An Overview of Audiovisual Input as a Means for Foreign Language Acquisition in Different Contexts

Abstract

Traditional media, such as television and cinema, provide rich audiovisual input that is conducive to language acquisition, as research in the field has shown. This includes contexts where learner-viewers are exposed to a foreign language without subtitles, as well as when exposure occurs using subtitles in their different modalities—interlingual and intralingual. The aim of this review article is to source information from different contexts to explore the extent to which incidental foreign language acquisition occurs through input, identifying how specific linguistic competences benefit from it. The main questions that will be addressed regard age and cognateness, when exposure to foreign audiovisual input occurs both in the absence and in the presence of foreign language learning. Some brief considerations will be forwarded in relation to the impact of dubbing and of recent technological developments on language acquisition.

Second or foreign language learning through watching audio-visual input and the role of on-screen text

“…Furthermore, the topic has led to the publication of several books and edited volumes on the role of film for L2 learning (Herrero & Vanderschelden, 2019), the use of video in language learning activities (e.g., Goldstein & Driver, 2015) and L2 teaching (e.g., Sherman, 2010), and the role of subtitled video (Gambier et al, 2015; Ghia, 2012) and captioned video (Teng, 2021; Vanderplank, 2016a) in L2 learning. There is also a meta-analysis on captioned video (Montero Perez et al, 2013) as well as several comprehensive reviews on (captioned) video for L2 learning (e.g., Caruana, 2021; Vanderplank, 2016b, 2020), captioned video for L2 listening (Yeldham, 2018) or on the role of subtitled video for L2 learning (Black, 2021). In addition, the role of audio-visual input has inspired conferences (e.g.…”

Didactic Audiovisual Translation in Online Contexts

“…This discipline can be said to date back to the 1980s when a series of scholars and practitioners started to explore the benefits of using subtitles as support in LE (Holobow et al, 1984;Price, 1983;Vanderplank, 1988). This started to gradually attract attention, and the positive impact of this practice and its assessment has resulted in an ever-growing research field that continues today (Baltova, 1999;Bolaños-García-Escribano, 2017;Caimi, 2006;Caruana, 2021;Danan, 2004;Frumuselu et al, 2015;Ghia, 2012;González-Vera, 2019;Pujadas & Muñoz, 2020;Teng, 2022;Vanderplank, 2016, to name just a few).…”