two different approaches to use DVD feature films in a classroom:
the short-sequence approach and the whole-film approach. On one hand, the short-
sequence approach presented the students with few scenes at a time instead of the two
hours movie as some teachers considered it can overload the student’s with too much
linguistic input. She highlighted that this approach would probably be more productive
with short films or commercials, instead of cutting a movie into scenes as it could
prevent the student from connecting with the characters and situations on an emotional
level. On the other hand, she considered that watching a whole movie is a process that
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can take hours but allows a deeper emotional understanding of the actions for the
student’s point of view. Nevertheless, she defends that “a particular approach should be
chosen to match one’s teachings objectives and target group” (2002, p.512). It is up to
the teacher to choose the approach based on the purpose of the activity he/she plans and
the students’ language level.

Furthermore, there are researchers who take a more active approach that requires the
student to subtitle a piece of media. The subtitles can deviate between intralingual and
interlingual depending on the level of the students and purpose of the activity. There is
numerous literature defending this posture, including that of Talaván, Díaz-Cintas, and
Torralba-Miralles. Considering that translation is not as negative of an aspect when
learning a language as it is commonly believed, Díaz-Cintas (2012) actually defended
the importance of this practice when teaching a language. Instead of recurring to
traditional translation, he maintained the visual materials were a new and interesting
resource for the learners, and that through translation they were able to improve
multiple skills. He also enumerated a list of considerations to take in mind when
subtitling an audiovisual media, for example, the time factor and the simplification of
the oral language as the students need to translate the oral information into a written text
in a specific time framework. Moreover, Torralba-Miralles (2020) stated that the
intralingual subtitles are not an identical transcription of the aural text but an adaptation
of the meaning, forcing the student to summarize and rephrase the information shown in
the video (p.238). Additionally, Talaván also argued that adding subtitles to videos was
“a functional and interactive exercise that allows students to share their work with their
peers in a virtual learning environment” (2010, p.286), as the students are able to
develop their skills and vocabulary understanding. Nevertheless, most of the actual
focus was on the improvement of the student’s oral skills. By using a free online
software called Subtitle Workshop, Talaván had students add standard subtitles to two
different two minute clips. Emphasizing the importance of choosing an adequate video
to work with as the main purpose is for the learners to get familiar with the vocabulary
used in the clips, Talaván said that “it is preferable if the clips present useful, interesting,
and self-contained situations, and the language exchanges suit the corresponding
communicative and linguistic goals” (2010, p.290).

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 2.5. SUBTITLES AND THE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

The CEFR defines the communicative language competences “as those which
empower a person to act using specifically linguistic means” (2001, p.9). At the same
time, this competence incorporates three other components, made of different
knowledge and skills. The first component is the linguistic competence that “include
lexical, phonological, syntactic knowledge and skills and other dimensions of language
as system, independently of the sociolinguistic value of its variations and the pragmatic
functions of its realizations” (2001, p.9). This means that its focal point is the formal
aspects of the language a speaker needs to know when communicating, that is, its
structure, vocabulary, as well as, the phonetic and semantic aspects. Furthermore, the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching,
assessment states this competence also includes aspects such as general linguistic range
and vocabulary range, grammatical accuracy, vocabulary control, phonological control,
and the orthographic control. The general linguistic range focuses on the progress and
mastery of the language as the learners take risk “moving beyond one’s comfort zone”
(2020, p.130), while the vocabulary range involves a number of expressions that can be
improved by reading. The grammatical accuracy, though, focuses more on the abilities
of the learner to recall expressions and structures properly while organizing their
thoughts and participating in a communicative situation (European Commission, 2020).
The document mentions that the phonological control has taken the native speaker as an
idealized model the students must acquire, however “it ignores the retention of accent
and lack consideration for context, sociolinguistic aspects and learners’ needs” (2020,
p.133). For the purpose of improving this factor, the scale focuses on articulation and
pronunciation features, as well as, prosody, rhythm and stress, accentedness and
intelligibility (European Commission, 2020), so as to not project impossible goals to the
student. The last aspect of the linguistic competence is the orthographic control that
centers on the spelling and the layout of the word in a text.

All of these components can be developed through the usage of onscreen text, as the
bimodal subtitles or captions in the second language classroom provide the learner with
written vocabulary and structures, which allows the viewer to establish connections
between what is said and how it is written and used. This association facilitates the

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incorporation of these vocabulary and expressions to their own, allowing them to use
them in other instances. As it has already been said in previous sections of this paper,
Danan (2004) maintains that captions can help with word recollection and repetition in a
suitable context; hence, the intralinguistic subtitles would be beneficial to improve the
students’ linguistic competence, and thus their oral skills.

The sociolinguistic competence regards all the sociocultural factors when it comes to
the usage of language (European Commission, 2001), meaning the rules and norms set
by society involving the social agents participating in a communicative situation. These
norms include those as social class, the level of politeness and the sex of the speakers,
all of which greatly determine the type of language that one can expect in a given
situation. It also includes the Sociolinguistic appropriateness scale, which measures the
usage of polite language and forms by the learners when the situation demands of it
(European Commission, 2020). When we play audiovisual resources to the students in
the classroom we expose them to different communicative situations, and in cases we
use authentic material subtitles can greatly impact the understanding of the students as
the videos can contain different dialect and accents that can be difficult to understand if
they are not familiar with it. Another positive factor related to the sociolinguistic
competence is the recognition and recollection of specific vocabulary used by those
culturally different or with different backgrounds that are closer to real life situations
than those portrayed in language learning focus materials. Nevertheless, as it has
already been mentioned, authentic materials are challenging for students as they suffer
to fully comprehend their content in the foreign language, but they are also hard to use
for the teacher. Educators struggle with properly introducing audiovisual material into
the classroom as they cannot be sure if their students will benefit from them or get
frustrated. This is because the real language, accents and social cues are difficult for the
student to understand if they differ from their own but the onscreen text can aid with
this task.

Finally, the pragmatic competences are mainly focused on the student’s knowledge
of how to “organised, structured and arranged” (European Commission, 2020, p.137)
messages. The aspects that comprehend this competence are: flexibility, which allows
the speaker to rearrange and adapt to different linguistic situations (European

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Commission, 2020). Turntaking involves “the ability to take the discourse initiative”
(European Commission, 2020, p.139) as well as, maintainer and conclusion of
conversations; thematic development, focusing on the logical presentation of ideas in a
text when narrating and development arguments (European Commission, 2020).
Coherence and cohesion that “refer to the way in which the separate elements of a text
are interwoven into a coherent whole by exploiting linguistic devices such as
referencing, substitution, ellipsis and other forms of textual cohesion” (European
Commission, 2020, p.140) and it also include the ability to properly organize a text into
paragraphs. The propositional precision, it measures the “extent to which the
user/learner can communicate detail and shade of meaning” (European Commission,
2020, p.141), in other words it focus on the ability the speaker has of constructing their
thoughts in the foreign language. Finally, there is the fluency aspect, defined as capacity
to create understandable utterances even when the speaker shows some hesitation or
pauses (European Commission, 2020).

