Children's Vocabulary Acquisition in a Foreign Language Through Watching Subtitled Television Programs at Home (1999)

Cees M Koolstra
Johannes W J Beentjes



Según lo que leí en el abstract este estudio apoyaría la idea de que

"...(Dutch) elementary school children can incidentally acquire vocabulary in a foreign language through watching subtitled television programs."


Abstract

Subtitled television programs seem to provide a rich context for foreign language acquisition. Moreover, viewers are generally quite motivated to understand what is shown and said on television. The present study investigated whether children in Grades 4 and 6 (N = 246) learn English words through watching a television program with an English soundtrack and Dutch subtitles. Children were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: (a) watching an English television program with Dutch subtitles, (b) watching the same English program without subtitles, and (c) watching a Dutch television program (control). The study was carried out using a 15-min documentary about grizzly bears. Vocabulary acquisition and recognition of English words were highest in the subtitled condition, indicating that Dutch elementary school children can incidentally acquire vocabulary in a foreign language through watching subtitled television programs.

A previous version of this paper was presented at the IAMCR conference 1997, Oaxaca, Mexico, Section Sociology and Social Psychology

Click en la imagen para seguir el link: