CEIC students’ opinions on watching English movies with ...
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CEIC STUDENTS’ OPINIONS ON WATCHING
ENGLISH MOVIES WITH THAI SUBTITLES TO
IMPROVE ENGLISH LISTENING-SPEAKING SKILLS
BY
MISS NIDSARA SAREEPATTANAPOL
AN INDEPENDENT STUDY PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS IN CAREER ENGLISH FOR
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION
LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
ACADEMIC YEAR 2017
COPYRIGHT OF THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
Ref. code: 25605921040662ZRN
CEIC STUDENTS’ OPINIONS ON WATCHING
ENGLISH MOVIES WITH THAI SUBTITLES TO
IMPROVE ENGLISH LISTENING-SPEAKING SKILLS
BY
MISS NIDSARA SAREEPATTANAPOL
AN INDEPENDENT STUDY PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS IN CAREER ENGLISH FOR
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION
LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
ACADEMIC YEAR 2017
COPYRIGHT OF THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
Ref. code: 25605921040662ZRN
i
Independent Study Paper Title CEIC STUDENTS’ OPINIONS ON
WATCHING ENGLISH MOVIES WITH THAI
SUBTITLES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH
LISTENING-SPEAKING SKILLS
Author Miss Nidsara Sareepattanapol
Degree Master of Arts
Major Field/Faculty/University Career English for International Communication
Language Institute
Thammasat University
Independent Study Paper Advisor Assoc. Prof. Sripathum Noom-ura
Academic Years 2017
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to determine advantages and disadvantages of watching English
movies with L1 (Thai) subtitles from CEIC students’ point of view, and to investigate
their views and personal experiences by watching English movies with L1 subtitles to
improve listening-speaking skills. The sample of this study was 75 first-year and
second-year CEIC students at Thammasat University. A survey questionnaire was
used as the research tool to collect the data, which was analyzed by the SPSS
program. The findings revealed that the respondents agreed that they could improve
English listening-speaking skills through watching English movies with Thai
subtitles. In addition, they could understand the vocabulary, unfamiliar idioms, slang
and phrases better. They believed that they could get used to hearing native speakers.
Furthermore, they agreed that watching English movies with Thai subtitles enabled
them to learn how to use English conversations in daily life, learn different cultures,
and entertain them while learning. However, the results showed that the respondents
agreed that they could not know how some words are written or spelt in English, and
Thai subtitles might distract them from listening to English dialogue in movies.
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Keywords: English movies, Thai subtitles, L1 subtitles, improve English listening-
speaking skills
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Assoc.
Prof. Sripathum Noom-ura. She has devoted her precious time to advising and
providing me with valuable comments to develop my research study. Furthermore, I
would like to thank my classmates and all the CEIC students who helped me to
succeed in studying at Thammasat University.
In addition, I wish to extend my sincere thanks to the instructors of the
Language Institute, Thammasat University for giving me an opportunity to study here
and giving me the knowledge that I can apply to use in the future.
Furthermore, my deepest thanks go to all CEIC staff for supporting me in
everything.
Lastly, my heartfelt thanks are expressed to my parents for always
supporting me, giving me suggestions and helping me to reach my goal.
Miss Nidsara Sareepattanapol
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii
LIST OF TABLES viii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Research Questions 3
1.3 Objectives of the Study 4
1.4 Definition of Terms 4
1.5 Scope of the Study 4
1.6 Significance of the Study 4
1.7 Organization of the Study 5
CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 7
2.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of Watching English Movies
for Language Learning 7
2.1.1 Language learning by watching English movies
without subtitles 8
2.1.1.1 Advantages of watching English movies
without subtitles 8
2.1.1.2 Disadvantages of watching English movies
without subtitles 9
2.1.2 Language learning by watching English movies
with English subtitles 9
2.1.2.1 Advantages of watching English movies
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with English subtitles 9
2.1.2.2 Disadvantages of watching English movies
with English subtitles 10
2.1.3 Language learning by watching English movies
with first language subtitles 10
2.1.3.1 Advantages of watching English movies
with L1 subtitles 11
2.1.3.2 Disadvantages of watching English movies
with L1 subtitles 12
2.2 English Skills Improvement Through Movies 13
2.2.1 Reading skills improvement 13
2.2.2 Writing skills improvement 14
2.2.3 Listening skills improvement 14
2.2.4 Speaking skills improvement 15
2.3 Relevant Research 18
2.3.1 Related research about the use of movies to improve English
skills 18
2.3.2 Related research about the use of movies with L1 subtitles to
improve English skills 23
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 27
3.1 Respondents 27
3.2 Research Instrument 28
3.3 Procedures 29
3.4 Data Analysis 29
CHAPTER 4 RESULTS 30
4.1 General Background Information and Behavior Information of the
Respondents 30
4.2 Opinions of CEIC Students on the Advantages and Disadvantages
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of Watching English Movies with Thai Subtitles 35
4.3 Opinions of CEIC Students on Watching English Movies
with Thai Subtitles to Improve Their English Listening-Speaking Skills 37
4.4 Other Opinions of CEIC Students on Watching English
Movies with Thai Subtitles to Improve Their English Listening-Speaking
Skills 39
4.4.1 Advantages 39
4.4.2 Disadvantages 41
4.4.3 Suggestion 41
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 43
5.1 Summary of the Study 43
5.1.1 Objectives of the study 43
5.1.2 Respondents, Instrument, and Procedures 43
5.2 Summary of the Findings 44
5.2.1 General background information and behavior information of the
respondents 44
5.2.2 The opinions of CEIC students on the advantages and disadvantages
of watching English movies with Thai subtitles 44
5.2.3 The opinions of CEIC students on watching English
movies with Thai subtitles to improve their English listening-speaking
skills 44
5.2.4 Other opinions of CEIC students on watching English
movies with Thai subtitles to improve their English listening-speaking
skills 45
5.3 Discussion 45
5.3.1 Advantages and disadvantages of watching English
movies with Thai subtitles 45
5.3.2 Watching English movies with Thai subtitles to improve
English listening-speaking skills 46
5.4 Conclusion 48
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5.5 Recommendations for Further Study 48
REFERENCES 50
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A: Questionnaire 59
APPENDIX B: Additional Statistic Results 67
BIOGRAPHY 74
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
3.1 The Points of Rating Scores 29
4.1 Age of Respondents 31
4.2 Level of Education 31
4.3 Occupation 31
4.4 Frequency of English Skills Used 32
4.5 Frequency of Watching English Movies without Subtitles Per
Month 33
4.6 Frequency of Watching English Movies with English Subtitles Per
Month 33
4.7 Frequency of Watching English Movies with Thai Subtitles Per
Month 34
4.8 Most Preferred Movie Genres in English Movies with Thai
Subtitles 34
4.9 Opinions on Watching English Movies 35
4.10 Opinions on Advantages and Disadvantages of Watching English Movies
with Thai Subtitles When Compared with Watching Movies without Subtitles or
with English Subtitles 36
4.11 The Opinions of CEIC Students on Watching English Movies with
Thai Subtitles to Improve Their English Listening-Speaking Skills 37
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND
English movies nowadays have become an alternative tool for improving
English skills (Suetrong, 2015). Sherman (2003) stated that it was because movies
consist of voices, pragmatic conversations, and visuals which require little effort to
understand the situations in the movies. “Learners may observe and listen to native
speaker input with genuine accents, posture, and gestures, talking about situations,
emotions, and activities that interest them” (Hanson-Smith & Marzio, 2006, p.2).
Yang, Huang, Tsai, Chung and Wu (2009) revealed that a number of researchers
intended to use videos or movies as learning materials because they were applied in
numerous educational applications successfully. Moreover, English movies are very
famous because a number of countries around the world can watch English movies
easily (Etemadi, 2012).
To further understand the role of using English movies to improve English
skills, a study was carried out on how English movies delivered an opportunity for
learning in an authentic setting, the culture and society in which the native language is
spoken (Stempleski, 1992; Telatnik & Kruse, 1982). Furthermore, the learners could
study and evaluate what they had heard and seen from the visual-audio such as facial
expressions and gestures simultaneously to understand the conversations in the
movies (Allan, 1985; Sheerin, 1982). King (2002) indicated that watching English
movies could help individuals to learn English and it also provided opportunities to
develop English skills. Ismaili (2013) found that the respondents of his study could
develop their listening and communication skills after watching English movies.
Ismaili also revealed that English movies could attract the learners’ attention to learn
English and English movies presented visual aids which would be beneficial to the
learners in developing their English skills. Moreover, the learners could enlarge their
listening and speaking skills after watching English movies (Li & Wang, 2015). Li
and Wang stated that the students could improve their pronunciation and intonation.
Another line of thought on watching English movies is to improve English
skills with English subtitles. Subtitles are defined as the text appearing on the screen
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and representing the dialogue (Zarei, 2008). Zarei also affirmed that subtitles were
frequently located at the bottom of the screen. Therefore, learners could learn
vocabulary, slang, and idioms from the movies with subtitles and these also enabled
them to comprehend the content of movies. English movies with second language
(L2) subtitles (English subtitles) was one of the effective tools to help students
improve listening skills because they could hear authentic conversations (Haghverdi
& Vaezi, 2012). Darabi and Naghizadeh (2015) determined that bimodal subtitling
(English movies with English subtitles) facilitated the learning of new vocabulary.
English movies with English subtitles helped students to improve reading, listening,
speaking and writing skills (Tahir, 2015). Tahir affirmed that the participants of his
study agreed that learning English language by using movies was a faster way to
improve English skills. In addition, Bazaee and Ebrahimi (2016) proposed that
English movies with English subtitles had a positive impact with regard to the content
and vocabulary comprehension.
Watching English movies with first language (L1) subtitles to enhance English
skills is the key issue that has to be considered. Koolstra and Beentjes (1999)
researched the effectiveness of three aspects of an English television program without
subtitles, with Dutch subtitles (L1), and narrated in Dutch. They found that the
participants gained more English vocabulary through watching English programs with
L1 subtitles than the others. In other research, Chinese students enhanced their
listening comprehension and vocabulary by watching English animation movies with
L1 subtitles (Wang & Shen, 2007). Moon and Yun (2014) indicated that the learners
preferred watching English movies with L1 subtitles because the learners were able to
understand the content more easily without understanding L2 vocabulary or
expressions. According to Winiyakul (2010), English skills can be improved via
watching English movies because they are accessible media. He found that most
students who use movies as a tool to improve their English skills pay more attention
and enjoy learning English. Furthermore, he also mentioned that they liked to watch
English movies because they could enhance their listening skills when watching
English movies with Thai subtitles. Pimsamarn (2011) found that the respondents of
her study strongly agreed that English movies with Thai subtitles could help them to
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understand the context and they could learn pronunciation, new vocabulary and daily
life conversations.
Accordingly, learners can choose any media as an instrument for improving
and learning English. As mentioned by several researchers e.g. Winiyakul (2010),
Pimsamarn (2011), Suetrong (2015), it is interesting to investigate learning English by
watching English movies with Thai subtitles. At the Language Institute, Thammasat
University, the Career English for International Communication students (hereafter,
CEIC students) are a group of people who have great interest in improving their
English skills. Most of them are good at English as evidenced by the fact that they
have passed tests such as TU-GET, a university admissions test and interviews in
English. Having conversed with other CEIC students, the researcher found that the
majority of them watch English movies with Thai subtitles regularly. This triggered
an interest in investigating whether watching English movies with Thai subtitles can
help improve English skills. For this reason, the sample of this study was CEIC
students. Thus, this study spotlighted CEIC students’ opinions in watching English
movies with Thai subtitles in order to improve listening and speaking skills. If there is
evidence for this in the results, it can be a stepping stone in the education sector to
break away from the traditional way of teaching English language and adopting
interesting methodology of using English movies with Thai subtitles as an instrument
to improve the way they speak and listen. As what Kusumarasdyati (2006, p.6) stated
the sheer development of multimedia for pedagogical purposes has encouraged more
and more educators to make use of them in their language classrooms. Among many
different types of media, movie videos remain one of the popular teaching tools due to
several reasons.