Through visual media and subtitles, students can develop this competence as
captions and bimodal subtitles allow them to improve the comprehension of the content
of the video so they could have more visual input to gain adequate vocabulary and
expressions to improve their pragmatic skills. Etemadi (2012) used bimodal subtitles to
help her students improve their understanding of the content of the video, which showed
positive results in the students’ understanding and vocabulary gaining. Of course, this
was a practice conducted with students with a certain control and language knowledge
and not in new learners.

3. JUSTIFICATION

The present proposal aims to motivate ESO students to learn and improve their
language skills through a diversity of activities focusing on subtitled media. As it has
already been mentioned, subtitles are very useful tools for language learning that have
been implemented into the classroom since the late 1900s; however, there are many
different types of subtitles and methods that can be applied in a classroom to enhance
the language skills of the learners. The proposal consists of a series of fifteen activities
prepared for the different levels of ESO. As the usage of subtitle media is a process, the
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activities will be divided between the activities prepared for the students in 1st and 2nd
year of ESO, or first cycle students, and the activities for the students in 3rd and 4th year,
or the second cycle students. The reason for choosing to create activities for all of the
levels in ESO is because the students need to become familiar with subtitled media
before it can become a fruitful tool in an ESL classroom. Moreover, during the first two
years of ESO the students’ L2 linguistic aspects are more similar than with the students
in the other two years. The activities will be done at different instances during the
school year and are meant to improve their oral comprehension and production without
frustrating the learners.

Being the oral skills one of the most important competencies to develop in the
current multicultural world we live in, the main purpose of this study is the development
of the student’s oral comprehension and production. Henceforth, through watching
videos, finding specific words and expressions in them, discussing their content, adding
subtitles and even representing some of the scenes in the videos, we aim to develop
some of the key competences depicted in the students’ outbound profile in the
Curriculum. These are: the linguistic and plurilingual competences, as the main focus to
develop the oral skills and linguistic knowledge of the students in the English language.
In the case of the first cycle, the learners will start establishing connections between
their mother tongue and the second language as to improve their oral skills, thus the
significance of the plurilingual competence. While the aim is for the learners to rely on
their L1 as little as possible, we do consider it a basic requirement for the early stages
when using subtitles and authentic materials. The digital competence will be another
important skill developed through this proposal as the students will become acquainted
with subtitle platforms to add onscreen text to online videos, as well as, their own
videos for some of the activities. Moreover, they will also have to use other programs
and apps to create the media they will have to subtitle along their peers. In relation to
this the personal, social and learn to learn competence will also be central in this
proposal as the students will have to work with their classmates in pairs and small
groups to create new projects, share ideas and develop their linguistic and personal
skills together. There will always be a consideration of the COVID-19 protocol and
restrictions at the moment the activities are implemented into a classroom, allowing for
changes and adaptations in the worst of situations.
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 Concerning the activities and materials created for this proposal, all of them have
been selected with the level and student’s interests in mind, as a means to motivate them
into learning and actively participating in the classroom. Most of the videos or clips are
of animated origin due to the variety of topics and the language used, as well as the
accessibility of this kind of materials. Some of the suggested series used are Star vs. the
forces of evil, Gravity Falls, Fish Hooks, and other animated movies from Disney and
Pixar studios that are familiar to the learners, who probably have grown up with these or
similar media. The rest of the chosen videos also depict a variety of topics at the same
time they are very visual. We seek that the students find it easier to get accustomed with
the subtitles, internalize the information and recall said input in future occasions.
Through these activities and the use of this kind of videos, the students will have a
chance to develop their communication competence in all levels, as there are activities
oriented in the vocabulary while others are more focused on the manner of speech,
pronunciation, text coherent and cohesion, and fluency.

Some of the online platforms that will be used for the development of these activities
will be Flipgrid, which allows teachers and students to upload, edit and create visual
content while sharing it in a safe way. Another important platform will be Subtitle
Horse, an online website that permits adding subtitles to any video allowing to divide
the time frames to add the text in an organized way. The students will also have access
to the school electronic devices such as computers and laptops and the classroom
TEAMS, and YouTube to be able to carry out the different tasks.

Finally, regarding the students’ assessment, it will be a formative evaluation to give

constant feedback to the students so they can improve their learning. This will allow the
students to enhance their language skills as well as inform the teacher of their learning
process and the possible elements to improve each activity. The aim is for the students
to improve their oral skills in the long run, so it is important to provide them with useful
feedback that encourages them to do better, without getting frustrating.

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 4. OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSAL

As it has been noted, the main aim of this proposal is to enhance the student’s oral
skills by watching subtitled media through a set of activities merging different types of
subtitles and interesting videos of various topics. Motivation is also a significant issue
in this proposal as we want the students to be interested in participating, at the same
time they are comfortable doing so. With these ideas in mind, the intention is for the
students to:

 Improve the oral comprehension and production of the students by watching

audiovisual media with subtitles and captions.
 Increase the ESL students’ motivation in the classroom through visual
materials.
 Become acquainted with the types of subtitles and their applications on their
language learning process.
 Enhance their vocabulary and expressions through authentic oral text from
different sources.
 Have the students work and practice their oral skills with each other in the
class.

5. CONTEXT

The context this proposal is planned to be implemented in is a secondary public

school in a middle-class neighborhood in Castile and Leon in the city of Valladolid.
This neighborhood possesses a large number of primary schools from where the
students gain access to their compulsory secondary education, so the institution would
group students from all these different schools. Nevertheless, the socioeconomic
situation of the neighborhood, and thus its residents, means the families will care and be
involved with their children’s education. Furthermore, most of the students’ parents and
guardians have finished their compulsory education and many of them have further
studies, such as university degrees. In the same line, the majority of the students will
continue with their higher education and get into university. This context also allows for
the families to have the needed electronic resources such as computers, tablets and/or
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android mobile phones, as well as, WI-FI connection at home. The school has updated
materials and resources to be able to carry out new methodologies and introduce the
TICs in the classroom. Of course, this includes the application of the following
activities with subtitled audiovisual material. The institution also has multiple labs,
distributed in its different buildings, including a computer lab and over thirty laptops to
lend the students during lessons if the subject requires it, as long as the teacher signs up
in advance.

6. METHODOLOGY

Concerning what has previously been mentioned, the methodology used for this
proposal is the communicative approach which focuses on improving the oral
communicative skills of the students. As Irmawati (2012) depicted in her article, this
approach focuses mostly on the student as it searches for the learner to communicate;
thus, the importance of the student’s motivation in this regard as they will be more
willing to participate in the conversations if they are interested in the topic at hand.
Another aspect that she mentions is the use of authentic materials as the goal is for the
students to achieve an “effective communication” (2012, p.91), while they learn the
second language at the same time they are communicating with each other. For this
purpose, they need to be exposed to authentic text, in this case, audiovisual clips and
videos from a variety of sources. Not only does “communicative approach seeks to
personalise and localise language and adapt it to interests of pupils,” (2012, p.90) but
through the usage of audiovisual authentic materials the learner’s motivation thrives
enhancing their learning experience.

