The effect of watching foreign movies

when learning a foreign language

Graduation thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of the Department of

English Language and Literature

Notre Dame Seishin University

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirement for the Degree

Bachelor of Arts

By

Mari Kumei

2017

32

Contents

Chapter One: What is the most effective way of learning English?

1.1 Introduction1

1.2 The various way to learn learning English1

1.2.1. Basic ways of learning English and its effects

1.2.2. Learning from input

1.3 Learning English from movies4

1.3.1 Introduction

1.3.2 The advantages

1.3.3 The disadvantages

1.4 How effective is learning English from movies?7

1.4.1. Previous research

1.4.1.2 Hioka (2015)

1.4..2 Hewitt

1.5 Research Questions9

1.6 Conclusion

Chapter Two: Examine the effect of watching foreign movies

2.1 Introduction10

2.2 The questionnaire10

2.2.1 Introduction of the questionnaire

2.2.2 Method

a) Subjects

b) Test design the questionnaire

c) Procedure

2.2.3. Results

2.3 Summary26

Chapter Three: Discussion

3.1. Introduction27

3.2. Summary of the questionnaire results27

3.3. Discuss of the results28

3.4. Implications29

3.5. Limitations of the Experiments29

3.6. Further research29

3.7. Conclusion30

References31

Appendices32

Abstract

This thesis discusses the effect on learning English by watching foreign movies. The aim of this thesis is to find a clear effective way for learning English. There are a lot of ways to learn a foreign language. For example, writing, listing, reading, listening to music, communicating in the foreign language, watching foreign movies and so on. I like to learn a foreign language by watching foreign movies, because Im so excited, so I wanted to se if it is an effective way to learn a foreign language.

Chapter One discussed the various ways to learn a foreign language. I found out that the basic ways of learning English in Japanese junior high schools and Japanese high schools are not good. And that I discussed the benefits of learning from input. There are two ways about input - study and communication.

Chapter Two examined the effect of watching foreign movies with a questionnaire. The aim to this research is to answer two questions. Question1 is Do subjects learn more words if they see the subtitles or not? Question 2 is Do subjects understand more of the movie if they see the subtitles or not?

Chapter Three discussed the results of the questionnaire and found out that watching movies with subtitles is effective for understand the contents, but it isnt effective to remember vocabulary.

Chapter One: What is the most effective way of learning English?

1.1 Introduction

There are many learning methods when learning English. The simplest and quickest way is to go abroad to study. If it is possible, learners can keep high motivation and it is easy to acquire English. However, not everyone can choose this learning method. The basic learning method of English is reading, listening, writing and studying grammar and so on. In regards to these methods, there are many research results, and it is clear that it is efficacious. The thing I want to examine in this thesis, is the learning method using movies. I researched whether learners can remember some new words or idioms, and can understand their contents .

In this chapter, Ill explain about various learning ways of English, and light on the difference of them.

1.2 Various ways of learning English

This section will discuss various ways of learning English such as from input and movies and will talk about the Balanced Curriculum.

1.1.1 Basic ways of learning English and its effects

In Japan, most people start learning English on entering junior high school. The contents of the English class is remembering words and reading passages and listening mainly. Speaking and writing are not taught frequently compared to senior high. This English learning method continues until graduating from their high school. The results of this education was showed from The Ministry of Education.

In Japan, the English skill of third year students of high school is sometimes under the level of graduation from junior high school. This fact was released from The Ministry of Education in 2005. The Ministry of education researched four English skill reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking, subject to 70,000 students. The average percentage marks towards full marks are reading is 40%, Listening is 37%, Writing is 19%, Speaking is 32%, which is the average mark of every skill was judged lowest A1. A1 is equal to Eiken grade 3-5, and as to TOEIC, which is equal to marks of 200 ~ 300.

There is very little fluency input such as from easy reading books and from watching movies. This would be helpful because learners can enjoy to learn foreign language, so eventually, it is easy to continue to learning.

1.1.2 Learning from input

The Balanced Curriculum is a framework for understanding what is needed when learning a foreign language.

Figure 1: The Balanced Curriculum

Input

Output

Study

Remembering words

Grammar

Taking a test

Communication

Watching movies

Reading and listening to easy novels

Talk with friend

Diary, essays

Singing a song

There are two types in learning from input. The upper row is concerned with Study, the lower is Communication. Study means to get input from studying by myself or to be taught by someone in an intentional manner. It lacks real communication as it includes remembering words and learning grammar for example often out of context. Communication means to get input with an emphasis on the real message in a natural conversation. It includes watching movies or TVs, or reading novel. Which is better for foreign language? Both of them are essential, but the latter, Communication is more effective because it has story and meanings, so we can enjoy it.

1.3 Learning English from movies

1.3.1 Introduction

We cannot learn a foreign language only from the above basic ways because it is not interesting and we often feel bored. If we choose our favorite movie, we can keep high motivation, and will want to learn foreign language more.

1.3.2 The advantages

Movies or TVs includes natural conversation, for example, conversation between family, couple, friends and so on. Learners can make an image of learning English, and actually it is useful to live in foreign country

There are several ways to assist learning.

.

Reading from subtitles

When we watch movies in foreign language, we often cannot hear the sound of words, and cannot understand correctly. But, if it has subtitles, we can understand correctly, or research the meaning of the word soon. By reading the subtitles, we can learn foreign language from not ears but also eyes.

Learn gestures and body language

There are differences about gesture and body language between our culture and other cultures. If we dont know the correct meaning of gesture and body language, it often causes a misunderstanding, or act rudely. We can learn about the correct meaning of gesture and body language from watching movies.

Spoken dialog

There are differences about accents also. For example, though they all speak English, there are British English and American English, and Australian English. By watching movies, we can understand the differences, and can learn dialog, so it made us easy to understand such languages.

Learn grammar and vocabulary

English that we learn in junior high school and high school is only typical grammar and important vocabulary, so it is not enough. There are a lot of grammar and vocabulary we dont know. by watching movies, we can find such grammar and new vocabulary .

Learn slang

In Japanese junior high school or high school, we arent taught about slang, but it is necessary to communicate naturally with foreigner. In movies, there a lot of slung, so it assists learning English.

Repeated watching

By repeating watching, we meet same grammar and new vocabulary again and again. It is an official way to remember new grammar and vocabulary. We can remember the meaning of word by repeating.

Fun and entertaining

Normally, learner often feel bored about study. Learning grammar and remembering new word is hard for us. Watching movies is enjoyable time for almost all learners, so it is good for keeping their motivation.

1.3.3 The disadvantages

Movies sometimes includes words that are too difficult for the learner. For example, If we watch Sci-Fi movies, maybe we meet a lot of such words. It makes movies difficult to understand, and disturbs us to learn foreign language. So then, we have to choose suitable level movies (Hioka, 2015)

1.4 How effective is learning English from movies?

Movies have many elements to improve our level of English. Movies have English sounds, and we can learn foreign culture, and furthermore, the subtitles can help us to improve our learning.

1.4.1. Previous research

In this section we will look at research by Hioka (2005) and by Hewitt

1.4.1.2 Hioka 2015

Hioka (2015) said that we found that we cannot say learning English from movies is useful for everyone because the difficulty dep