In addition, the learners can use English movies with Thai subtitles as a choice
to develop their English skills while entertaining themselves.
1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.2.1 What are the advantages and disadvantages of watching English movies
with Thai subtitles?
1.2.2 What are the CEIC students’ opinions toward watching English movies
with Thai subtitles to help improve their English listening-speaking skills?
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1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.3.1 To investigate the advantages and disadvantages of watching English
movies with Thai subtitles to improve listening-speaking skills.
1.3.2 To investigate CEIC students’ opinions toward watching English movies
with Thai subtitles to help improve their listening-speaking skills.
1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS
The definition of the terms in this study is as follows:
1.4.1 An opinion means the views of CEIC students toward watching English
movies with Thai subtitles in order to improve their listening and speaking skills.
1.4.2 Career English for International Communication ( CEIC) refers to
first-year and second-year students of Master of Arts Program in Career English for
International Communication ( CEIC) which is a part of the Language Institute,
Thammasat University.
1.4.3 Movies refer to English movies with Thai subtitles.
1.4.4 Subtitles refer to the Thai language words, phrases, or sentences that are
shown at the bottom of movies to translate the meaning in the movies.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research spotlighted CEIC students’ opinions toward watching English
movies with Thai subtitles to improve English listening and speaking skills. A total of
75 first-year and second-year students of Career English for International
Communication (CEIC) at Thammasat University in the academy year 2017 were the
participants of this study. The questionnaires were distributed from March 19 to April
1, 2018.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study should be advantageous in pedagogical areas. First of all, L2
learners may use the English movies with Thai subtitles as a tool to enhance their
listening and speaking skills. They can entertain themselves and learn English
simultaneously. It is an alternative tool for students to self-study. They can learn
English at home via watching English movies with Thai subtitles. Therefore, the study
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may be worthwhile in terms of investigating the CEIC students’ opinions toward
watching English movies with Thai subtitles in order to improve listening and
speaking skills.
More importantly, English teachers who are in doubt whether L1 subtitles can
help improve English skills may consider English movies with Thai subtitles to be
used in their classes to develop students’ listening and speaking skills. This is because
this study explored the feasibility of using media tools to attract individuals’ attention
in learning English language. Moreover, English teachers can make their traditional
classes more entertaining by using English movies with Thai subtitles to improve
students’ listening and speaking skills. The English movies with Thai subtitles could
benefit students by involving them in the movies and also learning language from
them.
1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
There are five chapters in this study.
Chapter one: This includes the introduction of the background, research
questions, objectives of the study, definition of terms, scope of the study, significance
of the study, and organization of the study.
Chapter two: The review of literature contains three sections: advantages and
disadvantages of watching English movies for language learning, English skills
improvement through movies, and relevant research.
Chapter three: The methodology consists of four parts: the respondents,
research instruments, procedures, and data analysis.
Chapter four: The results of the study are divided into four sections: (1)
general background information and behavior information in watching English
movies with Thai subtitles of the respondents; (2) opinions of CEIC students on the
advantages and disadvantages of watching English movies with Thai subtitles; and (3)
opinions of CEIC students toward watching English movies with Thai subtitles to
improve their English listening-speaking skills; (4) additional opinions of CEIC
students toward watching English movies with Thai subtitles to improve their English
listening-speaking skills.
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Chapter five: Conclusion and recommendations contain five topics: a
summary of the study, a summary of the findings, discussion, conclusion, and
recommendations for further study.
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CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE A total of three sections will be discussed in this chapter. The first section
reviews the advantages and disadvantages of watching English movies for language
learning. This includes watching English movies without subtitles, with English
subtitles, and with first language subtitles. Section 2 involves the improvement of
English skills through movies. English skills denote four aspects: reading skills
improvement, writing skills improvement, listening skills improvement, and speaking
skills improvement. The main focus of English skills improvement is on the
feasibility of English movies with L1 subtitles for helping to improve listening-
speaking competency. The final section gives a brief overview of the relevant
research from previous studies. For this section, the relevant research is separated into
two parts. The first part deals with related research on the use of movies to improve
English skills. Part 2 describes related research on the use of movies with L1 subtitles.
2.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of Watching English Movies for Language
Learning
Korte, Drexler, Rodenberg and Thiele (2010) define movies as motion pictures
working together with sound transmission used to send a message to the general
public. There are three characteristics of the movie: (1) multimedia characteristics i.e.
the movie is an art form which contains visual and audio art, and movies express
ideological content because they employ moving pictures and audio. (2) Moral
features; individual movies contain their own meaning. The directors of movies
generally put his or her own experience and personal views of the world into movies.
(3) Symbolic features; the directors of movies usually used a certain theme or an
object as a symbol to express their feelings.
Brown (2001) states that individuals often learn language by beginning with
listening. The dialogue in movies is spoken in an authentic mother tongue. Thus,
movies are one of the most direct and effective way to develop listening and speaking
abilities. According to Wood (1995), movies are increasingly being used as an
instrument to learn language. He found that movies were largely available in various
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countries. Moreover, movies can be watched whenever the learners would like to
access them. Bazaee and Ebrahimi (2016) propose that films or movies are
motivating, entertaining and enable the learners to understand the language as spoken
in different accents.
While a number of studies have examined advantages and disadvantages of
watching English movies to improve English skills, they have not compared movies
with no subtitles to English subtitles and L1 subtitles (Tsai & Huang, 2010). The
following paragraphs review the literature of language learning related to watching
English movies without subtitles, with English subtitles, and with first language
subtitles.
2.1.1 Language learning by watching English movies without subtitles
In the early 1990s, Kirk (1992) demonstrated that movies can be an important
motivational too; in learning English. This is because movies use natural situations,
real conversation, and communication, which makes it easy to understand the
contexts. For this reason, watching movies can be a more accessible way to learn
languages. There are advantages and disadvantages in regard to learning language by
watching English movies without subtitles.
2.1.1.1 Advantages of watching English movies without subtitles
1. The learners can develop their language skills, critical thinking skills, and
content knowledge capabilities through watching English movies (Chapple &
Curtis, 2000).
2. English movies without subtitles are challenging and can be utilized to
practice listening to English and provide the opportunity to enhance listening
skills (Flowerdew & Miller, 2005; King, 2002; Latifi, Mobalegh &
Mohammadi, 2011).
3. Learners can avoid the distraction of reading text as subtitles when watching
English movies without subtitles, which allows them to focus more on
listening, visual indications, and interpretation of the meaning of what they are
listening to (Baltova, 1999; Tsai & Huang, 2010).
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4. English movies are one of the good materials for providing cultural,
educational, entertaining, and accessible support in the process of learning and
practiceing English language (Tuncay, 2014).
5. Learners can improve their vocabulary knowledge in context by watching
movies without subtitles (Sirmandi & Sardareh, 2016).
2.1.1.2 Disadvantages of watching English movies without subtitles
1. Learners might not be able to recognize or understand all the words or phrases
in the movies (Guichon & McLornan, 2008; Harley & And, 1996).
2. Without subtitles, the audience cannot learn new words because they cannot
understand what they were hearing in the movies (Kaivananah & Alavi, 2008).
3. Learners might not be able to follow the storylines and might not improve
their English skills (Chang & Read, 2007).
2.1.2 Language learning by watching English movies with English
subtitles
Subtitles are written to translate the dialogue of the movies and are presented
synchronously with matching dialogues generated at the bottom of the screen
(Gerzymisch-arbogast, 2008). There are connections between image, sound of
authentic language and text that are translated while using subtitles movies (Zanon,
2006). Subtitles have three types: (1) bimodal subtitling, it was translated from
English conversations to English subtitles as a text; (2) standard subtitling, translating
from English dialogue scripts to first language of learners subtitles; and (3) reversed
subtitling, converting from mother tongue of learners to English subtitles. Building on
from the idea that learners can learn language by watching English movies with
English subtitles, this section spells out the advantages and disadvantages of using
English subtitles.
2.1.2.1 Advantages of watching English movies with English subtitles
1. English movies with English subtitles support both visuals and text, enabling
learners to understand what they were hearing (Stewart & Pertusa, 2004).
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2. English movies with English subtitles contribute visual and English text to
learn language and help learners to improve listening comprehension (Chang
& Read, 2007; Guichon & McLornan, 2008; Kon, 2002; Latifi et al., 2011).
3. Watching English movies with English subtitles gives learners an opportunity
to become familiar with listening to native speakers. Therefore, learners can
improve listening skills (Rattanachai, 2015; Tsai & Huang, 2010).
4. Learners can focus on new vocabulary acquisition when watching movies with
English subtitles because these new words are restated in movies several times
(Ismaili, 2013; Sirmandi & Sardareh, 2016; Sydorenko, 2010; Tsai & Huang,
2010).
5. Watching movies with English subtitles can enable learners to learn idioms,
slang, and pattern of conversations (Jeebpinyo, 2013).
6. Learners can improve their speaking skills by pronouncing words or sentences
shown in the movies (Katchen, 2003; Pratiwi, 2010; Tam, 1997).
2.1.2.2 Disadvantages of watching English movies with English
subtitles
1. Learners may not understand the words or sentences in the movies even
though they are shown as text. They might not understand the contexts or the
story lines in the movies (Harley & And, 1996).
2. Learners might be distracted by reading English subtitles instead of listening
to the movies (Markham, Peter & McCarthy, 2001; Tardieu & Gyselinck,
2003; Taylor, 2005).
2.1.3 Language learning by watching English movies with first language
subtitles
Subtitles are specified as translation of movie dialogue to text enabling a
person to read and understand the meaning while watching unfamiliar language
movies in a familiar language at the bottom of the screen (Canning-Wilson &
Wallace, 2000). By watching English movies with L1 subtitles, learners can
understand the contexts in the movies better by listening to the inputs and reading the
translated texts (Stewart & Pertusa, 2004). Many instructors consider L1 subtitles as a
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tool to make movies understandable. Having established L1 subtitles, the following
paragraphs will consider the advantages and disadvantages of learning language of
watching English movies with L1 subtitles.
2.1.3.1 Advantages of watching English movies with L1 subtitles
1. Learners can recognize and understand the conversations that they had heard
in the English conversation and also the meaning by reading L1 subtitles
simultaneously (Guichon & Lornan, 2008; Stewart & Pertusa, 2004).
2. English movies with L1 subtitles can be one of the effective tools enabling
learners to experience cultures from other countries. It can also help to
improve listening skills and learn language (Damronglaohapan & Stevenson,
2013; Hsieh, Wu, Lai, Chang, Chen, & Kao, 2010; Markham et al.,2001;
Suetrong, 2015; The National Center for Technology Innovation and Center
for Implementing Technology in Education, 2010; Wang & Shen, 2007;
Wang, 2014; Winiyakul, 2010;).
3. English movies with L1 subtitles are effective for improving listening
comprehension (Chiang, 2006; Kobayashi, 2011).
