The implications of Cognitive Load Theory and exposure to subtitles in English Foreign Language (EFL)

Anca Daniela Frumuselu
2018 Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts  
The pedagogical use of subtitled and captioned material in the foreign language classroom is upheld by various theories which reveal the cognitive processing activated when students are exposed to multimedia and subtitled audiovisual materials. The three theories that will be considered here are Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) and Cognitive Affective Theory of Learning with Media (CATLM). The main purpose of the paper is to illustrate the internal
more » ... anisms triggered in learners when various sensorial channels (visual, auditory and textual) coincide simultaneously on screen and how this may affect their cognitive engagement and motivation while learning a foreign language. Additionally, two empirical studies will be presented in the second part of the article in order to provide evidence of the benefits of using subtitled audiovisual materials in the English Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in higher education. The results show that both interlingual (L1) and intralingual (L2) subtitles prove to have a facilitating role in informal and colloquial language learning in this context.
doi:10.1075/ttmc.00004.fru fatcat:z2en6agkrfhlvooesbdtxvuxdi