Speak objectively Watching movies with the original voices of the actors is better than those with voiceover or dubbing. There are at least several reasons. First, we gain authenticity of emotions and intonation—actors convey many emotional nuances in their voices alone, which is important for fully understanding and experiencing characters. Second, the original language of a film often contains language- and culture-specific in-jokes, wordplay, idioms, and accents that can be difficult to translate faithfully. Third, we get optimal lip sync with the dialogue. Dubbing often results in inconsistencies between image and sound, which can be distracting and reduce the realism of scenes.
Many people see another advantage in watching movies with the original audio and Polish subtitles. It is about developing language skills. The assumption is that for people learning a foreign language, watching films in the original language can be a valuable learning tool that allows them to improve their listening skills and expand their vocabulary. But is this the case in practice?
Learn a language from movies. What does the research say?
Watching movies with subtitles can help you learn a foreign language, however Only if we meet the appropriate criteria. Depending on our level of knowledge of a particular language, the impact of translation on our understanding varies greatly. Understanding film itself – and translating it into learning – is linked to the human ability to process audiovisual content, that is, to process a complex, multimedia format.
The viewer must simultaneously analyze verbal and non-verbal cues that constantly interact with each other, both visually and auditorily. Translations are meant to make things easier to understand, but they also add a new source of information with a speed and pace beyond our control.
We use different types of subtitles in films. We have a standard format, offering subtitles from one language to another, where the dialogue is in the film's original language and the subtitles are in the viewer's native language. Next, we have the back-subtitle format, with the dialogue dubbed into the viewers' native language and subtitled into the film's original language. The third version, most commonly used among people with hearing problems, is closed captioning, which displays the film's subtitles and dialogue in the original language in which it was filmed.
It was conducted by researchers Jean-Marc Lafort and Dominic Bairstow Appropriate testing Already in 2011, they decided to investigate the influence of two factors on vocabulary learning: one is the language, and the other is the way the language is presented (spoken or written). Individuals in this study had French as their first native language and were identified as having only a modest level of English. They watched different versions of the film (standard subtitles, reverse subtitles, both dialogue and subtitles in English). Viewers who watched the reverse version (dialogue in French and subtitles in English) had the best results in terms of later being able to reproduce the film's dialogue.
It was this version of the film that stood out as allowing better reproduction of words in the language being learned, suggesting that semantic connections between languages are more easily made under these rather than other viewing conditions.
Other researchers (tests this year) They, in turn, found evidence till then We remember vocabulary better if we play subtitles in the same language as the movie's dialogue. According to this research, same-language subtitles are associated with a positive repeatability factor, while standard translations lead to brain overlap between languages.
Videos from live streaming platforms can teach language
Research shows that we can learn and improve our knowledge of a particular language if we use translation. But the matter must be dealt with through the following: Choose the appropriate combination of audio track and subtitles. It all depends on your level of knowledge of the language – whether it's beginner, intermediate or advanced.
- People with a beginner's knowledge of the language achieve best results primarily when they use the reverse transcript, that is, an audio track in their native language and subtitles in a foreign language – the connections between languages are easier to understand.
- People in the middle group are free – research shows that the effects in their case are comparable and beneficial regardless of which version of the movie they watch.
- People with advanced knowledge…should not use translation. In their case, there is what is called cognitive load when the translation appears on the screen and the level of understanding and concentration decreases
Where does the problem come from for people with advanced knowledge of a particular language? Subtitles are limited by their space on the screen. They have a specific time to appear and a consequence They can't quite match the movie's dialogue. Most often, it is an abbreviated version of what was said in the videoThis causes comprehension problems when you cannot directly link the words in the subtitles to the words in the dialogue. At the same time, it's hard to refrain from reading subtitles – our eyes tend to automatically read the information in front of us. For this reason, if we know a particular language at a very good level, we can and should skip subtitles, because they can cause a disconnect between the subtitles and what's happening on the screen, leading to increased cognitive load.
Subtitles therefore allow you to understand the dialogue and overall plot better, but they can also It results in a decreased ability to process movie motion when it is not necessary.
What do streaming platforms offer?
Choosing a streaming platform usually depends on the pricing of the particular service and the movie library it offers. However, we checked the possibilities offered by popular platforms in Poland in terms of language options (Audio track and dialogue translation). We considered the following services: Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV+.
Netflix, in addition to a wide range of language versions, also has settings for displaying subtitles
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Disney+ also has extensive capabilities when it comes to configuring how subtitles are displayed
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In our opinion, Netflix and Disney+ deserve the most attention when it comes to learning languages. In the case of both platforms, we can choose not only several subtitle versions, but also audio tracks, while the Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ and HBO Max platforms often offer either audio-only versions in Polish and English, or only in English or with a Polish narrator.
So, if we were to choose streaming platforms based solely on the available language streams and subtitles, Netflix and Disney+ are the best ones in this category.
Author: Grzegorz Kobra, journalist at Business Insider Polska
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