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 7. ACTIVITIES OF THE PROPOSAL

1st Cycle:

Activity 1:
Title: In a Clip

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 15 minutes a week,

-Become familiar with during the 1st term.
subtitles in a
progressive manner.
-Understand and share
ideas about the content
of a series of videos
with their peers.

Classroom management: Resources:

The student will work both A weekly subtitled video. Some

individually and in pairs depending on examples of the videos we can use for
the video they watch that week. this activity are:
● Wreck it Ralph 2: the scene of
Vanellope meeting the Disney
princesses.
● A scene from the movie Up from
Disney.
● An interview with primary
school children where they
describe what love is to an
illustrator.
All of which can be found in the
appendix.

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 Description:

This activity will take place once a week, for the whole duration of the first term, as
a way to have students progressively get acquainted with subtitled media; at the
same time, they practice their comprehension and speaking skills.
The teacher will begin by asking the students about the shows they watch and the
language they have watched them in, depending on their responses and language
level the number of weeks we stay with each type of subtitle may vary.
The activity consists of the students watching a video, approximately a three
minutes long clip, with subtitles to later be commented on with the whole class. As
the students are on the first cycle of ESO it is recommended the teacher initiates the
conversation with simple questions such as:
1. Does the video sound familiar? If so, from where?
2. How many people are seen in the video?
3. What was character A doing? What was character B doing? etc.
4. What were they talking about?
5. Was there a conflict? If so, what was it?
6. What do you think happens next?
7. What would you do in a situation like that?

These questions can be useful especially for the first few weeks, till the students get
familiar with this kind of activity and the subtitles. As for the purpose of this
activity, we will start by showing videos with standard subtitles to end with bimodal
subtitles and captions. For the first two weeks the videos will be shown with
subtitles in the mother tongue, then the following three weeks the videos will have
bimodal subtitles, which summarize the spoken text and finally we will move into
the captions for the remaining weeks.
Additionally, when we introduce the bimodal subtitles we will let them discuss the
content with a partner to share ideas as well as vocabulary. In these cases, we will
ask them a question so they can discuss it for a minute in pairs before they have to
tell the whole class what they have come up with. The aim of it being, the students
will be more motivated to speak in front of the class about the content of the video
and their own ideas if they have been able to check their thoughts with someone
else. The teacher will have to pair the students up taking into consideration their
personal language level so they can help each other.
Each video should be played twice to let the student better process the lexicon and
content and to make sure the discussion is meaningful.
The examples provided can be interesting videos to use for the following reasons:
-The video clip taken from the movie Wreck it Ralph 2 includes a variety of
interrogative sentences with ‘do’, ‘were’, ‘what’, and ‘did’ that can be interesting to
tackle with the students of the first cycle. In terms of discussing content, the students
will have to talk about the Disney Princesses and Vanellope’s problems while giving
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 their opinion. This movie and in particular this scene was very popular when the
movie came out so even if they have not seen the movie they will be familiar with
the stories of the princesses to be able to discuss it. This video would be
accompanied by standard subtitles.
-The clip from Disney’s movie Up, shows some simple structures related to an
introduction, some present simple tenses and a description that can be useful when it
comes to interesting lexicon the students can learn. When it comes to the content,
the discussion can turn around the emotions, the age difference and the personal
situations of the main characters in the scene. With this video the teacher can use
either standard or bimodal subtitles depending on the level of the students.
-The last example is an interview with a group of primary school children describing
what they think is love to an illustrator. The video would preferentially be used with
captions and even if it is five minutes long it could be stopped at any moment the
teacher wishes to, as each kid gives their own opinion on what love is. The
vocabulary is simple, relatable and in line with how a person can describe different
things in English. The discussion can have the students defining or describing what
‘love’ is for them after watching this video.

Activity 2:
Title: In Reverse: Star vs. the Forces of Evil

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 3 sessions

-Add reverse subtitles to
shorts of a cartoon series
in groups of four.
-Translate and
summarize their ideas
from their mother tongue
aural text into the L2
written text.
-Mediate with their peers
to create a coherent and
cohesive translation.

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 Classroom management: Resources:

The students will be grouped in threes. Each group will have access to a
computer to be able to add the subtitles,
in the Subtitle Horse platform, as well as
some paper and pens to take notes, and
the videos chosen by the teacher taken
from the series: Star vs. the forces of
evil.

Description:

For this activity the students will be required to add English subtitles to the first two
episodes of the series Star vs. the Forces of Evil, where a magical girl from another
universe is grounded by her parents to live on Earth till she becomes more
responsible. There, she goes to school, makes new friends such as Marco and goes
into different adventures against different evil creatures. The two episodes chosen
for this activity will be divided into eight parts of three minutes long each. In other
words, each group will have to subtitle three minutes of the series that at the end
will be put back together to be watched in class. This activity would be done during
school time in the computer lap so the teacher can assist the students in any way
needed.
The first session would be for the students to get familiar with the video they have
received, and to start planning the translation. Of course, the teacher will explain
how the subtitles need to adapt to the time frame dictated by the characters’ dialogue
patterns. Due to this, on some occasions they might need to summarize some of the
ideas the original text depicts. During the second session, the students will have to
begin to subtitle the videos with Subtitle Horse, a program that allows subtitles to be
added into a clip in an easy manner. At the start of the session a quick tutorial will
be given to the students before they begin their work, and the teacher will be
walking around the classroom to assist any group that needs further explanations.
Most of the vocabulary used in these episodes is simple everyday lexicon that the
students should know without looking in any dictionary, but in certain cases where
the fantasy elements become the main topic of conversation the teacher will guide
the students with some phrases that may be too difficult or new. They will also be
allow to use Linguee or an online dictionary. Finally, the student will have to send
their work through TEAMS and the teacher will evaluate the work and merge the
clips back together into the two original 12 minute long episodes for everyone to
watch the following day. After this, there will be a common discussion about the
characters, their significant trades and behavior, what will allow the students to
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 speak in English using the new vocabulary they have learned at the same time they
can enjoy each other’s hard work.

Activity 3:
Title: I came, I saw, I conquered

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 25 minutes

-Identify different verbs
in the past tense in a
captioned video.
-Answer questions and
give their personal
opinion regarding the
content of the short
animated video “Daisy
Chain”.

Classroom management: Resources:

The students will work individually for The activity sheet shown in the appendix
when solving the activity sheet but they and the short animated video Daisy
will pair up to discuss some ideas. Chains, which can also be found in the
appendix.

Description:

The short animated video Daisy Chain will be played with captions and the students
will have to locate all of the verbs in the past simple tense. This video narrates a
story about bullying in a manner close to that of a nursery song or tale. It rhymes
and it mainly uses the past simple tense so it is a good choice for this activity.
Furthermore, this video allows for a discussion about bullying and accepting the
differences in other people.

