Examining the potential of fansubbing as a language learning activity

Abstract

The learning of English can help learners to not only understand and enjoy cultural products of the target language community, but also allows them to share what they enjoy in their own language community, or other communities to which English grants them access, with the world. Fansubbing, or the amateur production of multilingual subtitles for media such as movies and songs, is one way by which they may accomplish this. Whether fansubbing can be used by teachers as a means by which learners can use English to make worthwhile contributions to the worldwide conversation on topics they have a personal interest in, however, cannot yet be definitively concluded. The goal of this exploratory questionnaire study was to gather data regarding fansubbers' engagement in fansubbing, their opinions on this activity in general, and their view of it being adopted for language learning, in order to determine its potential for implementation as a language learning activity. It was found that the majority of the questionnaire respondents agreed with the use of fansubbing as a language learning activity, and that they themselves felt engaging in fansubbing benefited them both linguistically and socially.

Keywords:

• fansubbing
• language learning
• translation
• incidental learning

Acknowledgments

My heartfelt thanks goes to Dr Hayo Reinders for his invaluable suggestions during the initial drafts of this article, as well as to the anonymous reviewers who provided feedback that helped guide revision of this work. Much love and gratitude are also owed to Napanant Montkhongtham, who patiently revised and edited the data collection instrument, and was highly supportive of this endeavor. As always, I would like to extend my deepest thanks to my mentor, Associate Professor Dr Punchalee Wasanasomsithi, who motivated me to undertake this study. I would also like to thank all the fansubbers who took the time to answer the questionnaire and shared their insights.

Notes on contributor

Onuma Lakarnchua is a graduate of the English as an International Language program at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, as well as an instructor for the Chulalongkorn University Language Institute, where she teaches English as a foreign language to undergraduate students. Her research interests include the integration of technology in EFL education, affect in language learning, incidental learning, and game-based learning.