4. Learners can understand the contexts in the movies more quickly and fully
through translations of L1 subtitles (Hsieh et al., 2010; Moon & Yun, 2014).
5. English movies with L1 subtitles provide the opportunity to practice repeating
the sentences in the movies with understanding of the meaning. Hence,
learners can enhance speaking skills (Moon & Yun, 2014).
6. Learners can learn expressions, pronunciation, syntax, connotations, and
vocabulary by watching English movies with L1 subtitles (Bird & Williams,
2002; Koolstra & Beentjes, 1999).
7. Learners should watch English movies with L1 subtitles first, followed by
English subtitles and without subtitles. This is because L1 subtitles enable
beginners to understand the context and become familiar with listening.
Therefore, they will be able to go to the next step in learning (Markham et al.,
2001).
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2.1.3.2 Disadvantages of watching English movies with L1 subtitles
1. Learners might not be able to watch and hear the visual clues clearly in the
movies; hence, they may not be able to improve their listening and speaking
skills. They also might be distracted by reading L1 subtitles despite strong
reading skills in English language (Markham et al., 2001; Tardieu &
Gyselinck, 2003).
2. Learners might read only L1 subtitles. Therefore, they might not know how
some words were written or spelt (Tsai, 2009).
To sum up, there are a number of features in movies that can help individuals
to improve their English skills as below:
1. Movies contain natural situations, real conversations, and a communication
that can enhance learners’ English skills by learning native speakers’ conversations.
Therefore, it can help learners to improve their listening skills. Moreover, it assists
them to pronounce words or sentences like native speakers. Thus, they can also
improve speaking skills.
2. English movies provide authentic settings that enhance cross-cultural
understanding, and are also entertaining and accessible for learners.
3. Some words are repeated in the movies several times, so the viewers can
learn new words and meanings.
4. There are numerous slang words, idioms and jokes in movies, so a person
can learn slang words, idioms and jokes that are not taught in the classroom.
5. The L1 subtitles enable the audience to understand the contexts and
recognize the words and phrases in the movies.
From the above, there are a number of advantages in learning English
language through watching English movies with L1 subtitles. This study will focus
only on learning language by watching English movies with L1 subtitles, i.e., Thai
subtitles. The following section will discuss how each skill can be developed through
watching English movies.
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2.2 English Skills Improvement Through Movies
English skills contain four aspects: reading skills, writing skills, listening
skills, and speaking skills.
2.2.1 Reading skills improvement
In terms of reading skills improvement, reading skills have become one of the
most significant skills for individuals these days (Dubin & Bycina, 1991; Grabe 1991;
Kaplan, 2002). There are various objectives of reading such as reading to get the main
idea and to obtain specific information. Moreover, learners generally read for
understanding the main ideas and supporting details.
Having established the improvement in reading skills, this part will now
illustrate the use of English movies to improve reading skills. Herron and Seay (1991)
examined the use of video in reading comprehension. They found that the results of
reading comprehension testing of the experimental group hat used both the video and
the audio to enhance reading skills were significantly better than the control group.
This indicated that using video could help the participants improve their reading skill
(Herron & Seay, 1991). Luo (2004) discovered the students were able to enhance their
reading skills through watching DVD films in the classroom and they also agreed that
the learning environment can lower the anxiety level by using DVD films to teach.
The impact of DVD movies on how the students improved reading skills is
one of the important factors that has to be considered. Another important benefit of
using movies is improving students’ reading skills. Xhemaili (2013) investigated the
benefits of using films to improve student’s reading skills in the EFL classroom. A
novel-based English movie was used as the experimental instrument. He found that
the students gave positive feedback in regard to improving reading skills using films.
Xhemaili indicated that most of the students were more motivated to read the books
after they watched the film, suggesting that the English movies and the books
complemented each other. This may motivate those seeking to further improve their
English language by reading the books after having watched the English movies.
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2.2.2 Writing skills improvement
Byrne (1997) states that writing is one of the methods used to communicate
when face-to-face communication is not used. Therefore, writing is a primitive way to
record dialogue. Writing is a crucial skill for communication. This is because writing
skills can help individuals to build good relationships, make ideas, feelings,
information, and opinions explicit. Focusing on processing of writing, Celce-Murcia
(1991) asserts that an interactive process is required in written communication
between the writer and reader using text. According to Palmer (1994), writing is the
process of recognizing and constructing ideas, writing on a paper, modifying and
rewriting. Writing is processing of sentences and linking them together as a text. The
text may contains one or more paragraphs (Byrne, 1997). Langan (2001) states that a
paragraph is approximately 150 to 200 words, and usually contains a topic sentence
which is used for the opening. Moreover, he proposed that writing gives supporting
sentences for the topic sentence.
Apart from the meaning of writing, several studies have investigated writing
skills improvement. Firstly, Shaughnessy’s (1976) study indicated that writers could
improve their writing skills by expressing their ideas instead of being restricted by
conventional rules. Secondly, writing skills may be improved through watching
movies. According to Baratta and Jones (2008), using English movies can improve
academic writing skills. Participants in their study increased their score in writing.
Fitriana (2011) examined the use of animation movies in his class for attracting
students’ attention in learning English. He found that the students could memorize
easier than teaching in the traditional way. Fitriana also affirmed that the students
could gain ideas in writing from the actors, setting, and plot in animation movies. This
gave the opportunity to the students to practice writing in the past tense. Moreover,
the students could generate narrative text easily using a large amount of vocabulary.
2.2.3 Listening skills improvement
Rost (1991) states that the listening process consists of two parts. Firstly,
listeners have to integrate the component skills consisting of contrasting sounds;
noticing words; classifying the grammatical groups of words; linking cues that relate
with verbals, for example, intonation, stress and nonverbals such as gestures.
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Moreover, applying the background knowledge of listeners evokes essential words
and ideas. For the second part, listeners need to decide on determining the situation
and conceiving a plan for listening. In addition, they need to decipher the crucial
words, units of meaning, and understand the words. Rost also states that listeners
should focus on four principles to develop listening ability:
1) Applying face-to-face communication
2) Emphasizing the meanings and attempting to gain new knowledge and
important content
3) Executing comprehension activities
4) Keeping in mind that listening is an internal process that cannot always be
precisely observed
Several researchers have investigated listening skills improvement by using
movies as a media. To confirm that the use of movies can assist learners to improve
their listening skill, Wang and Shen (2007) indicated that watching English movies
with L1 subtitles assisted learners to develop English listening comprehension.
Winiyakul (2010) found that the students could improve listening skills after watching
English movies with Thai subtitles. This is in consonance with Pimsamarn (2011)
who affirmed that learners considered that they could improve their listening skills
through watching English movies with subtitles. Furthermore, Latifi et al. (2011)
found that the participants of their study could become familiar with listening to
English; thus, they could develop their listening skills. Additionally, Kobayashi
(2011) found that watching English movies assisted students to improve their
listening skills.
2.2.4 Speaking skills improvement
Tarigan (1990, p.15) affirmed that “speaking is ability to produce articulation
sounds or sentences that express an idea or feeling”. The intention of speaking is
“communication”, and speakers communicate with listeners by sharing the ideas.
Moreover, both the speaker and listener understand each other in the same direction.
There are a number of elements of speaking skills e.g. utterances, vocabulary,
grammar, content and meaning, and pronunciation. Speaking is a way of
communication to articulate or deliver an idea (Hurlock, 1998). Hurlock stated the
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objective of speaking is communication. Furthermore, Hurlock also proposed that
speaking involves a mental aspect regarding the capability to understand the meaning.
Besides the definitions of speaking, there are a number of studies that
investigated improving speaking skills. According to Tam (1997), there are a large
number of factors involved with effective English speaking performance. The
important factors are pronunciation, vocabulary, and collocations for English as a
foreign language (EFL) speaker to establish fluency. Therefore, Tam claimed that the
opportunity to speak in different situations and frequency of speaking were important
position for improving speakers’ fluency.
Using English movies to improve speaking skills is one of the effective
instruments that need to be considered. Katchen (2003) found that movies or films
encouraged learners to project their ideas, opinions, and feelings about the movies that
they had watched. Thus, movies can help the learners practice and improve their
speaking skills through watching the English movies. For using English movies in
order to learn English, Lynch (2006) listed five reasons that movies were used as
teaching media. First, movies illustrated varieties of accents. Secondly, learners could
learn cultures that were demonstrated in the movies. Moreover, the learners could
learn how the history had changed. Next, movies are learning aids with audio-visual
elements. Lastly, movies inspired learners to watch. Lynch also mentioned that using
movies in the classroom for teaching was an effective because learners could learn to
speak by replicating the accents, stress, pronunciation, and conversations from the
actors in the movies. Additionally, they could learn about the culture and history that
were displayed in the movies. Pratiwi (2010) demonstrated that English movies could
assist students to understand pronunciation. She found that after watching English
movies, students could be better in English stress patterns. In addition, the English
movies could help them to understand unfamiliar sounds like /æ/.
Watching English movies or animation is one of the most direct ways to listen
to native English in a non-native English country like Japan and Thailand. Studies in
these two countries have shown that students welcome the idea of improving English
listening skills by watching English movies. Furthermore, using such media tools
allows students to understand and follow the British or American accent used in the
movies, which helps them to speak English better. It also enhances students’ focus
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and stimulates content ideas. In addition, students are more willing to improve in their
learning of English through interesting content instead of the traditional way of
memorizing words and style of writing. Hence, this will also greatly aid in their
writing skills and reading skills.
As mentioned above, there have been a number of studies about improving
English skills through watching English movies in terms of listening skills, speaking
skills, reading skills, and writing skills. However, this study will focus only on
improving listening and speaking skills. This is because this study targeted self-study,
as normally viewers do not write a summary or practice writing skills after watching
movies. In addition, it is not often that after someone watches a movie, he or she will
try to read the book made into the movie. Once the story is revealed, it is less likely to
attract the attention of the viewer as a reader. In general, the writing and reading
practice usually occur as class assignments. Subtitles help to make movies more
understandable and can help the audience to comprehend the content, especially when
the movies are not in the mother tongue of the audience.
The following is the advantages of enhancing listening and speaking skills
through watching English movies with L1 subtitles:
1) Improves overall listening comprehension.
2) Learn idioms, slang, and patterns of conversation that they hear in English and
read the meaning in Thai.
3) Get used to hearing native speakers talk to each other.
4) Learn the accents of native English speakers.
5) Remember simple sentences.
6) Listen and know the meaning of the unknown words.
7) Learn more new words from what they hear in English and what they read in
Thai.
8) Know the meanings of more words.
9) Self-correct their misunderstanding with Thai subtitles.
10) Mimic or repeat the sentence patterns with understanding.
11) Learn spoken English.
12) Understand real conversation situations that have been shown in movies such
as conversations in a restaurant, on public transport, etc.
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13) Improve their speaking skills by practicing and learning how to converse like
native English speakers.
14) Learn the pronunciation of words with Thai subtitles.
15) Learn syntax, connotation, intonations and expressions.
16) Learn different cultures.