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 As a pre-watching activity, the teacher will ask the class if they know what a “Daisy
chain” is and about what they think the video is about. The teacher will also read the
sheet with the students making sure they understand it, and of course, all of the
verbs they need to fill in the activity have already been learned in class. We will also
explain in general terms who the main character is and her situation so they can
focus on finding the verbs while understanding the context.
Then we will play the video, which is five minutes long. However, it will be stopped
halfway through to let the students process the information, answer some questions
about the content and to have them check their activity sheet before continuing.
Additionally, it would be necessary to slow the video's pace a little bit using the tool
in YouTube as it can be too difficult for the students.
After stopping the video for the first time the teacher will asked the students
questions such as:
1. What happened to Buttercup?
2. Who helped Buttercup?
3. What did the friend tell Buttercup?
4. What did the bullies do to Buttercup?

Afterwards, the teacher will play the rest of the video and the students will have to
finish the last two questions on their sheet. Once they have seen the video once the
teacher will play it one more time for them to finish and check their answers.
Once they have watch it two times the students will briefly discuss in pairs what
they think about the fable of the story and the situation Buttercup faced, then they
will share it with the class.

Activity 4:
Title: Rain Check

Aim: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 30 minutes

-Learn some common
expressions while
watching a cartoon
video with captions.

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 Classroom management: Resources:

The students will work in pairs for this The video chosen by the teacher,
activity. which in this case is the first episode of
the cartoon series Fish Hooks, and the
Kahoot that can be found in the
appendix.

Description:

The teacher will add captions to a video and color some expressions the students
should get familiar with. The video chosen is half of the first episode of Fish Hooks,
because each half focuses on different topics. This cartoon series is about a group of
three fish friends, Oscar, Milo and Bea in an aquarium in a Pet shop that enjoy their
teenage years going to school. In this episode, Oscar, who feels left out by his
friends, invents a fake girlfriend to look mature and to not feel alone. The clip is
eleven minutes long and will be played twice, and the second time the teacher will
stop every to discuss the color expressions, the content and to give the students time
to process the vocabulary.
The highlighted vocabulary will be: “to take a rain check”, “ask me out”, “gotta run,
toodles”, “grab food”, “give you out rain checks”, “[person]of my dreams”,
“romantic junk”, “spoiled dinner”, “getting pretty serious”, “when do we meet”,
“torn apart”, “turn around”, “fits me just right”, and “made you up in my head”.
After watching the video twice and discussing it the students will have to answer a
Kahoot about what has been discussed during the lesson.

Activity 5:
Title: Underwater Boy

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 30 minutes

-Listen for the words
missing in the subtitles.
-Fill in the gap in the
subtitles with the correct
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 word in a series of
multiple choice questions.
-Discuss about the issues
depicted in the video.

Classroom management: Resources:

The students will work individually for The video selected by the teacher that
the following activity. is the other half of the first episode of
Fish Hooks and the activity sheet that
can be found in the appendix.

Description:

The activity consists of the students practicing their listening comprehension trying
to listen for specific words in a video. The video used for this activity will be the
second half of the first episode of Fish Hooks that is about sports and team spirit.
First, the students will receive a quiz with ten multiple choice questions with lines of
the episode’s captions that will appear with a gap, and three choices of possible
words to choose from. The words and expressions chosen have similar meaning or
sound, and the clip will be played twice to give the students a chance to get familiar
with the content. Previously to the activity, the teacher will must read the questions
with the students and clear any meaning or doubt they may have. It is complicated to
listen for a word you do not understand, so every word must be clear. Additionally,
as the vocabulary is about sports and team play, after finishing the questionnaire
there will be a discussion about Milo’s role in the team as the water boy and team
work in general. For the discussion the teacher can ask questions such as:
1. Why did Milo want to be on the football team?
2. Did he know how to play football?
3. What role did the Coach give him?
4. Did Milo think his role was important?
5. At the end, what did Milo learn?
6. Are any of you in any teams?
7. Do you have an assistant or a water boy/girl? Or maybe a manager?
8. Are their roles less important than the players?

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Activity 6:
Title: Piece it out

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 50 minutes

-Puzzle the pieces of
script they receive of a
scene and practice it in
small groups of three.
-Develop their
sociocultural and
pragmatic competences
while practicing a one
minute scene.

Classroom management: Resources:

The students will be divided into groups A scene from the movie from Pixar The
of three to practice and perform the Incredibles.
scene.
Each group will receive the five pieces
of paper that make the whole script and
the whole script after they finish the
puzzle so they can practice the scene.
It can be found in the appendix.
Each student will also receive a laptop
to watch the scene afterwards.
Some props the teacher takes to help
them get into character such as: paper
plates, plastic cutlery and a baby doll.

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 Description:

For this activity the students will be grouped in threes with their language skill level
in mind so the groups are balanced. Each group then will receive the pieces of the
script they have to puzzle together. To make it easier for them, the text in each piece
will be read out loud before they have a minute to piece it together in groups. The
scene chosen for this activity is the dinner scene in the Pixar movie The Incredibles
where the parents and the son are having some casual talk about the day.
The scene is only a minute long, so once they finish the jigsaw, the students will
receive a complete version of the script so they can practice it for seven minutes.
They will also be advised to put feeling into their performance as they need to be
acting as a family having dinner and talking with each other. During this time, the
teacher will walk around the class to assist and advise them regarding pronunciation
and word meaning.
After the seven minutes, the movie scene with captions will be played one time to
let the students see prosodic elements such as pace, the accent, the stops the
characters make and how they transmit emotions through both paralinguistic and
pragmatic elements.
Once they have seen it they will be allowed to take a computer to watch the scene a
few more times and to practice the scene before they have to perform it to the class.
At the end of the session, the students will be able to vote for the best actors and
actresses in the class by raising their hands.

Activity 7:
Title: Dubbing: Star vs. the Forces of Evil

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 3 sessions

-Practice their
pragmatic competence
by dubbing a one
minute long clip in
groups of three.

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 Classroom management: Resources:

The students will be grouped in threes. The video clip from the Star vs. the
Forces of Evil in English. All of which
can be found in the appendix.
Audacity and VideoPad to edit the
videos, as well as, the school’s computer
lab, TEAMS or Moodle.

Description:

After working with the first two episodes of Star vs. the Forces of Evil and acting
out the scene from The Incredibles’ movie, the students will have to dub a minute of
one of the scenes they have previously worked on of Star vs. the Forces of Evil.
From the initial three minutes they had to subtitle, now they just have to choose just
one minute of dialogue of their liking to work with. Nevertheless, they will be
advised to check with the teacher on the clip they choose so he/she can take note of
it.
The groups the students will be working with will be the same balance groups from
activity number 2 and the same videos. During the session this activity is introduced
to the students, they will have to choose a single scene to practice through the
following week. The teacher will recommend them to choose a scene with three
characters, but in case they choose one with more the teacher will suggest them to
make sure those are minor roles with no more than two lines each.
After a week they will have to show the teacher their live performance, who will
give them feedback on their work. Then, they will be given a weekend to record the
voice dialogue at home and bring them to the following session so they can merge
the audio and videos in the computer lab using Audacity (a audio editor software)
and VideoPad (a video editor software), both of with are very easy to use and will
be explained by the teacher before they are used by the students. The final work will
be sent to the teacher through TEAMS or the school moodle platform.

