A Quasi-Experimental Study on the Impacts of Subtitles on Undergraduate ESL Students' Listening Comprehension and Vocabulary Learning

Abstract

The 21st century, the understanding of technology's use and significance has grown. In education, the traditional method of teaching is being replaced by technology. Despite several studies documenting that subtitled videos help language learners, there is a clear lack of research done in this area, especially in Pakistani context. This study examined how subtitled videos affect ESL learners' listening comprehension and vocabulary learning. Opting for a quasi-experimental study, researchers took a pre-test, post-test, and attitude questionnaire to gather qualitative and quantitative data on the groups. Using the paired t-test, the researchers found out that the two-tailed significance value of the pre-test of both the group’s listening comprehension lied at .948 and vocabulary’s results lied at .876, both p-values higher than 0.05, thus proving that the group’s listening and vocabulary skills were on the same level. However, the post-test of listening comprehension lied at 0.07 and vocabulary learning lied at 0.14, both p-values lesser than 0.05. Adding on, the researchers also opted for descriptive statistics and participants questionnaire, through which they found that the experimental group improved in listening comprehension and vocabulary learning compared to the control group, proving the alternative hypothesis. The present research provides significant qualitative and quantitative data for increasing awareness about modern teaching methods and the possibilities of adjustments by policymakers, syllabus designers, and educators. This research can also aid future researchers in further exploration of this topic on a deeper level so to better understand the importance of appropriate inclusivity of technology into education.

Keywords: ESL Learners, Listening comprehension, Online videos, Vocabulary learning.