According to the advantages of watching English movies with L1 subtitles, it
can be concluded that the learners practice more listening and understand the meaning
and speaking by mimicking native speakers, which can familiarize them with native
accents and lead to better in pronunciation. Therefore, learners will acquire more
listening and speaking skills. Chumchaiyo [(2002) as cited in Phaisuwan (2006)]
found that Thai EFL learners have limited listening and speaking abilities. They were
not familiar with listening to the native accents. As mentioned by Dr. Netpreeya
Chumchaiyo (Kru Kate), in many places in Thailand, learners can naturally learn
English by listening to native speakers every day and practice to speak English by
replicating English spoken of the native speakers (Boonphayoong, 2010). She said
that the learners can learn and practice these skills by watching and listening through
the English movies. It is because the more the learners practice, the more they can
improve. This is in line with Kanatip Soonthornrak (Kru LukGolf), who said he could
self-study English language by watching English movies. It could help him to become
familiar with listening to native speakers (I Get English Magazine, 2013). Moreover,
it assisted him in practicing to speak like native speakers. The English movies assisted
him to improve listening skills and also speaking skills.
2.3 Relevant Research
This section contains two parts. The first part reviews the related research
about the use of movies to improve English skills. The second part discusses the
related research about the use of movies with L1 subtitles to improve English skills.
2.3.1 Related research about the use of movies to improve English skills
Luo (2004) studied using DVD films to increase first year students’ English
listening comprehension and motivation. Nine films were provided to use in the
classroom. She used the DVD films as the main materials of her course and other
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additional and specially designed activities were supported. Story-telling, picture
description and open-ended questions were contained into instructional activities for
group discussion on topics from the films. For improving students’ reading skills, Luo
integrated caption-on and caption-off activities. The main results of the study
indicated that students improved their reading skills using DVD films in the
classroom. Moreover, the majority of the students agreed that instruction using DVD
films could create a learning environment that lowered the anxiety level.
Baratta and Jones (2008) studied the development of academic writing skills
using films among UK undergraduate students. The participants of this study were 31
undergraduate students of the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, in a year
one class entitled Aspects of Language. The questionnaires were distributed to the
subjects to collect feedback in terms of a comparison of students’ academic
performance pre- and post-instruction. Baratta and Jones found that the use of films to
develop academic writing skill was useful. They reported that the overall average
score of students increased 3.13%. It showed that the use of film in academic writing
pedagogy was successful as a pilot study. Moreover, most of the students agreed that
use of films assisted them to understand the conversations of academic essay writing.
Next, Fitriana (2011) explored the improvement of narrative writing skills
though using animation movies. His participants were 38 eleventh grade students of
SMA Negeri 1 Teras, Boyolali at IPA II in the academic year of 2010/2011.
Classroom action research was used as the method of his study. Fitriana collected the
data by using interviews, observations, a questionnaire, and a test. According to the
results of the study, if students enjoy the learning process, they will be successful in
their learning. In addition, Fitriana investigated using animation movies in his class
and they could gain students’ attention to study English. Students could memorize
easier by watching animation movies, and the actors, settings, and plots in animation
movies made students get ideas to write easily. Furthermore, students could practice
writing past tense and create narrative text easily.
Etemadi (2012) investigated the impact of using English movies with bimodal
subtitling on content comprehension and vocabulary recognition. A total of 44 senior
undergraduate students studying at Shiraz Islamic Azad University were the subjects
of this study selected from two classes of Tapes and Films Translation course. She
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selected two BBC documentary movies to study, namely, “Dangerous Knowledge”
and “Where’s My Robot?” The first movie was selected to be watched with English
subtitles and the other without subtitles. Etemadi divided students into two classes;
both classes watched the same movies but with differences in the consequences.
Therefore, the first group watched “Dangerous Knowledge” with English subtitles,
then “Where’s My Robot?” without subtitles. The other group watched “Where’s My
Robot?” without subtitles, then “Dangerous Knowledge” with English subtitles. After
finishing the films, both classes answered questions. Etemadi found that bimodal
subtitling had an impact on the content of English movies. As a result, it can be
assumed that watching English movies with subtitles can help learners gain more
understanding than those without subtitles.
Xhemaili’s (2013) research attempted to investigate the use of movies to
improve reading skills of the students in EFL classroom. His data collection was
divided into two parts. Firstly, Xhemaili distributed questionnaires to students and
teachers. Secondly, he gave a quiz to the subjects at the end of the reading section.
The participants were 80 SEEU undergraduate students between the ages of 18-25.
All the subjects’ level of proficiency was intermediate. Xhemaili spent four months
doing the research. Control and experimental groups were used in this study. A novel-
based English movie was used for the experimental group. After that, they read the
same novel on graded reading books (Oxford University Press). The control group
read the same novel and the same question activities, but they did not watch the
movie. Xhemaili provided two films, which were “Gulliver’s’ Travels” and “Picture
of Dorian Grey”, for the class reading. He chose these two films because students
thought that there were difficult to analyze and understand. Xhemaili revealed that
most of the respondents were concerned with the improvement of reading skills in the
questionnaires and respondents gave positive feedback. The students gave a positive
response to the movie-based instruction. They reported that using films gave them the
chance to learn actual conversations. Moreover, students could improve the reading
comprehension by using films. Xhemaili also affirmed that the majority of students
were more motivated to read the graded books after they watched the film.
Ismaili (2013) researched the effectiveness of using movies in the EFL
classroom at South East European University. The researcher used movies to be an
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instrument in EFL teaching. The objective of Ismaili’s study was to analyze the
effects of using movies in EFL teaching. In his research, he found that students could
improve their listening and communication skills. A total of 60 students of South East
European University in the academic year 2011 and 2012 were the participants of this
study. A questionnaire and quiz were used as the method of this research. Ismaili
found that movies could gain students’ attention. Furthermore, movies showed visual
context aids that students can understand and use to improve their learning skills. He
pointed out that most of the students agreed that watching movies can be an effective
tool to learn English and they can learn words repeated in the movies several times.
Kalean (2013) observed the progress of teaching and learning process by using
Classroom Action Research (CAR) method. A total fo 37 students in the first grade at
SMP Negeri 13 Malang, Jawa Timur located on Jalan Sunan Ampel II Kota Malang
were the participants of the study. Kalean conducted a preliminary study that included
planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting, and data analysis. She analyzed
the data quantitatively. Her results showed that the students could improve their
speaking skills after watching English movies. The mean score of testing revealed that
it had increased from 60.32 up to 70.81 by using movies as a media to teach speaking
skills. In addition to increasing the mean score, it indicated that the strategy of using
movies as teaching media could assist students to improve their speaking skills. In
other words, using English movies to teach in the English as a foreign language (EFL)
classroom was an effective method to benefit students to learn speaking. Kalean
supported that the students appreciated to learn speaking by using movies. Apart from
enjoying class, the students could learn new vocabulary and learn to speak like native
speakers. The students could learn speaking by practicing to replicate the dialogues
from actors in the movies. The students could also learn to link words together.
Jeebpinyo (2013) examined TV series watching behavior and opinions of
English for Careers students at Thammasat University. The objectives of this study
were to find behavior and opinion of participants towards watching TV series. There
were 64 students in the English for Careers program at Thammasat University in the
academic year 2013 in the sample. The method of selecting the sample was
convenience sampling method. The questionnaire was distributed as the instrument of
the study. The data was analyzed by using SPSS. The study showed that most students
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strongly agreed that TV series was a media that was advantageous for teaching and
learning English. Furthermore, the majority of students agreed that watching TV
series with English subtitles could assist them to learn new vocabulary, idioms, slang,
and pattern of conversations.
Rokni and Ataee (2014) studied movies in EFL classroom with or without
subtitles. The respondents were 45 students at Golestan University in fall 2013 which
were divided into two groups. The first group was bimodal and the other group
watched the movies without subtitles. All of the students had to watch the same type
of movies but with differences in subtitling. Rokni and Ataee distributed a proficiency
test to ensure that all the students had similar English language proficiency. They also
used listening comprehension pretest and posttest to be the other instrument. An
original American English DVD film was used in this study. Rokni and Ataee found
that watching English movies with subtitles had positive effects on learners' listening
comprehension. They found that movies with English subtitles could benefit students
on listening comprehension, while movies without subtitles had less effect on
listening comprehension.
Rattanachai (2015) investigated the opinions of 30 MONO Group employees
toward watching English movies with English subtitles in order to enhance English
skills selected by convenience sampling. A total of 30 questionnaires were distributed
to MONO Group employees. The respondents used English in daily life work.
Ratanachai analyzed the data using Microsoft Excel in terms of descriptive statistics
and percentages. She found that majority of MONO Group employees strongly agreed
that they can develop their listening skills through viewing English movies with
English subtitles. In addition, watching English movies with English subtitles helped
them become familiar with listening to native speakers. The respondents had positive
opinions towards watching English movies with English subtitles and this helped
them to improve speaking skills by enabling them to pronounce words like native
speakers. Moreover, most of respondents agreed that they were able to enhance their
reading skills in terms of new vocabulary, slang words, idioms, and jokes by watching
English movies with English subtitles.
In a recent study, Kabooha (2016) surveyed the use of movies in English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. This study was conducted at the English
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Language Institute (ELI), King Abdul-Aziz University. Kabooha explored the
attitudes of Saudi EFL learners and teachers towards the using English movies in the
classrooms as an instrument to improve learners’ language skills. The questionnaires
were distributed to 50 female intermediate level students studying English in their
Preparatory Year Program (PYP). Kabooha also interviewed students and teachers to
investigate their attitudes towards the using English movies in their classrooms. He
found that most of the students and teachers had positive attitudes towards the use of
English movies to develop students’ English skills. Furthermore, Kabooha discovered
that the majority of students agreed that the use of English movies enabled them to
improve their language skills. The use of English movies provided an authentic and
meaningful context in which students can learn English language. He also concluded
that the English movies contained an abundance of conversations between native
speakers. Therefore, the students could learn to speak English naturally and fluently.
2.3.2 Related research about the use of movies with L1 subtitles to
improve English skills
Chiang (2006) compared different subtitling formats in two English news
broadcasts in Taiwan: English news on CTS (Chinese Television System), which was
captioned in Chinese and English subtitles, and FTV (Formosa Television) English
News Edition, which was captioned in English. The participants of his study were
first and second year students who majored in English and freshman of non-English
majors. The students watched English news with Chinese and English subtitles on
CTS and next watched English news on FTV with only English subtitles. The
questionnaires and posttests were distributed to the participants. The posttest
contained three parts, which were listening comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary.
The results revealed that English news with Chinese subtitles were more effective for
improvement in listening comprehension. Therefore, Chiang concluded that the L1
subtitles were useful for language learning.
In 2009, Tsai researched learners’ point of view on watching movies with L1
vs. L2 subtitles. Forty-five students who were not majoring in English from a
Taiwanese university were the participants. The GEPT (General English Proficiency
Test developed by LTTC (Language Training and Testing Center)) elementary level
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listening practice test was used to classify participants’ listening proficiency. There
were two groups of participants that were divided based on their listening proficiency
scores. Group 1 watched English movies with L1 subtitles and the members of group
2 watched English movies with English subtitles. The animated movie “Over the
Hedge” was used as the instrument of this study. Two question sheets were distributed
to L1 and L2 subtitles group. The question sheets consisted of four open-ended
questions that required the students to write their own perspective on the advantages
and disadvantages of watching English movies with L1 and L2 subtitles in terms of
vocabulary learning, listening comprehension, pronunciation, and oral abilities. Tsai
found that majority of the participants in the L1 subtitles group believed that more
words can be learnt by listening in English language and reading Chinese characters.
He also found that Chinese subtitles helped the participants to remember simple
sentences. Moreover, L1 subtitles group agreed that Chinese subtitles benefited their
oral ability.
