Foreign Subtitles Improve Speech Perception

Foreign Subtitles Improve Speech Perception.

In a new study, published in the open-access journal PLoS One, Holger Mitterer (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) and James McQueen (MPI and Radboud University Nijmegen) show how you can improve your second-language listening ability by watching the movie with subtitles — as long as these subtitles are in the same language as the film. Subtitles in one’s native language, the default in some European countries, may actually be counter-productive to learning to understand foreign speech.

So, what do you think? Do you watch films with subtitles in the language you are trying to learn or with subtitles in your own language? Do you agree with the above study that watching subtitles in your own language is actually counter-productive? We’d love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below!

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