The Importance of Subtitles in Understanding Audiovisual Content
Subtitles, as a way to support the understanding of audiovisual materials, has been around for quite a while and they have become pretty much universal. Although they are often considered to be secondary elements or accessories, the truth is that subtitles play a key role in maximizing accessibility and facilitating the understanding of audiovisual content.
So, what is the impact of this fundamental resource?
From the Classroom and for Life
Transcriptions and subtitles make videos more accessible to everyone. On this basis, multiple investigations have considered unraveling the importance of these tools. Many studies focus on their use at the educational level.
In that sense, a recent study found that reading subtitles while watching a video is useful for retaining the information, for example. Therefore, experts believe that the use of subtitles in educational videos in English is beneficial in improving positive learning attitudes.
According to that study, students use subtitles in multiple ways: to search for specific information or jump to a specific location in the video, to understand unfamiliar accents or words (such as technical terms), to facilitate following a fast speaker, to study on the fly, to catch up if distracted, to compensate for poor audio and/or connectivity. The use of subtitles is also preferred by those who lean forward to alternative formats and as an aid to non-native English speakers or for students with hearing impairments.
80% of viewers are more likely to watch a video with subtitles till the end. 85% of all videos on Facebook are watched with the sound turned off.
Source: Kapwing
Another study conducted by Hong Kong Baptist University addressed the effects of subtitles on the understanding of native connected speech in English. The study started off with the premise that connected speech produced by native speakers poses a challenge for students of a second language. “Video subtitles have been found to help decode connected English speech for students of English as a foreign language,” experts claim.
However, researchers also warned that the presence of subtitles can divert listeners’ attention to visual cues and generate less attention to speech cues. “It’s worth reconsidering the impact that subtitles have on acquiring the acoustic, phonetic and phonological aspects of connected speech in the long run. Based on previous research on subtitles, the current study shows that subtitles are beneficial for listening comprehension” researchers argue.
More than 100 empirical studies document that subtitling a video improves content understanding, attention, and memory.
Source: National Library of Medicine
In another line of analysis, researchers at the University of Hong Kong wondered whether adding video and subtitles to an audio lesson makes it easier to understand. To find out, they analyzed the study participants in four conditions: audio only, audio with textual subtitles, audio with relevant video and audio with subtitles and video.
They found that subtitles make comprehension easier, while the video alone does not help much. “For learning materials where audios contain more important information than videos, adding subtitles can lead to better learning outcomes” they concluded.
Beyond the particular scenario in which audiovisual content is developed (at school, at university, in theaters, on television, on a video platform or on social media), the truth is that all viewers can benefit from subtitles when it comes to learning foreign languages and enhancing language skills.