Winiyakul (2010) researched the use of English media to enhance the English
language skills of 120 first-year students at Khon Kaen University in the Faculty of
Humanities and Social Sciences. A survey questionnaire was used to collect the data
from the subjects. Winiyakul reported that majority of the respondents agreed that
films or movies were the most accessible English learning instrument. Moreover, they
could spend more than two hours a day, two or three days a week to watch films or
movies. The majority of the participants had a positive response to English media
such as films and movies that could assist them to enhance English proficiency at a
high level. For this reason, Winiyakul found that watching English movies with Thai
subtitles could help the subjects to improve their listening skills.
Since 2010, Hsieh et al. investigated the impact of movie viewing on learning
English as a foreign language. Their participants were 254 first-year, second-year and
third-year English major students and second-year non-English major students at
Yuanpei University. The questionnaires were distributed after watching movies.
Additionally, the questions were written in two versions of Chinese and English
language. They found that comedy movies were the most popular movie genre. The
results of this study showed that 95% of respondents agreed that watching English
movie was useful in language learning. Moreover, there were a large number of
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studies which have shown that DVD films with subtitles features and chapter
separation would help students to develop an effective learning environment.
Pimsamarn (2011) surveyed the opinions of 80 senior English major students
at Khon Kaen University towards the idea of watching English movies to improve
their listening skill in year 2011. The main results from the questionnaire indicated
that 67.5% of students usually watched movies for entertainment with Thai subtitles.
Pimsamarn also found that the students believed that they could improve their
listening skills by watching English movies with Thai subtitles. Furthermore, most of
students had positive opinions on watching English movies and believed they were
useful for their daily life.
Kobayashi (2011) carried out a study of an attempt to foster autonomous
English learning through movies in individual and collective settings. The participants
of this study were 137 undergraduate students of various majors in all years ranging
from freshmen to seniors at two national universities in Hokkaido. The questionnaires
were distributed to 137 participants. Each questionnaire contained 20 questions and
statements about watching movies and learning English. He found that the students
usually watched movies on a DVD player at home with Japanese subtitles. Kobayashi
proposed that the majority of subjects preferred to watch English movies rather than
Japanese movies. Moreover, the participants enjoyed watching English movies
without Japanese subtitles. Additionally, Kobayashi concluded that movies are one of
the most effective learning materials for students’ life-long learning of English. The
students agreed that watching English movies could help them improve their listening
skill.
Suetrong (2015) researched learners’ attitudes toward the use of English
language movies with Thai subtitles and English subtitles to improve listening
comprehension skills. The questionnaires were distributed to 73 English program
first-year students majoring in Journalism in the Faculty of Journalism and Mass
Communication, Thammasat University in the academic year 2015. The researcher
used selective sampling to reach the participants. The data were analyzed by SPSS
program. The study determined that both types of subtitles (Thai and English
subtitles) could develop listening skills in different aspects. She found that Thai
subtitles were effective when students would like to understand situations in the
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movies. Meanwhile, English subtitles were helpful for understanding vocabulary,
unfamiliar idioms, proverbs, slang, and accents. Moreover, they could help students to
improve their listening comprehension skills.
As the literature reviews shows, the majority of the participants agreed that
English movies could enhance their English skills. The purpose of this review was to
show are positive opinions from the participants on learning English through
watching English soundtrack movies with L1 subtitles. It is clear from the
abovementioned research students are receptive to learning English using English
movies. It is important to conduct more studies to validate these claims further to
support the results of the above studies via CEIC students. Therefore, the independent
variable is watching movies with L1 subtitles. This research covers two English skills,
which are listening skills, and speaking skills. Hence, the improvement of English
skills (listening, and speaking skills) are the dependent variables. A questionnaire will
be used to acquire the data, which will be analyzed using the Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences on Personal Computer (SPSS/PC). The next chapter will present
the research methodology.
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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study aims to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of watching
English movies with Thai subtitles to improve listening-speaking skills a n d
investigate the CEIC students’ opinions toward watching English movies with Thai
subtitles to help improve their listening-speaking skills.
This chapter describes: (1) the respondents, (2) research instruments, (3) the
procedures, and (4) data analysis.
3.1 Respondents
The objective of this study was to investigate the CEIC students’ opinions in
watching English movies with Thai subtitles to develop English listening-speaking
skills. Therefore, the population included 92 first-year and second-year students in the
Career English for International Communication (CEIC) program at Thammasat
University. Five students answered a pilot questionnaire to test the reliability, validity,
and clarification. Moreover, this population excluded the researcher who was a
second year CEIC student. Thus, the population was 86 first-year and second-year
CEIC students. Based on Yamane’s (1973) formula, the sample size of this study was
a group of 71 current first-year and second-year students in the Career English for
International Communication (CEIC) program.
𝑛 =𝑁
1 + 𝑁(𝑒))
Where:
n= sample size required
N = number of people in the population
e = allowable error (%)
Substitute numbers in formula:
𝑛 =86
1 + 86(0.05))
𝑛 = 71(𝑅𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑝)
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Although the sample size was 71 current first-year and second-year CEIC
students, the questionnaire was distributed to 86 first-year and second-year CEIC
students who were the population. The returned questionnaires numbered 75, slightly
more than the expected rate.
3.2 Research Instrument
The research instrument of this study was an online and paper-based
questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to ask for CEIC students’ opinions
about watching English movies with Thai subtitles to improve listening and speaking
skills. Some questions in the questionnaire were similar to the independent study of
Rattanachai (2015) and Suetrong (2015). The questionnaire contained close-ended
and open-ended questions, which used a five-point Likert scale (Likert, 1932). The
questionnaire contained four main parts.
The first part of the questionnaire was on the general background information
and behavior in watching English movies with Thai subtitles of the respondents. It
was designed using close-ended questions to collect information on gender, age,
occupation, year of study, level of education, the frequency of English skill used, the
frequency of watching English movies without subtitles, with English subtitles, and
with Thai subtitles, and the most popular movie genres in English movies with Thai
subtitles.
The second part was the opinions of CEIC students on the advantages and
disadvantages of watching English movies with Thai subtitles.
The third part included questions asking the opinions of CEIC students on
watching English movies with Thai subtitles to improve their listening-speaking
skills. Parts two and three used a five-point Likert scale as follows: 5 = strongly agree,
4 = agree, 3 = not sure, 2 = disagree, and 1 = strongly disagree.
The fourth part provided open-ended questions to identify other CEIC
students’ opinions in watching English movies with Thai subtitles to improve their
listening-speaking skills.
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3.3 Procedures
The questionnaire was distributed to 86 current first-year and second-year
students in the Career English for International Communication (CEIC) program. The
questionnaires were written in English with close-ended and open-ended questions.
The respondents were asked to answer the questions and return the completed
questionnaires to the researcher during March 19 - April 1, 2018.
3.4 Data Analysis
After the collection of data was completed, the quantitative data was analyzed
using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences on Personal Computer
(SPSS/PC). A five-point Likert scale, frequency, percentage, average mean, and
standard deviation were used to evaluate the CEIC students’ opinions about
advantages and disadvantages of English movies with Thai subtitles to improve
English listening-speaking skills and about the opinions in watching English movies
with Thai subtitles to help improve English listening-speaking skills. In addition, the
statistical methods were used to analyze the respondents’ general background
information and the watching of English movies with Thai subtitles behavior in terms
of frequency and percentage.
The points of rating scores were calculated based on the suggestion of Srisa-
ard (1996) as below:
Table 3.1
The Points of Rating Scores
Interpretation of the score Point of Rating Score
Strongly Agree 4.51 – 5.00
Agree 3.51 – 4.50
Not Sure 2.51 – 3.50
Disagree 1.51 – 2.50
Strongly Disagree 1.00 – 1.50
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CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
This chapter reports the results of the study of CEIC students’ opinions toward
watching English movies with Thai subtitles to improve English listening-speaking
skills. The results are divided into four sections as follows:
1. General background information and behavior in watching English movies
with Thai subtitles of the respondents
2. Opinions of CEIC students on the advantages and disadvantages of
watching English movies with Thai subtitles
3. Opinions of CEIC students in watching English movies with Thai subtitles
to improve their English listening-speaking skills.
4. Additional opinions of CEIC students on watching English movies with
Thai subtitles to improve their English listening-speaking skills.
4.1 General Background Information and Behavior Information of the
Respondents
The first part of the questionnaire examined the general background and
behavior information of the 75 participants in this study. This part included gender,
age, occupation, year of study, level of education, the frequency of English skill used,
the frequency of watching English movies without subtitles, with English subtitles,
and with Thai subtitles, and the most preferred movie genres in English movies with
Thai subtitles.
Of the study population, 75 CEIC students completed and returned the
questionnaire. It was found that 61 of them were females and 14 were males. In
addition, 39 respondents were second-year students and 36 were first year. The
majority (52%) was aged between 23-27, as shown in Table 4.1, and 17.3% already
held a master’s degree (Table 4.2).
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Table 4.1
Age of Respondents
Age Frequency (N) Percentage (%)
23 – 27 years old 39 52.0%
28 – 32 years old 15 20.0%
33 – 38 years old 16 21.3%
Over 39 years old 5 6.7%
Total 75 100.0%
Table 4.2
Level of Education
Level of education Frequency (N) Percentage (%) Bachelor's Degree 62 82.7%
Master's Degree 13 17.3%
Total 75 100.0%
When looking at their occupations, it was found that the majority (26.7%)
were office employees, followed by full-time students, freelancers, government
officers and other occupations as shown in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3
Occupation
Occupation Frequency (N) Percentage (%)
Bank employee 1 1.3%
Business owner 4 5.3%
Dentist 1 1.3%
English Call Center Agent 1 1.3%
Flight attendant 1 1.3%
Freelancer 6 8.0%
Full-time student 12 16.0%
General Manager 1 1.3%
Government employee 3 4.0%
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Ground staff 1 1.3%
Marketing Communication 1 1.3%
Multi-cultural
organization-Admin
Assistant
1 1.3%
Office Employee 20 26.7%
Product information
officer 1 1.3%
Public relations officer 1 1.3%
Sales assistant 1 1.3%
Sales coordinator 1 1.3%
Sales executive 1 1.3%
Sales representative 4 5.3%
Secretary 1 1.3%
State enterprise officer 1 1.3%
Teacher 6 8.0%
Thai Airways staff 1 1.3%
Tutor 2 2.7%
University staff 2 2.7%
Total 75 100.0%
Table 4.4 demonstrates the frequency of English skills used. The results
revealed that 54.7% of the respondents used English in daily life, followed by 1 – 2
times or 3 – 4 times per week (20.0%), and never use (5.3%).
Table 4.4
Frequency of English Skills Used
Frequency of English
skills used Frequency (N) Percentage (%)
Everyday 41 54.7%
3 - 4 times per week 15 20.0%
1 - 2 times per week 15 20.0%
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Never 4 5.3%
Total 75 100.0%
When investigating the frequency of watching movies without subtitles, it was
found that 60.0% of the respondents watched English movies without subtitles less
than 4 times a month, followed by 4 to 7 times (16.0%) and 10.7%, more than 8 times.
A total of 13.3% never watched English movies without subtitles (Table 4.5).
Table 4.5
Frequency of Watching English Movies without Subtitles Per Month
Frequency of watching movies without subtitles Frequency (N) Percentage (%)
More than 8 times 8 10.7%4 to 7 times 12 16.0% Less than 4 times 45 60.0% Never 10 13.3% Total 75 100.0% For watching movies with English subtitles, Table 4.6 shows that 52% of them
watched movies less than 4 times per month, followed by more than 8 times, and 4-7
times. Meanwhile, 9.3% never watched movies with English subtitles.
