![]() There’s a concept in psychology that we apply to learning called the “ zone of proximal development”. The idea is that, to get better, you need to challenge yourself. While using English subtitles can be a great support at lower levels, it’s usefulness declines as your level improves. Subtitles are most useful when you’re a beginner or lower intermediate And if you enjoy what you’re watching, you’ll keep watching it. That's the second benefit of subtitles: they can help you understand enough that you’ll enjoy the show, even if you don’t catch every word. For some people, if you can’t follow the narrative, you’ll find it boring and you’ll stop watching. Not everyone would be like this lady, though. And she would watch them a lot.īecause she spent so much time engaged with Portuguese, the language eventually came to her. ![]() She just liked watching them so much that she would watch them even if she didn’t understand the words. This is, of course, why my roommate’s family friend learned Portuguese from soap operas-even without subtitles. If you do things you like, you’ll stick with them even when they’re hard. I’ve said before that one of the most important things in learning a language is finding activities you like. Enjoyment benefitsĪnother consideration is whether you understand the narrative of the film or TV show without the subtitles-and whether that bothers you. You can get these benefits both when you’re watching a film with subtitles in English, as well as when you’re listening to a podcast and reading transcripts, or even listening to an audiobook while you read the actual text. Increasing familiarity with vocabulary and the sounds of a language.Increasing reading speed and comprehension.Reading subtitles while you listen to audio can help you do that eye-ear training. It helps us understand the pronunciation of words and figure out where one word ends and another begins. This is an important step-it helps us develop the right “voice” in our head for the language. There’s a step when we’re beginning to learn a language where we train our brains to “pair” what a word looks like with what it sounds like. Several research studies have found that using subtitles can be an effective learning tool and can support development of language skills. It turns out there are real benefits to using English subtitles if you’re learning English. Benefits of using English subtitles to learn English Just know that it’s not an effective way to improve your English. If you just want to enjoy the TV show and don’t want a language lesson, then, by all means, use subtitles in your language. That doesn’t mean you should never use subtitles in your language! ![]() Since it’s much easier to read in your language than listen to English, you won’t listen, you’ll just read. In short, it’s because your brain looks for the easiest way to process information. It might actually harm your progress in English actually harm your English. In theory that’s a good idea… but the evidence suggests that it doesn’t work well. The idea is that you can hear the English word and pair it with the word in your native language. Some people think that watching a film with subtitles in their native language will help them learn. Subtitles in your native language won’t help you learn English That’s the subject this article will tackle: if you should ever use subtitles in your native language, when you should use subtitles, and how you should use them to learn most effectively. One of the big questions, though, is should you use subtitles when you’re watching? Is it useful for learning English? Or is it kind of “cheating” yourself out of the learning experience? But I think if you do it properly, watching TV and movies can be a useful part of a home English learning course. Sure, it’s usually done as a super passive learning activity, which makes it less effective. Some people actually say you can’t learn a language just from television. There’s some disagreement about whether watching Netflix or YouTube videos is an effective way to learn English. He told me that I would have to learn some Portuguese to get by, and then he told me that a friend of his family had learned Portuguese entirely by watching old soap operas. One of the first things my roommate did to welcome me to the house was show me how to switch on the old television in our room. When I first moved to Brazil, I lived with 8 students from the local university.
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