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 2nd Cycle:

Activity 1:
Title: Mental Health is Real

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 15 minute

-Become accustomed to
captions.
-Be able to give their
opinion about the
content of a video.

Classroom management: Resources:

The students will be working The video that was chosen to show to
individually. the students We All Have Mental Health
and a questionnaire that can be found in
the appendix.

Description:

The students will watch a video about mental health called We All Have Mental
Health, which is a five minute long animated video where two friends explain what
mental health is and how every case is different, in addition to giving some
recommendations on how to fight it. This can be beneficial for the students at the
ages of 14-16 years old. The students will watch the video once and then receive a
questionnaire while they watch it a second time. Of course, the teacher will read the
questionnaire with them so everything is clear. Finally, the class will discuss the
content of the video aloud, while answering questions such as:
1. Do you think mental health is different for everyone? Why?
2. Can you think of any activity that can help overcome it?
3. Do you think asking for help is important? Why?

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Activity 2:
Title: Adhesive Ducks

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 10 minutes

-Become familiar with
caption reading at the
same time they listen to
the oral text.
-Locate the mistakes
within the captions.

Classroom management: Resources:

The students will work individually for The video clip taken from the series Big
this activity. Bang Theory about body parts and
health lexicon. That can be found in the
appendix.

Description:

For this activity, the teacher will subtitle a clip from the famous Big Bang Theory
sitcom related to health vocabulary and body parts with some mistakes. The video
shows Sheldon and Penny in the emergency room filling in a questionnaire about
Penny's medical history naming different symptoms and illnesses as well as some
body parts. For this activity, nine words shown in the subtitles will be changed for
others: Injury–Wound, Dislocated–Misplace, Cause–House, Migraine–Grapes,
Puffy–Swollen, Question–Session, Shoulder–Knee, Period–Time, and Comforting–
Nice. These words have been chosen either because they sound similar or because
they have similar meaning. The main purpose of this activity is for the students to
get familiar with reading subtitles while paying attention to the aural text, without
making them frustrated, so it is important not all the words are too difficult to find.
The video will be played twice and the students will have to find the mistakes.
Additionally, after watching it twice they will be required to try and write the words
said by the characters in the scene before the teacher plays the video with the correct

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 captions.

Activity 3:
Title: The Theft of the Century

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 40 minutes

-Find the right words in
the captions of the video
linked to the definitions
given in the activity
sheet.
-To be able to discuss the
topics of the video with
their peers.

Classroom management: Resources:

The first part of this activity will be The video The Theft of the Mona Lisa
done individually, however the and the questionnaire, which can be
students will pair to answer the second found in the appendix.
half of the questionnaire.

Description:

The students will receive an activity sheet with a chart with a list of definitions that
can be found in the video about the theft of the Mona Lisa and how it has become
one of the most famous paintings to date. The purpose of this activity is for the
students to use the subtitles to help them enhance their comprehension of the aural
text to find the correct words in the captions.

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 First the activity sheet will be read by the teacher, who will ask the students
possibilities of the words they might find, this way they will activate their previous
knowledge and will be better prepared to listen to the information. The video will be
played twice and it will be slowed down using the YouTube tool to do so.
Once this part of the activity is done, the students will have to pair up to answer four
questions about the content and their opinion about the video. In addition, they will
have to invent an alternative plan of stealing the Mona Lisa practicing vocabulary
they have seen in the video. Before doing this, the students will watch the video one
more time to make sure they can focus on the information and content, and then they
will receive five minutes to create the perfect plan to steal the Mona Lisa.
At the end, they will have to share it with the class who will vote for the best plan.

Activity 4:
Title: Being Modal

Aim: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 30 minutes

-Learn grammatical
elements such as
modals through using
captioned movie clips.

Classroom management: Resources:

The students will work individually for The movie clip’s from Ice Age 4:
this activity. Continental Drift. That can be found in
the appendix.

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 Description:

In this activity the teacher will play some of the clips from the 2012 movie Ice Age
4: Continental Drift with captions, specifically moments where they use modals.
The movie is about the main trio of characters trying to get back to their families
after the Earth starts to crumble under their feet. The clips will be about two minutes
long to give them context to make sure the scene is meaningful and the students will
have to search for the modals. Once they find them, there will be a discussion about
why a modal was used instead of other another so they can understand the
significant uses in a real context. Some of the modal verbs that are used throughout
the movie are: should, could, will, and can. One example is when Peaches is angry
at her father and asks him how he could embarrass her in front of her friends. Also,
most of the vocabulary of the movie is relatable as they talk a lot about family,
home and friends within the context of the Ice Age.
Through this activity, the students will also be able to remember the uses of each
modal and due to the visual aid and the subtitles they will be able to recall the
information easier when they need it.

Activity 5:
Title: Trending

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 2 sessions

-Develop and practice
their sociolinguistic and
pragmatic competences
through short clips
taken from social media
platforms.
-Discuss the difficulties
and interesting
elements.

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 Classroom management: Resources:

The students will work either in pairs The teacher will choose a series of Tik
or individually depending on the clip Toks or Instagram reels for the students
they choose. to replicate. This can be found in the
appendix.
Flipgrid will also be necessary as a way
to record and send the videos to the
teacher.

Description:

The students will receive a Tik Tok or an Instagram reel and they will have to
imitate the trend in a video of their own they will later send to the teacher. The
videos selected by the teacher depict different people and situations through
monologues and dialogues, which are acted in an aphonic way overlapping with
spoken dialogue with subtitles. This means that the people acting are synchronizing
with the audio and soundlessly repeating what it is said to make it look realistic. The
students will have to practice the video till they can more or less synchronize
themselves with it and record it before they send it to the teacher. Their body
language and synchronization to the actions required in the video will be very
important, but they will be motivated to add their own style to it, so it does not seem
robotic. For this part of the activity, the students will have a week to do the task at
home, as they will need to practice and record themselves with a phone or tablet. In
this period of time they will also have to learn the monologue or the dialogue if they
are working in pairs to show it to the rest of the class during a lesson.
First, during the session this activity is introduced the teacher will play them
possible reels and Tik Toks they can choose from, however if they bring an idea to
the teacher and he/she allows it they will be able to work with a video of their
choosing. In this session the teacher will also introduce Flipgrid to the students,
which allows for a safe manner to share videos between teachers and students,
where they can upload and record videos of their making. Afterwards, the students
will have a week to practice, record and send the video to the teacher. Moreover,
they will also be required to act out the clip chosen in front of the class but this time
repeating the conversation in the video, they will be encouraged to change the
pacing and other prosodic elements that are too difficult for their level but they will
have to do is as best they can to make it look like a real conversation.
Some of the videos chosen for this activity can be:
-A conversation between a British and an American, where the British tries to have
the other party pronounce as he/she does, which deeply frustrates the British man.