Table 4.6
Frequency of Watching English Movies with English Subtitles Per Month
Frequency of watching movies with English
subtitles Frequency (N) Percentage (%)
More than 8 times 15 20.0%
4 to 7 times 14 18.7% Less than 4 times 39 52.0% Never 7 9.3% Total 75 100.0%
For the main focus point of this study, watching movies with Thai subtitles, it
was found that half (50.7%) of them watched movies less than 4 times a month,
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followed by 8 times and 4-7 times. Meanwhile, 13.3% of them never watched movies
with Thai subtitles (Table 4.7).
Table 4.7
Frequency of Watching English Movies with Thai Subtitles Per Month
Frequency of watching movies with Thai
subtitles Frequency (N) Percentage (%)
More than 8 times 18 24.0%
4 to 7 times 9 12.0% Less than 4 times 38 50.7% Never 10 13.3% Total 75 100.0%
Table 4.8 presents the most preferred movies genres in English movies with
Thai subtitles. The majority of the respondents preferred action/adventure (28.0%),
followed by romance/romantic comedy (20.0%), horror/thrillers/suspense (17.3%),
and sci-fi/fantasy (14.7%). The others (20.0%) preferred comedy and animation.
Table 4.8
Most Preferred Movie Genres in English Movies with Thai Subtitles
The most preferred movie genres in English
movies with Thai Subtitles
Frequency (N) Percentage (%)
Horror/ Thrillers/ Suspense 13 17.3%
Action/ Adventure 21 28.0% Comedy 8 10.7% Romance/ Romantic comedy 15 20.0%
Sci-Fi/ Fantasy 11 14.7% Animation 7 9.3% Total 75 100.0%
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To sum up, most of the respondents watched English movies without subtitles,
with English subtitles, and with Thai subtitles less than 4 times a month, and their
favourite movies were action/adventure.
4.2 The Opinions of CEIC Students on the Advantages and Disadvantages of
Watching English Movies with Thai Subtitles
The second part of the questionnaire explored the advantages and
disadvantages of watching English movies with Thai subtitles when compared to
watching movies without subtitles or with English subtitles.
It can be seen from Table 4.9 that the majority of the CEIC students strongly
agreed that watching English movies helped them to learn new vocabulary, idioms,
slang or patterns of conversation with a mean of 4.55, followed by helping them
practice English pronunciation (mean = 4.45). They agreed that movies are a useful
media to learn English with a mean of 4.44. In addition, they agreed that they could
learn different cultures by watching English movies with a mean score of 4.33.
Table 4.9
Opinions on Watching English Movies
Mean S.D. Meaning
1. Watching movies helps you learn new
vocabulary, idioms, slang or patterns of
conversation.
4.55 0.552 Strongly
Agree
2. Watching movies helps you practice English
pronunciation. 4.45 0.741 Agree
3. Watching movies helps you learn different
cultures. 4.33 0.704 Agree
4. Movies are useful media to learn English. 4.44 0.702 Agree
The results obtained from the preliminary analysis of the opinions in
advantages and disadvantages when compared with watching movies without subtitles
or with English subtitles and watching English movies with Thai subtitles are shown
in Table 4.10. The respondents mostly agreed that watching English movies with Thai
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subtitles helped them to understand conversations in the movies better (mean = 4.23,).
The respondents also agreed that watching English movies with Thai subtitles
supported them to improve English listening skills with a mean 4.17. Moreover, the
CEIC students thought that English movies with Thai subtitles helped them to
understand the vocabulary, unfamiliar idioms, slang and phrases better (mean = 4.15).
On the other hand, there were some disadvantages of watching English movies
with Thai subtitles. As can be seen in Table 4.10, most of the respondents agreed that
they might not know how some English words are written or spelt because they could
read only Thai subtitles (mean = 3.91).
Overall, it can be concluded that CEIC students believed that watching
English movies with Thai subtitles on average had more advantages (mean = 4.05)
than disadvantages (mean = 3.74).
Table 4.10
Opinions on Advantages and Disadvantages of Watching English Movies with Thai
Subtitles When Compared with Watching English Movies without Subtitles or with
English Subtitles
Mean S.D. Meaning
Advantages
1. Helps you to understand conversations in the
movies better 4.23 0.727 Agree
2. Helps you to understand the conversations in
the movies faster 4.08 0.912 Agree
3. Helps you to understand the vocabulary,
unfamiliar idioms, slang and phrases better 4.15 0.766 Agree
4. Helps you to learn more expressions,
pronunciation, syntax, and connotations. 3.87 0.794 Agree
5. Can be beneficial for using English in daily
life. 4.04 0.796 Agree
6. Helps you to improve English listening skills. 4.17 0.906 Agree
7. Helps you to improve English speaking skills. 3.80 0.885 Agree
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Average score of opinions in advantages 4.05 0.827 Agree
Disadvantages
8. Reading Thai subtitles is distracting. Hence,
you may not be able to pay attention to listening. 3.56 1.017 Agree
9. By reading only Thai subtitles, you may not
know how some English words are written or
spelt.
3.91 0.932 Agree
Average score of opinions in disadvantages 3.74 0.975 Agree
4.3 The Opinions of CEIC Students on Watching English Movies with Thai
Subtitles to Improve Their English Listening-Speaking Skills
This section explored CEIC students’ opinions toward watching English
movies with Thai subtitles to improve their English listening-speaking skills. This part
also used a Likert five-point scale to measure the level of agreement. The results are
presented in terms of statistical data including frequency, percentage, mean, and
standard deviation (S.D.).
It can be seen from the data in Table 4.11 that the majority of the respondents
agreed that watching English movies with Thai subtitles helped them to get used to
hearing native speakers talk to each other with a mean of 4.15. They felt that watching
English movies with Thai subtitles helped them to learn new words from what they
heard in English and what they read in Thai and understand how to use conversations
in real situations such as conversations in a restaurant, on public transport, etc. In
addition, the majority of those who responded to this item felt that English movies
enabled them to become engaged in the storyline of the film, without worrying about
understanding (mean = 4.11).
Table 4.11
The Opinions of CEIC Students on Watching English Movies with Thai Subtitles to
Improve Their English Listening-Speaking Skills
Mean S.D. Meaning
1. Helps you understand conversations in 4.09 0.774 Agree
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movies better. Thus, you can enjoy watching
English movies more.
2. Enables you to become engaged in the
storyline of the film, without worrying about
understanding.
4.11 0.709 Agree
3. Helps you get used to hearing native speakers
talk to each other. 4.15 0.865 Agree
4. Enables you to learn the native English
speakers’ accents better. 4.07 1.004 Agree
5. Helps you learn new words from what you
hear in English and what you read in Thai. 4.12 0.697 Agree
6. Helps you listen and know the meaning by
reading Thai subtitles of the unknown words. 4.05 0.715 Agree
7. Helps you know more the meaning of familiar
words. 4.00 0.717 Agree
8. Helps you remember simple sentences. 3.87 0.827 Agree
9. Helps you to be able to self-correct your
misunderstanding with Thai subtitles. 3.88 0.770 Agree
10. Helps you speak English more fluently. 3.57 0.961 Agree
11. Helps you to improve your speaking skills
by practicing and learning how to converse like
native English speakers.
3.73 1.004 Agree
12. Helps you learn the pronunciation of words
with understanding. 4.01 0.893 Agree
13. Helps you to be able to mimic or repeat the
sentence patterns with understanding. 3.79 0.977 Agree
14. Helps you put intonation on words and
sentences better by replicating from the movies. 3.92 0.955 Agree
15. Helps you understand how to use
conversations in real situations such as
conversations in a restaurant, on public
4.12 0.869 Agree
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transport, etc.
4.4 The Other Opinions of CEIC Students on Watching English Movies with
Thai Subtitles to Improve Their English Listening-Speaking Skills The last section of the questionnaire required respondents to give information
on other opinions toward watching English movies with Thai subtitles, which was an
open-ended question. According to the objective of the study to investigate CEIC
students’ opinions toward watching English movies with Thai subtitles to help
improve their listening-speaking skills, some of the CEIC students gave their opinions
on the advantages and disadvantages of watching English movies with Thai subtitles
to improve English listening-speaking skills. The other opinions are categorized into
three aspects: advantages, disadvantages, and suggestion of watching English movies
with Thai subtitles to improve English listening-speaking skills.
4.4.1 Advantages
There were a large number of respondents who gave positive opinions towards
watching English movies with Thai subtitles to improve English listening-speaking
skill. They agreed that watching movies with Thai subtitles helped them to practice
listening and speaking skills. These are some interesting quotes:
“If you want to practice English listening and speaking skills, you have to
watch a particular movie more than one time. Moreover, in my opinion, the place
where you watch movies also influences your intention towards subtitle. When you
watch it at cinema, you may focus on story over the language using in the movie.”
“English soundtrack movies with Thai subtitles are useful for practicing
English listening skills a lot and it can enable you to obtain new vocabulary that you
can really apply in your daily life.”
“It is useful for me about the correct words in Thai because some Thai words
I don't understand and I don't know the correct words. And it improves my listening
skill a lot.”
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“I think English soundtrack movies are entertaining and instructive. They do
not only enable you to enjoy the time you watch, they also contain lots of knowledge
such as culture, tradition and pattern of linguistic use that you can learn. So, you can
use movies to develop English skills and proficiency so that you can use English more
effectively in the future.”
“Watching soundtrack movies is a good way to practice listening skill
especially watching U.S. Or Hollywood movies. It helps to learn how the native
speakers pronounce the word or speak naturally. However, it takes an hour or more
to watch the movie which is quite a long time for me. Thus, I don't watch movie often
average 1-2 movies per month.”
“Watching movies with Thai subtitles is important for Thai people who start
learning English as second language.”
“It's good to watch English soundtrack movies with Thai subtitles for
practicing.”
“It's a good source to be familiar with accent and culture.”
Moreover, some respondents said watching English movies with Thai subtitles
enabled them to expand their knowledge such as vocabulary, idiom, slang, and
translation.
“Watching movies with Thai subtitles helps the viewers to understand more
and expand their vocabulary.”
“It’s fun and easy and can learn new cultures and idioms.”
“Help me understand some slang which is hard to find the meaning in
google.”
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“Not only help us in about knowing the new vocabs but also help us about
translation.”
“English soundtrack movies can help learners understand the meaning
clearly.”
“To be useful especially to look how to translate English to Thai. It's fun.”
“It helps me to more understand the whole movie and get more unfamiliar
vocabulary to use in real life. However, sometimes I only read the subtitles and did
not concentrate on what the movie said.”
4.4.2 Disadvantages
Although the majority of the respondents had positive opinions toward
watching English movies with Thai subtitles to improve English listening-speaking
skills, there were a few negative opinions. These opinions expressed that they were
distracted by reading Thai subtitles. These are some opinions:
“Sometimes I concentrated more on Thai subtitles.”
“Most of the time I didn't listen to what the actors said, I understand the movie
more from the Thai subtitles.”
“To watch English soundtrack movies with Thai subtitles helps me understand
more about the movie but sometimes made me only focus on subtitles.”
4.4.3 Suggestions
Besides the other opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of watching
English movies with Thai subtitles to improve English listening-speaking skills, other
responses to this question included the suggestions on developing English skills such
as watching English movies with English subtitles. These are selected quotes:
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“It's better you watch soundtrack movies because the audio sound during the
movie is better than in Thai, which is more exciting for action and thriller movies.”
