INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Subtitle is a transcript of the dialogue which is usually located at the bottom frame of the movie.

According to Garza (1991) subtitle is a translated spoken language into a written language. Subtitles are

beneficial because it helps people to understand the storyline of the movie and it can improve your reading

comprehension. This makes it easier for those who do not understand spoken language and to those who

are having a problem in hearing.

Subtitles are useful because it can be a tool for learning English, and it can enhance our

understanding. Comprehension difficulty is said to be solved using subtitles. According to McCall, W.G.

(2009) subtitling is a way for future development and application for the reading comprehension of people.

Using this it will give people a clarification about a certain terminology that might misheard them. It will

serve as an instrument to achieving one's reading comprehension

Subtitles will help us have a better understanding because it can solve comprehension difficulty

and it can widen our vocabulary. It can also help the people who have hearing deficiencies. If subtitles will

be used continuously in movies for sure it will be more beneficial in the future because it makes it easier

for people to understand and having a better comprehension.

Research problems

1. Is there a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test score of the experimental groups?

2. Is there any significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the control group?

Hypothesis

Null Hypothesis / Ho

 There is no significant effect in using subtitles as a tool to attain Reading Comprehension.

Alternative Hypothesis / Ha

 There is a significant effect in using subtitles as a tool to attain Reading Comprehension.

Scope and Delimitation

This research is conducted to determine how subtitles influence the reading comprehension of

students in watching movies. This study is limited for Grade 12 students of Emilio Aguinaldo College-

Cavite Senior High School only, composed of thirty (30) respondents from Humanities and Social Sciences

(HUMSS) which will be given questionnaires after watching the prepared movie as an assessment: one with

subtitles while the other one would not have any. No other variables are intended to be discussed.

Significance of the Study

This research study gives importance to the learners of English language to gain more knowledge

by watching English movies with subtitle to help the students to become more proficient in new vocabulary

and speaking the second language through the use of movies. The results of this study will be a great

significance to the following.

This study is beneficial to:

1.) The Students

2.) The Future researchers

3.) The Society

4.) The Teachers

Definition of terms

To make the research studies more comprehensible to the prospective users, the following terms are hereby

defined conceptually and operationally.

  Acquisition: the learning or developing of a skill, habit, or quality.

 Comprehension: this refers to the capability of understanding something in watching movies with

English subtitle.

 Dilemma: a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives.

 Media: in this study, media refers to the television and computer wherein students watch movies

with English subtitle.

 Movies: this refers to the stories made to watch in a television.

 Multimedia: this refers to the variety of artistic or communicative media.

 Society: organization or club formed for a particular purpose or activity.

 Subtitle: this refers to the written word that appears in the bottom part of the TV screen while

watching movies.

 Utterance: a spoken word, statement, or vocal sound.

 Viewers: this refers to the students who watch movies with English subtitle.

Review of Related Literatures and Studies

Foreign Literature

Using videos or films as a learning resource has received a great deal of attention from researchers

and has been successfully applied to various educational applications. Many schools are incorporating more

online and automated content, which often includes subtitled films. (Yang, Huang, Tsai, Chung, and Wu,

2009)

According to Boras and Lafayette (1994) incorporated subtitles into short video segments that were

integrated into an interactive multimedia course. The participants were able to see and control a video

segment with or without same language subtitles. Results indicated that having the opportunity to see and

control subtitles positively influences both comprehension and production of language.

Foreign Studies

The study led by Bird and Williams (2002) advocate the view of watching subtitled programs is

the best way of language learning. They maintained that comprehension and learning language occur to a

greater extent because of clear word boundaries and no accent variation.

An examination led by Price (1983) inspected the connection between captioned TV program and

the learning of a foreign language. Students ranging 450 participated in the study, and the outcome

demonstrated that subtitle essentially improved overall comprehension of the linguistic data displayed in

the video material.

An investigation led by Vanderplank (1988) analyzed the use of English language subtitles in BBC

television programs. Fifteen (15) high-intermediate and advanced ESL university students were selected as

the participants of the study. They received subtitled BBC television programs in nine-hour-long sessions.

The results revealed that they could follow line, sound, and picture simultaneously. Students were better

able to understand “fast, authentic speech and unfamiliar accents”.

Theoretical Framework

These theories will support the variables in this study:

According to Kusumawati (2018) subtitles allow an accented language become intelligible to any

viewer. To understand the content of a movie, subtitle plays an important role to bridge the audience need

such as deliver the word according to the audience native and culture. Because of the audience does not

understand the meaning of the utterance automatically, the audience would read and process the subtitle in

their native but when the subtitles are in the language of the film the audience is able to hear the accent

while reading the text.

Paivio (1971) proposed the dual-coding theory which suggests that when pictures are added to the

message, the number of cues associated with the message increases. Viewers then will be more likely to
remember the message. In that sense the results of past research seem to sustain the aspect that the use of

captions triggers multi-sensory processing, interacting with audio, video and print components.

Conceptual Framework

Teacher, Society,
READING
SUBTITLE Students & Future
COMPREHENSION
Researchers

Figure 1 shows that this research focuses on individuals reading comprehension and how subtitle affects

the people who will benefit on this study. This illustration displays that the subtitle is one of the tools in

order to achieve reading comprehension.

Synthesis

Based on the information stated, students using subtitles when watching videos can comprehend

scenes better thus, they can achieve Reading Comprehension. They maintained comprehension and learning

language to a significant extent because of clear word boundaries and no accent variation. Common

practices include short video segments with interactive multimedia course, videos with captions, TV

programs and movies with subtitles, and pictures with messages. The response to these practices varies

from each student but watching videos in English subtitles is one of the useful strategies in attaining

Reading Comprehension.
Subtitle: A tool for improving one’s Reading Comprehension

A Research Presented to the Faculty of

Senior High School
Emilio Aguinaldo College – Cavite

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for Senior High School 12

CRISOSTOMO, HENRICO HANS DOMINIQUE L.

CABRERA, LUIGI M.
FLORES, ELAINE GLEN D.
LACAP, KRIZ JASON S.
MALLARI, HANI LEILA R.
MERCADO, ALYSSA MAE BEN S.
RIVERA, EHRON MARC M.
SANGALANG, JOHN DENARD M.
SANTE, COLEEN N.

October 2018