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 -An introvert woman practicing how to order a sandwich from her hotel room before
calling the receptionist and falling to organize her thoughts when she is faced with
the real situation.
-A dialogue between a man and a woman, where the man is asking the woman to
dinner taken from the movie The Tourist.
-A monologue of a man justifying his book expenses, calling it friendship instead of
spending money.
-A series of four Marvel Cinematographic Universe' characters talking about magic,
voiced by the same person in a comedic way.
-A dialogue between a woman calling a house and talking with a child, while she is
playing hide and seek, and her parents considered her being kidnapped or lost.
-A dialogue between a father and his small child, as the son is trying to run away
because he is not allowed to keep playing with the Play station.
-A dialogue between three women from the Big Bang Theory talking about a
mistake at work with a retiring-card that ended up being a get-well-card.
None of the videos are longer than a minute and depending and as they are quite
diverse they will most likely adjust to the student’s likings and language level. At
the end, the teacher will ask the students if they found any difficulty or anything
interesting they discover while practicing the videos.

Activity 6:
Title: In the Middle of a Scene

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 2 sessions

-Elaborate dialogues for
the characters in a muted
scene of an episode in
groups of threes.
-Discuss about the content
and vocabulary of an
episode of a cartoon with
captions

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 -Perform the dialogues in
front of the classroom.

Classroom management: Resources:

The students will work in groups of The students will need pen and paper
threes. to write and a laptop per group. Of
course, the video chosen for this
activity: an episode from Fish Hooks.
It can be found in the appendix.

Description:

The teacher will play the students an episode of the cartoon series Fish Hooks,
which is about three fish friends Milo, Oscar and Bea, living in an aquarium in a Pet
Shop and experiencing high school for the first time. Each episode is twenty minutes
long but they are divided in two halves, as they deal with two different topics. In this
case, we will use the first eleven minutes of the first episode, which is about Oscar
feeling left out by his friends who are dating and meeting new people, which leads
him to create a fake girlfriend, Doris.
The episode will have captions on it but before the lesson, the teacher will edit the
video so two minutes in the middle are mute and without subtitles. The purpose of
this is that the students will have to write in groups of three the dialogue for the two
muted minutes. Regarding the scene that will be muted, it is about Oscar telling his
friends about his girlfriend for the first time and a montage of him faking presents
and dates with Doris.
When explaining the activity to the class, the teacher will have to clarify that there is
a muted scene and that they should be paying attention to what happens in it, and
once they have watched it one time the teacher will ask the students questions about
what they think is missing in those two muted minutes. For example:
1. What is Oscar’s girlfriend’s name?
2. Is Oscar's girlfriend real or fake?
3. What are some of the “present” Doris gives Oscar?
4. Do you remember any vocabulary that is repeated by the characters multiple
times along the episode?

Afterwards, the students will be grouped taking into account their level and we will
proceed to watch the episode one more time, followed by a brief discussion to make
sure everything is clear. Then each group will take a laptop and will have access to a
class drive where they can watch the edited video as many times as they want while
writing the dialogues.

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 Furthermore, each group will have to perform one dialogue of those they have
written during the following class. Finally, after all the groups are done, the students
will watch the whole episode with captions and discuss the content of the episode in
general.

Activity 7:
Title: Gravity Falls in Bimodal

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 4 sessions

-Subtitled a series of
Gravity Falls’ clips with
bimodal subtitles in
small groups.
-Mediate with their
group peers to create a
coherent and cohesive
piece.

Classroom management: Resources:

The students will be in groups of three The short video clips belong to the
for this activity. cartoon series Gravity Falls and the
program Subtitle Horse. They will also
have access to a computer to be able to
do all the work, as well as TEAMS.
The videos can be found in the
appendix.

Description:

The students will be grouped in threes and they will have to add subtitles to a series
short of Gravity Falls. The series revolves around a pair of twins, Dipper and
Mabel, spending their summer with their Great-Uncle Stan in his little town full of
mysteries and the shorts are a guide Dipper makes about a series of unexplainable
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 events in their town.
The purpose of the activity is for the students to add bimodal subtitles to a clip in
groups, which will be shown to the rest of the class. Additionally, during the class
presentation of their work they will have to explain some of the most important
expressions and vocabulary used in the clip as well as an explanation behind the
creature involved in the mystery. In other words, they will invent a story about the
monsters or magical objects in their video explaining their origins or anything
Dipper and his sister did not dive into.
The clips are no more than three minutes long and have a variety of vocabulary
depending on the mystery explored in it. Some examples of shorts we can use are
one about a mysterious tooth that seemed to appear out of nowhere but that
belonged to a mysterious creature in the lake no one can really take a good look of,
another one about a human-like android controlled by little creatures, and one about
a mailbox with the universe’s knowledge in it.
During the first season the groups will receive a laptop and will have time to get
familiar with the clip and the vocabulary, as they have to decide how and what
information they will summarize for the better understanding of the video. The
teacher, who will be going around the class, will help any group in case they do not
understand any word said by the characters or its meaning. Either way, they will be
allowed to search for the word in an online dictionary or Linguee if needed.
On the second and third sessions, the students will receive a short tutorial on how to
use Subtitle Horse and will subtitle their video, and select the lexicon they
considered important to mention during their presentations and the story.
Finally, in the last season, the following week they will have to show their work to
the class in a 5-6 minutes long presentation.

Activity 8:

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 Title: A Guide to the Unexplained

Aims: Type: Timing:

To have the students: Reinforcement activity 2 sessions

-Enhance their pragmatic
and sociocultural
competences by acting
out a clip o a show in
groups of threes.
-Use the TICs in a safe
and creative manner.

Classroom management: Resources:

The students will be grouped in the The series of shorts of Gravity Fall
threes. that have been used in the previous
activity, laptops, as well as their
TEAMS and Flipgrid accounts. The
videos can be found in the appendix.

Description:

Following the previous activity where the students had to add bimodal subtitles to a
series of Gravity Falls shorts, in this instance and in the same groups they will
receive one of the shorts subtitled by their classmates to be acted out and recorded
through Flipgrid. The purpose of this activity is for them to develop and practice
their oral English skills as well as their body language while making a movie
recreating the Gravity Falls shorts’ events. The shorts are meant to be video diaries
from Dipper investigating weird events in his town along with his sister. Instead of
following the subtitles faithfully, for this activity, the students will have to remake
and summarize the events in the video. In other words, while the students will be
required to act like they were Dipper, Mabel and the other character’s in the videos,
they will have to adapt to their own tools and resources; of course, using the
subtitles as the main source to write the script to their movie. Through the use of
Flipgrid, which allows for the videos to be edited with stickers, GIFs and different
backgrounds, the students will be encouraged to use their creativity to perform the
events in the short and to upload it to the platform. Each movie they make will not
be longer than three minutes, and a minimum of two.