“I prefer watching movie with English subtitles because l can learn new
words while listening to correct pronunciation.”
“Watching soundtrack movies with English subtitles is better than watching
with Thai subtitles.”
“Watching English movies with Thai subtitles makes me keen to learn English
more than reading from text books.”
“We should watch more with English subtitles instead.”
“Better watch Thai and English subtitles together.”
The results in this chapter indicated that CEIC students agreed that watching
English movies with Thai subtitles enabled them to develop their English listening
and speaking skills by providing them opportunities to study and practice listening
and speaking. For example, it supported them to understand conversations in the
movies better and faster, understand the vocabulary, unfamiliar idioms, slang and
phrases better, and benefitted them in terms of using English in daily life. Moreover,
watching English movies with Thai subtitles helped them to get used to listening to
native speakers and learn new vocabulary. The next chapter discusses the conclusions
and recommendations.
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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter presents (1) a summary of the study, (2) a summary of the
findings, (3) discussion, (4) conclusion and (5) the recommendations for further study.
5.1 Summary of the Study
This section summarizes the objectives and methodology of the study as
follow:
5.1.1 Objectives of the study
The objectives of this study were to investigate CEIC students’ opinions in
terms of:
1. Advantages and disadvantages of watching English movies with Thai
subtitles and
2. Watching English movies with Thai subtitles to help improve their
listening-speaking skills.
5.1.2 Respondents, instrument, and procedures
The respondents of this study were 75 first-year and second-year students in
the Career English for International Communication (CEIC) at Thammasat
University. An online and paper-based questionnaire was used to collect the data
about:
1) general background information and behavior in watching English movies
with Thai subtitles of the respondents
2) opinions of CEIC students about advantages and disadvantages of
watching English movies with Thai subtitles
3) opinions of CEIC students on watching English movies with Thai subtitles
to improve their listening-speaking skills
4) additional opinions on watching English movies with Thai subtitles to
improve their listening-speaking skills.
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The SPSS program was used to analyze the data.
5.2 Summary of the Findings
The results of the study can be divided into four sections as follows:
5.2.1 General background information and behavior information of the
respondents
The majority of the respondents were 61 females (81.3%) and 14 males
(18.7%). Most of them were aged between 23 – 27 years old (52.0%). A total of
26.7% of the respondents were office employees. In terms of level of study, 52.0%
were second year CEIC students. Most of them had graduated with bachelor’s degrees
(82.7%) and 54.7% of the respondents used English in daily life. Most of them
watched English movies without subtitles (60.0%), with English subtitles (52.0%),
and with Thai subtitles (50.7%) less than 4 times a month. The majority of the
respondents preferred action/adventure (28.0%).
5.2.2 Opinions of CEIC students on the advantages and disadvantages of
watching English movies with Thai subtitles
Most CEIC students were in strong agreement that watching English movies
helped them to learn new vocabulary, idioms, slang or patterns of conversation with a
mean of 4.55. In addition, a high percentage of the respondents agreed that watching
English movies with Thai subtitles was beneficial in helping them to understand
conversations in the movies better (4.23). The respondents believed that it supported
them to improve English listening skills (4.17). Moreover, the majority of the CEIC
students also agreed that English movies with Thai subtitles helped them to
understand the vocabulary, unfamiliar idioms, slang and phrases better (4.15). In
contrast, most of the respondents agreed that they might not know how some English
words are written or spelt because they could read only Thai subtitles (3.91).
5.2.3 Opinions of CEIC students on watching English movies with Thai
subtitles to improve their English listening-speaking skills
The respondents mostly agreed that watching English movies with Thai
subtitles aided them in becoming familiar with listening to native speakers talk to
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each other with a mean of 4.15. Also, the majority of them believed that watching
English movies with Thai subtitles exposed them to new words from listening in
English and what they read in Thai (mean = 4.12) and enabled them to understand
how to use conversations in real situations such as conversations in a restaurant, on
public transport, etc. (4.12). They believed that English movies enabled them to
become engaged in the storyline of the film without worrying about understanding.
5.2.4 Other opinions of CEIC students on watching English movies with Thai
subtitles to improve their English listening-speaking skills
The open-ended questions conveyed that many respondents were positive
towards watching English movies with Thai subtitles. They felt that they could
practice English listening and speaking skills. Moreover, it gave them an opportunity
to learn new vocabulary and cultures. They could enjoy the movie while learning at
the same time. Conversely, some of the respondents mentioned that Thai subtitles
could distract them from paying attention to the movies.
Some felt that watching English movies with English subtitles might be better
than Thai subtitles.
5.3 Discussion
5.3.1 Advantages and disadvantages of watching English movies with Thai
subtitles
The study’s outcome supported and is in line with previous research (Hsieh el
at., 2010; Jeebpinyo, 2013; Rattanachai, 2015; Suetrong, 2015; Tsai & Huang, 2010;
Tuncay, 2014) involving the advantages of watching soundtrack movies with L1
subtitles in many ways. For example:
1) English movies helped viewers learn new vocabulary, idioms,
slang or patterns of conversation.
2) English movies with Thai subtitles assisted them in terms of
understanding conversations in the movies better.
3) English movies provide learners opportunities to learn English
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language with authentic environments; thus, it could assist the learners to learn and
improve English skills
4) L1 subtitles supported the learners to understand stories in the movies by
translation of English to L1 (Hsieh et al., 2010; Moon & Yun, 2014).
5) Learners listened to unfamiliar words and they could know the meaning by
reading the L1 subtitles.
This means in terms of language learning, watching soundtrack movies with
L1 subtitles significantly helps improve learners’ skills.
However, there were some drawbacks of L1 subtitles, i.e., learners might not
know how some English words are written or spelt because they could read only Thai
subtitles. This result matched with those observed in earlier studies. According to Tsai
(2009), two out of eight respondents of his study agreed that they could not spell some
words because they could hear only in English and read the meaning in L1 subtitles.
Watching English movies with Thai subtitles benefited them to learn new
words and understand the story line better, but by only listening to English and
reading text in Thai, they could not know the spelling of the words. Wang (2014)
affirmed that the participants of his study that were dual subtitles group (with L1 and
English subtitles) attained the highest score. Thus, dual subtitles might help to reduce
the problem of word spellings because learners could listen to English, know the
meaning by reading L1 subtitles, and know the spelling of words by reading the
English subtitles. Spelling, pronunciation, and meaning can be learned pragmatically
at the same time from watching movies with dual subtitles. However, the chances to
come across dual subtitles are quite rare except when subtitles are done for
educational purposes.
5.3.2 Watching English movies with Thai subtitles to improve English
listening-speaking skills
The more movies a learner watches, the more he or she will be exposed to the
original and purposeful use of the language. Obviously, this should lead to
improvement of two skills – listening and speaking.
However, as some of the respondents suggested in the open-ended part,
English subtitles may be more beneficial than L1 subtitles because the viewer can see
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how words are spelt and pronounced simultaneously. Tsai and Huang (2010)
indicated that watching English movies with English subtitles was better than without
subtitles and with L1 subtitles because English subtitles transcribed dialogues from
the movies. Thus, learners could listen and read in the same language and check their
listening abilities. Also, this gives a chance for a person to acquire the language as if
they themselves are having conversations in English naturally. It seems like they are
immersed in an English speaking environment without having to stay in or travel to a
foreign country. Thus, watching soundtrack movies, with or without any subtitles is a
good chance to see and hear how the language is actually spoken.
This is in accordance with Kabooha (2016) who found that all participants of
his study agreed that English movies provided an authentic and meaningful context in
which participants can learn English. Moreover, the student interviews revealed that
English movies contained an abundance of conversations between native speakers
from which his participants could learn to speak English naturally and fluently like
native speakers; movies were also useful for vocabulary learning and acquisition.
Regarding the speech by Dr. Netpreeya Chumchaiyo (Kru Kate), learners
could become familiar with native speakers by frequently listening to their
conversations. Therefore, watching English movies several times a week might help
learners become familiar with listening to native speakers. Furthermore, English
movies containing daily life conversations might support learners to learn how to use
real-life conversations. Ismaili’s (2013) study found that the majority of students
claimed that English movies provided the opportunity to learn to converse in daily
life.
As Damronglaohapan and Stevenson (2013) found, their participants believed
that they could learn language and develop their English listening and speaking skills
by watching English movies. It could be beneficial for them not only in terms of
learning new words and cultures, but it also was an effective tool for learning and
entertainment at the same time.
To gain more benefits from watching English movies in order to improve
English skills, Markham et al. (2001) suggested that the learners should watch English
movies with L1 subtitles first, followed by watching the same movies with L2
subtitles, and without subtitles. This sequence supported learners to understand the
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storyline, become more familiar with listening to native speakers and be prepared to
pay attention to listening to the English language. Every student has a certain level of
English competency. Beginners should start with listening to English movies
accompanied by L1 subtitles. They have to be educated that they should not depend
fully on the L1 subtitles, but instead use them as an aid to understand the movie. Their
main focus should still be on the English soundtrack. Once their level of competency
increases, they can start to use L2 subtitles as a tool for understanding the English
movie. By reading L2 subtitles, this can enhance their vocabulary and focus on how to
form sentence structure. Lastly, once they can dispense with the subtitles, students are
strongly encouraged to watch English movies without them. This is known as
progressive learning. With the individual benefits of all three methods of learning
English, it is important to divide the study into separate stages. This will then allow
the students to reap the full benefits of English movies, with or without subtitles.
5.4 Conclusion
The following concludes the opinions of CEIC students in watching English
movies with Thai subtitles to improve English listening-speaking skills:
1) The respondents agreed that they could improve English listening-speaking
skills through watching English soundtrack with Thai subtitles.
2) Watching English soundtrack movies with Thai subtitles supported the
participants to get used to listening to native speakers.
3) The respondents believed that vocabulary acquisition could be improved by
watching English movies with Thai subtitles because they could learn from what they
hear in English and know the meaning from what they read in Thai.
4) The respondents also opined that watching English movies with Thai
subtitles enabled them to understand how to use real life English conversation such as
conversations in a restaurant, on public transport, etc.
5.5 Recommendations for Further Study
The following is recommended for future research:
1) This study focused on only one group of people, which were CEIC
students. Further research may investigate various groups of individuals to extend the
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sample size. It might also be expanded to another dimension, which may yield more
reliable results.
2) Due to time limitations, the researcher collected data from a questionnaire.
Further studies might use interviews as a research instrument. This will help the
researcher obtain more in-depth information.
3) In future investigations, it might be possible to study other interesting
topics, for example, investigating the other language skills improvement by watching
movies with subtitles in other languages.
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APPENDIX A
CEIC STUDENTS’ OPINIONS ON WATCHING ENGLISH
MOVIES WITH THAI SUBTITLES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH
LISTENING-SPEAKING SKILLS
This questionnaire is a part of a research paper as a partial fulfillment of the
requirements for Master Degree in Careers English for International Communication,
Language Institute, Thammasat University. The respondents are first-year and
second-year students in the career English for international communication (CEIC) at
Thammasat University in academic year 2017. Your responses will be kept
confidential and will be used for the research purpose only. Your cooperation in
answering this questionnaire is greatly appreciated.
