The Role of Subtitling and Dubbing in Arabic Vocabulary Acquisition: A Contrastive Study

Abstract

The critical comparison of subtitling and dubbing has long been a subject of discussion by many researchers in the field of Audiovisual Translation. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study to investigate the role of subtitling and dubbing in vocabulary acquisition has been carried out in the Arab world. The aim of the present study is to measure the effect of Audiovisual Translation modalities, mainly subtitling and dubbing, in the acquisition of Arabic vocabulary in an Arabic as a foreign language class (AFL) carried out at Sultan Qaboos College for Teaching Arabic For Non-Native Speakers. In order to do this a couple of questions needed answers 1) Which modality (subtitling and/or dubbing) is more conducive to vocabulary acquisition in the Arabic language? And 2) Which modality is more efficient in the long-term memory retention of Arabic vocabulary? Thirty upper intermediate students participated in this case study, which involved them watching a four-minute clip of the American TV series Designated Survivor in three versions: (a) subtitled into Arabic, (b) dubbed into Arabic, and (c) dubbed and subtitled in Arabic. The results showed that all groups were able to acquire and retain second language (L2) vocabulary; however, the dubbing group achieved higher results in both the immediate post-test and the delayed post-test.

Improving Students’ Motivation and Psychology in Speaking Arabic through Dubbing Japanese Anime to Arabic

“…There is also research showing that in the last few decades, the close relationship between psychology and students' motivation in learning achievement has a very significant impact (Saeful Bahri, 2020). The perspective and use of audiovisual media in improving the pedagogic of learning is a necessity to be mastered at this time (Qasim & Yahiaoui, 2019).…”

“…Dubbing is a translation method that is quite often used in Indonesia (Kusumasturi, 2011). One of the easy ways to learn a language is by using audio-visual translation modalities, for example, moving pictures mixed with audio information in a second language (Qasim & Yahiaoui, 2019). Voiceover allows accessing written subtitles and it's a step forward in learning (America 2020).…”