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 As the students are already familiar with Flipgrid the first session will be for the
students to revise the clip they are going to be working with this time. For the
redistribution of the shorts on this occasion, the teacher will write the titles on
different pieces of paper and a member of each group can pick out a paper
randomly. Once each group has a source material they will be able to get a computer
to watch the subtitled short and make their script. The teacher will be walking
around the classroom to assist any group that needs it.
Afterwards, the students will have two weeks to practice and record their movie and
upload it online. Nevertheless, one additional session will be dedicated for the
teacher to check the student’s progress and help them with anything they have any
difficulty with.

8. CONCLUSION

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 In conclusion this proposal seeks to enhance the learners’ communicative skill
through the utilization of subtitled media in the ESL classroom. Audiovisual resources
with onscreen text have been part of our society since the early 1900s and were later
included as in class materials specially in the language learning class because they allow
the learners to understand authentic material with new vocabulary in a relatable context.
Nowadays it is even more frequent that children and teens are exposed to subtitles,
however, many still struggle with this tool. The main purpose of this proposal is to help
students in all levels of ESO to become familiar with these resources and for them to be
able to make the most of the videos shown in class and the information in them, both in
a linguistic and content level. Having the viewers adapting to the subtitles is a process
and not a skill that can be develop watching just one video, so it is really important to
make sure the students are accustomed to them. Furthermore, for this process to be
fruitful, the teacher also has to have clear goals that he/she expects to accomplish by
using the different types of subtitles, as well as the similarities between the L1 and L2.
Additionally, the videos are motivational resources that lower the student’s affective
filter, allowing them to enjoy the lesson and learn in a more efficient way. Through
subtitled media the students are also more likely to remember and later recall the
linguistic input in the videos for daily life situations. Thus, all of the activities in the
proposal seek to help them achieve this.

Following the communicative approach, the students will be able to collaborate into
creating projects with subtitle videos, reenacting scenes in front of their peers and
discussing a variety of different topics. Simultaneously, they will be more motivated, as
they will experience less anxiety and stress when participating in class as the topics are
closer to their reality and their interests. Subtitles are found in many of the social media
and streaming platforms the students use nowadays so helping them become familiar
with this tool will also allow them to implement this learning exercise into their
personal life improving their language skills.

While the proposal was not put into practice in a classroom, the Practicum has allow
me to understand how common it is for subtitles to be use in the ESL classroom and that
in most cases it does help students to comprehend more efficiency the content of the
video chosen. In addition, it also permits them to answer questions and do farther work

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in relation to the input they have received. However, sometimes the teachers are the
ones that struggle when deciding what types of subtitles they should use with their
different classes, so following this proposal could prove to be beneficial in covering this
issue.

In other words, subtitles and subtitled media are very useful resources that are
already in our classrooms and it is up to the teacher to help students make the most of
them to develop their language skills while working and participating with their peers.

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 9. REFERENCES

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Danan, M. (2004). Captioning and Subtitling: Undervalued Language Learning

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Danan, M. (1992). Reversed Subtitling and Dual Coding Theory: New Directions for

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European Commission (2005). Communication from the Commission to the Council, the

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 academia.edu/12674584/Movie_Subtitles_and_the_Improvement_of_Listening_

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Talavan, N. (2006). Using subtitles to enhance foreign language learning. Porta

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DOI: 10.1163/9789042031814_021

Talavan, N. (2011). La influencia efectiva de los subtítulos en el aprendizaje de lenguas

extranjeras: análisis de investigaciones previas. Universidad Nacional de

Educación a Distancia. Retreived from: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articul

o? codigo=4888904

Torralba-Miralles, G., (2020). El uso de subtítulos pasivos y activos en la enseñanza de

lenguas extranjeras: una revisión de las posibilidades didácticas de ambos

recursos. Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura. Medellín, Colombia, 25(1).

Retrieved from: http://www.doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.v25n01a11

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Vanderplank, R. (1988). The value of teletext sub-titles in language learning. ELT

Journal. Oxford University Press, 42(4). Retrieved from: https://doi.org

/10.1093/elt/42.4.272

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 10. APPENDIX

1st Cycle, activity 1.

Wreck it Ralph 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Th5ke5zmMY

Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XubM62q9nlw

Kids describe love to an illustrator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0_T-Sb-

Loc&ab_channel=HiHoKids

1st Cycle, activity 2.

Star vs. the forces of Evil:

Episode 1, part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMcGiH2tGAc&list=PLN2Gv

RIwn6atjHc6z_vfVSg-qjZMHQXB-&index=1&ab_channel=FerxButterfly

Episode 1, part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obuVCjLoky0&list=PLN2Gv

RIwn6atjHc6z_vfVSg-qjZMHQXB-&index=2&ab_channel=FerxButterfly

Episode 1, part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMpAZubtI6c&list=PLN2Gv

RIwn6atjHc6z_vfVSg-qjZMHQXB-&index=3&ab_channel=FerxButterfly

Episode 1, part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woiQfyn1iso&list=PLN2Gv

RIwn6atjHc6z_vfVSg-qjZMHQXB-&index=4&ab_channel=FerxButterfly

Episode 2, part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGBsP4I_Kfk&list=PLN2Gv

RIwn6atjHc6z_vfVSg-qjZMHQXB-&index=5&ab_channel=FerxButterfly

Episode 2, part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozoQ_FMdtAU&list=PLN2Gv

RIwn6atjHc6z_vfVSg-qjZMHQXB-&index=6&ab_channel=FerxButterfly

Episode 2, part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBAflExiFwg&list=PLN2Gv

RIwn6atjHc6z_vfVSg-qjZMHQXB-&index=7&ab_channel=FerxButterfly

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Episode 2, part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhFOC6s4kso&list=PLN2Gv
RIwn6atjHc6z_vfVSg-qjZMHQXB-&index=8&ab_channel=FerxButterfly

1st Cycle, activity 3.

Daisy Chain video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGxmschhkNg&abchannel=Pr

oteinOne

I came, I saw, I conquered

1. Find the past simple forms of the following verbs in the video:

To be:_________________________
To give:________________________
To take:________________________

2. Fill in the continuation of the following sentences with the correct verb form:

 Buttercup __________ from there to here.

 She__________ some flowers to the slide and just like that it seemed to smile.

 The bullies __________ a ring of spite and crowded in with dark delight.

3. Choose the correct verb:

 They took her picture, _____________ with glee and __________ it to the nearest
tree.
a) Hugged b) Laughed c) Putted d) Pinned

 He _________ her chains to some degree, ___________ to her and set her free.

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 a) Break b) Broke c) Stood d) Went

 Buttercup scooped her daisies close. Ahead she _________ her picture post.
a) Gave b) Took c) Shared d) Saw

4. What was Buttercups plan?

5. Find the past simple forms of the following verbs in the video:

To fix:________________
To do:________________
To meet:_______________

1st Cycle, activity 4.