This questionnaire is divided into four main parts as follows:
Part 1: General Information and behavior in watching English soundtrack movies
with Thai subtitles of the respondents
Part 2: Advantages and disadvantages of watching English soundtrack movies with
Thai subtitles
Part 3: Opinions of CEIC students on watching English soundtrack movies with Thai
subtitles to improve listening-speaking skills
Part 4: Other opinions of CEIC students in watching English soundtrack movies with
Thai subtitles to improve listening-speaking skills
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Part 1: General information and behavior information in watching movies of the
respondents
Direction: Please provide the following information by put a tick (ü) or click on (for
online version) in the appropriate box below or writing your response in the space
provided.
1. Gender
0 Male
0 Female
2. Age
0 23 – 27
0 28 - 32
0 33 - 38
0 Over 39
3. Occupation
- ___________
4. Which study year are you in?
0 first year
0 second year
5. Educational Background
0 Bachelor's Degree
0 Master's Degree
0 Doctoral Degree
0 Others_________
6. How often do you use English in daily life?
0 Everyday
0 3 -4 times per week
0 1- 2 times per week
0 Never
7. Frequency in watch English soundtrack movies per month?
a) Watch English movies without subtitles
0 More than 8 times
0 4 to 7 times
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0 Less than 4 times
0 Never
b) Watch English movies with English subtitles
0 More than 8 times
0 4 to 7 times
0 Less than 4 times
0 Never
c) Watch English movies with Thai subtitles
0 More than 8 times
0 4 to 7 times
0 Less than 4 times
0 Never
8. What kind of English movies with Thai subtitles do you like the most?
0 Horror/ Thriller/ Suspense
0 Action/ Adventure
0 Comedy
0 Romance/ Romantic comedy
0 Sci - Fi/ Fantasy
0 Animation
0 Others_________
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Part 2: Advantages and disadvantages of watching English soundtrack movies with
Thai subtitles
Direction: Please read the following statements and put a tick (ü) or click on (for
online version) in the column which represents your level of agreement representing
by the numbers 1- 5 as follow:
5 = Strongly agree
4 = Agree
3 = Neutral
2 = Disagree
1 = Strongly disagree
1. Opinions in watching English soundtrack movies
Strongly
Agree
(5)
Agree
(4)
Neutral
(3)
Disagree
(2)
Strongly
Disagree
(1)
1. Watching movies helps you
learn new vocabulary, idioms,
slangs or patterns of
conversation.
2. Watching movies helps you
practice English pronunciation.
3. Watching movies helps you
learn different cultures.
4. Movies are useful media to
learn English.
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2. When compared with watching movies without subtitles or with English
subtitles, watching English soundtrack movies with Thai subtitles help you to
do the following things:
Watching English soundtrack
movies with Thai subtitles
Strongly
Agree
(5)
Agree
(4)
Neutral
(3)
Disagree
(2)
Strongly
Disagree
(1)
1. Helps you to understand
conversations in the movies better
2. Helps you to understand the
conversations in the movies faster
3. Helps you to understand the
vocabulary, unfamiliar idioms, slang
and phrases better
4. Helps you to learn more
expressions, pronunciation, syntax,
and connotations.
5. Can be beneficial for using
English in daily life.
6. Helps you to improve English
listening skills.
7. Helps you to improve English
speaking skills.
8. Distracts you to read Thai
subtitles. Hence, you may not be
able to pay attention in listening.
9. By reading only Thai subtitles,
you may not know how some
English words are written or spelt.
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Part 3: Opinions of CEIC students in watching English soundtrack movies with Thai
subtitles to improve listening-speaking skills
Direction: Please read the following statements and put a tick (ü) or click on (for
online version) in the column which represents your level of agreement representing
by the numbers 1- 5.
Watching English soundtrack
movies with Thai subtitles
Strongly
Agree
(5)
Agree
(4)
Neutral
(3)
Disagree
(2)
Strongly
Disagree
(1)
1. Helps you understand
conversations in the movies
better. Thus, you can more
enjoy watching English
soundtrack movies.
2. Enables you to become
engaged in the storyline of
the film, without worrying
about understandable.
3. Helps you get used to
hearing native speakers talk
to each other.
4. Enables you to learn the
native English speakers;
accents better.
5. Helps you learn new words
from what you hear in
English and what you read in
Thai.
6. Helps you listen and know
the meaning by reading Thai
subtitles of the unknown
words.
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7. Helps you know more the
meaning of the familiar
words.
8. Helps you remember
simple sentences.
9. Helps you to be able to
self-correct your
misunderstanding with Thai
subtitles.
10. Helps you speak English
more fluently.
11. Helps you to improve
your speaking skills by
practicing and learning how
to converse like native
English speakers.
12. Helps you learn the
pronunciation of words with
understanding.
13. Helps you to be able to
mimic or repeat the sentence
patterns with understanding.
14. Helps you to put
intonation on words and
sentences better by
replicating from the movies.
15. Helps you understand
how to use conversation in
real situations such as
conversations in a restaurant,
on public transport, etc.
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Part 4: Other opinions of CEIC students in watching English soundtrack movies with
Thai subtitles to improve listening-speaking skills
Do you have any other opinions about watching English soundtrack movies with Thai
subtitles?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
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APPENDIX B
ADDITIONAL STATISTIC RESULTS
Table 4.9
Opinions on Watching English Movies
Frequency (N)/Percent (%)
Mean S.D. Strongly
Agree Agree Neutral Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
1. Watching
movies help you
learn new
vocabulary,
idioms, slangs
or patterns of
conversation.
43
(57.3)
30
(40.0)
2
(2.7) - - 4.55 0.552
2. Watching
movies help you
practice English
pronunciation.
44
(58.7)
22
(29.3)
8
(10.7)
1
(1.3) - 4.45 0.741
3. Watching
movies help you
learn different
cultures.
35
(46.7)
30
(40.0)
10
(13.3) - - 4.33 0.704
4. Movies are
useful media to
learn English.
41
(54.7)
27
(36.0)
6
(8.0)
1
(1.3) - 4.44 0.702
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Table 4.10
Opinions on Advantages and Disadvantages when Compared with Watching Movies
without Subtitles or with English Subtitles, Watching English Movies with Thai
Subtitles
Frequency (N)/Percent (%)
Mean S.D. Strongly
Agree Agree Neutral Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
Advantages
1. Helps you to
understand
conversations in
the movies
better
29
(38.7)
35
(46.7)
10
(13.3)
1
(1.3) - 4.23 0.727
2. Helps you to
understand the
conversations in
the movies
faster
30
(40.0)
25
(33.3)
16
(21.3)
4
(5.3) - 4.08 0.912
3. Helps you to
understand the
vocabulary,
unfamiliar
idioms, slang
and phrases
better
26
(34.7)
36
(48.0)
11
(14.7)
2
(2.7) - 4.15 0.766
4. Helps you to
learn more
expressions,
pronunciation,
syntax, and
connotations.
16
(21.3)
36
(48.0)
20
(26.7)
3
(4.0) - 3.87 0.794
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5. Can be
beneficial for
using English in
daily life.
23
(30.7)
34
(45.3)
16
(21.3)
2
(2.7) - 4.04 0.796
6. Helps you to
improve English
listening skills.
31
(41.3)
31
(41.3)
10
(13.3)
1
(1.3)
2
(2.7) 4.17 0.906
7. Helps you to
improve English
speaking skills.
17
(22.7)
31
(41.3)
23
(30.7)
3
(4)
1
(1.3) 3.80 0.885
Average score of opinions in advantages 4.05 0.827
Disadvantages
8. Distracts you
to read Thai
subtitles. Hence,
you may not be
able to pay
attention in
listening.
13
(17.3)
30
(40.0)
20
(26.7)
10
(13.3)
2
(2.7) 3.56 1.017
9. By reading
only Thai
subtitles, you
may not know
how some
English words
are written or
spelt.
20
(26.7)
36
(48.0)
12
(16.0)
6
(8.0)
1
(1.3) 3.91 0.932
Average score of opinions in disadvantages 3.74 0.975
Ref. code: 25605921040662ZRN
70
Table 4.11
The Opinions of CEIC Students on Watching English Movies with Thai Subtitles to
Improve Their English Listening-Speaking Skills
Frequency (N)/Percent (%)
Mean S.D. Strongly
Agree Agree Neutral Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
1. Helps you
understand
conversations in
the movies
better. Thus, you
can more enjoy
watching English
movies.
25
(33.3)
33
(44.0)
16
(21.3)
1
(1.3) - 4.09 0.774
2. Enable you to
become engaged
in the storyline of
the film, without
worrying about
understandable.
23
(30.7)
37
(49.3)
15
(20.0) - - 4.11 0.709
3. Helps you get
used to hearing
native speakers
talk to each
other.
27
(36.0)
37
(49.3)
8
(10.7)
1
(1.3)
2
(2.7) 4.15 0.865
4. Enables you to
learn the native
English speakers;
accents better.
29
(38.7)
30
(40.0)
11
(14.7)
2
(2.7)
3
(4.0) 4.07 1.004
Ref. code: 25605921040662ZRN
71
5. Helps you
learn new words
from what you
hear in English
and what you
read in Thai.
23
(30.7)
38
(50.7)
14
(18.7) - - 4.12 0.697
6. Helps you
listen and know
the meaning by
reading Thai
subtitles of the
unknown words.
19
(25.3)
43
(57.3)
11
(14.7)
2
(2.7) - 4.05 0.715
7. Helps you
know more the
meaning of the
familiar words.
18
(24.0)
40
(53.3)
16
(21.3)
1
(1.3) - 4.00 0.717
8. Helps you
remember simple
sentences.
17
(22.7)
35
(46.7)
19
(25.3)
4
(5.3) - 3.87 0.827
9. Helps you to
be able to self-
correct your
misunderstanding
with Thai
subtitles.
16
(21.3)
36
(48.0)
21
(28.0)
2
(2.7) - 3.88 0.770
10. Helps you
speak English
more fluently.
12
(16.0)
30
(40.0)
24
(32.0)
7
(9.3)
2
(2.7) 3.57 0.961
Ref. code: 25605921040662ZRN
72
11. Helps you to
improve your
speaking skills
by practicing and
learning how to
converse like
native English
speakers.
17
(22.7)
31
(41.3)
20
(26.7)
4
(5.3)
3
(4.0) 3.73 1.004
12. Helps you
learn the
pronunciation of
words with
understanding.
25
(33.3)
30
(40.0)
17
(22.7)
2
(2.7)
1
(1.3) 4.01 0.893
13. Helps you to
be able to mimic
or repeat the
sentence patterns
with
understanding.
17
(22.7)
35
(46.7)
15
(20.0)
6
(8.0)
2
(2.7) 3.79 0.977
14. Helps you put
intonation on
words and
sentences better
by replicating
from the movies.
24
(32.0)
27
(36.0)
19
(25.3)
4
(5.3)
1
(1.3) 3.92 0.955
Ref. code: 25605921040662ZRN
73
15. Helps you
understand how
to use
conversation in
real situations
such as
conversations in
a restaurant, on
public transport,
etc.
27
(36.0)
35
(46.7)
9
(12.0)
3
(4.0)
1
(1.3) 4.12 0.869
Ref. code: 25605921040662ZRN
74
BIOGRAPHY
Name Miss Nidsara Sareepattanapol
Date of Birth August 28, 1989
Educational Attainment
Academic Year 2014: Master of Management
Information System, Chulalongkorn University,
Thailand
Work Position System Analyst
INSEE Digital Company Limited
Work Experiences 2018 – present: System Analyst
INSEE Digital Company Limited
September 2015 – May 2017: SAP Consultant
IAM Consulting Company
Ref. code: 25605921040662ZRN