Fish Hooks video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoUTpJKVeM8&list=PLPV

zea1R_cCeNdJQkO9rxmB7l0BMgoKMk&index=5&ab_channel=HowardMackenzie

Kahoot: https://create.kahoot.it/share/rain-check-fish-hooks/6dee9976-e45f-4499-b98c-
c8b883a140d8

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1st Cycle, activity 5.

Fish Hooks video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xav-tYOhUmo&ab_channel=

HowardMackenzie

Underwater Boy

1. May I ______________ present Freshwater High’s own Fighting Fish Hooks!

a) Proudly
b) Pie
c) Piece

2. Please don’t tell me this has anything to do with ___________ the football
team.
a) Enjoy
b) Joining
c) Soccer

3. I’m just in it for the ____________.

a) Love
b) Glory
c) Ball

4. Alright Milo, show us _______________.

a) What you got
b) What you have
c) What you do

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 5. You have to admit that I am an unbelievably amazing ____________.
a) Armchair
b) Player
c) Athlete

6. No, Coach, I don’t think you will. Because ____________.

a) I win
b) I quit
c) I smile

7. Wouldn’t _______________ there, without a water boy.

a) Last long
b) Give me the ball
c) Cool ball

8. We geckos have plenty of water. It is yours if you merely _________ the game.
a) Forfeit
b) Play
c) Forget

9. I will invent a time machine and _____________.

a) Make you proud
b) Make you sorry
c) Make you win

10. I owe all my ___________ to Coach Salmons.

a) Super game
b) Super duper

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 c) Super fame

1st Cycle, activity 6.

The Incredibles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reTz59nkhBw

Peace it out!

E:
Mother: “Um Oh”
Son: Mom. You’re making weird faces again.
Mother: No, I’m not.
Father: You make weird faces honey.

____________________________________________________

A:
Mother: Do you have to read at the table?
Father: Hmm. Yeah.
*Son bites into the steak without cutting in*
Mother: (sigh) Smaller bites Dash! Yikes! Bob, could you help the carnivore cut his
meat.
*Father cuts his son’s steak*

____________________________________________________

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D:
Mother: Dash, you have something to tell your father about school?
Son: Um…well, we dissected a frog…
Mother: Dash got sent to the office again.
Father: Good, good.
Mother: No, Bob, that’s bad.
Father: Hmm?

____________________________________________________

B:
Mother: Dash, got sent to the office again.
Father: What? What for?
Son: Nothing.
Mother: He put a tack on the teacher’s chair, during class.
Son: Nobody saw me. You verily see it on the tape.

____________________________________________________

C:
Father: They caught you on tape and you still got away with it?
Mother: Bob, we are not encouraging this!

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 Peace it out!

Mother: “Um Oh”

Son: Mom. You’re making weird faces again.
Mother: No, I’m not.
Father: You make weird faces honey.
Mother: Do you have to read at the table?
Father: Hmm. Yeah.
*Son bites into the steak without cutting in*
Mother: (sigh) Smaller bites Dash! Yikes! Bob, could you help the carnivore cut his
meat.
*Father cuts his son’s steak*
Mother: Dash, you have something to tell your father about school?
Son: Um…well, we dissected a frog…
Mother: Dash got sent to the office again.
Father: Good, good.
Mother: No, Bob, that’s bad.
Father: Hmm?
Mother: Dash, got sent to the office again.
Father: What? What for?
Son: Nothing.
Mother: He put a tack on the teacher’s chair, during class.
Son: Nobody saw me. You verily see it on the tape.
Father: They caught you on tape and you still got away with it?
Mother: Bob, we are not encouraging this!

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1st Cycle, activity 7.

Star vs. the forces of evil, episode clips:

Episode 1, part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-TETt2gtww&ab channel=Pee

wArmy

Episode 1, part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0HEdS9rDyc&ab channel=Peew

Army

Episode 1, part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epi-LRszRc&ab channel=PeewA

rmy

Episode 1, part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFX6RV5mPG8&ab channel=

PeewArmy

Episode 2, part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Adq8DDCnpc&ab channel=Pe

ewArmy

Episode 2, part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBF5fELi5xE&ab channel=Pee

wArmy

Episode 2, part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maT-XbUq5YM&ab channel=Pe

ewArmy

Episode 2, part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLx-aP7QLdQ&ab_channel=Pe

ewArmy

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2st Cycle, activity 1.

Mental Health is Real

1. What does Sasha worries mostly about?

2. Who did Sasha talk with after she broke down?

3. What is mental health?

4. What does “good mental health” means?

A) To always be happy
B) To experience both positive and negative emotions
C) To always be sad

5. What did Sasha do to feel better?

6. Andrew felt:
A) Not like himself
B) Down
C) All of the above

7. What did Sasha do to help Andrew?

A) Talk to her mom
B) Ask for advice
C) Watch a movie

8. Overwhelming feelings can:

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 A) Change us
B) Stop doing what we want in life
C) Do not allow us to ask for help

9. What have the scientists’ discovered about mental health?

A) Sleep helps
B) Exercise helps
C) Football helps

10. Name a person that can help in these cases?

2nd Cycle, activity 2.

Big Bang Theory video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzB9L0SZjbI&ab_chann

el=Valespez

2nd Cycle, activity 3.

The Theft of the Mona Lisa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPIeJqh_oTA&pp=

ugMICgJlcxABGAE%3D&ab_channel=ArtrageouswithNate

The Theft of the Century:

Search for words that mean: Words found:

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 To be well known by someone:

To take without permission through

violent actions:

A small space to hide:

To be nowhere to be found:

The place where the police work:

To place an object where no one can find

it:

To want to get rid of something and

getting money in return:

To be put in jail:

 Did you know the story behind the popular painting the Mona Lisa?

 How long do you think Perugia planned the whole operation? Do you think he
believed he would succeed?

 Why is it a theft and not a robbery?

 In pairs, prepare an alternative plan to steal the Mona Lisa.

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2st Cycle, activity 4.

The movie of Ice Age 4 can be found in Disney+ platforms.

2st Cycle, activity 5.

Instagram posts:

British vs. American: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd21fIsIDDD/

Introvert ordering a sandwich: https://www.instagram.com/p/CegZb-VLoYl/

The Tourist: https://www.instagram.com/p/CdvE_P6ANzJ/

Books: https://www.instagram.com/p/CddcsbxoC2U/

MCU: https://www.instagram.com/p/CdyaUALpVE8/

Hide and Seek: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc-zg7TIaBt/

Father and Son: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc_ZPwuDBJV/

Big Bang Theory: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd8XyZ_jg65/

2st Cycle, activity 6.

Fish Hooks video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoUTpJKVeM8&list=PLPV

zea1R_cCeNdJQkO9rxmB7l0BMgoKMk&index=5&ab_channel=HowardMackenzie

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2st Cycle, activity 7 and activity 8.

Gravity Falls shorts:

Lefty short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXrfWL6joj0&ab_channel=DisneyCh

annel

Mailbox short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c35vXVmnjhk&ab_channel=Disne

yChannelAfrica

Tooth short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svSTZOTf_SQ&ab_channel=Disney

Channel

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