e-ISSN: 2695-8465
ISSN: 2255-3703
45
Skopos 11 (2020), 45-65
Film Translation: an Antidote to Sounding “Bookish”? A
Pilot Experimental Study to Assess Naturalness in EFL
Learners' Productions
Beatriz Naranjo Sánchez
Universidad de Murcia
beatriz.naranjo@um.es
Fecha de recepción: 14.07.2020
Fecha de aceptación: 14.12.2020
Abstract: Previous research in the didactics of languages has warned about how
traditional materials and methods are failing to provide EFL learners with the ability to
achieve naturalness in their own speech. This work proposes a teaching approach
based on the translation of film scripts to favor mastery of spontaneous language.
For this purpose, a pilot experiment was carried out to assess naturalness of
learners' productions through the use of Conversational English (CE) prior and after a
training session. Results from both a control and post-training sessions were
compared. The pre-test revealed deficiencies in terms of the participants’ familiarity
with CE. After the training session, an increase of naturalness through a higher
number of CE units was observed. These preliminary findings suggest that the
translation of movie scripts may be an effective teaching tool to foster naturalness in
learners’ L2 productions.
Key words: conversational English (CE), EFL, translation, film scripts, naturalness.
La traducción fílmica como antídoto contra el “inglés de manual”.
Un estudio piloto para evaluar la naturalidad en la producción de
aprendices de inglés como lengua extranjera
Resumen: La literatura previa en la didáctica de las lenguas ha venido advirtiendo
sobre la inefectividad de los materiales y métodos tradicionales a la hora de que los
aprendices de inglés como lengua extranjera alcancen la naturalidad idiomática en
sus propias producciones. El presente trabajo propone un enfoque didáctico basado
en la traducción de guiones cinematográficos para favorecer la espontaneidad al
expresarse en lengua extranjera. Para ello se llevó a cabo un experimento piloto en
el que se evaluó la naturalidad de las producciones de los aprendices mediante el
uso del inglés conversacional (CE) antes y después de una sesión formativa.
Posteriormente, se compararon los resultados de la sesión de control con los de la
sesión post-formativa. El test inicial reveló deficiencias en cuanto a la familiaridad de
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los participantes con el inglés conversacional. Tras la sesión formativa, se detectó un
incremento de la naturalidad a través de un mayor número de expresiones
conversacionales. Estos resultados preliminares sugieren que la traducción de
guiones puede constituir una herramienta efectiva para promover la naturalidad en el
discurso de los aprendices en L2.
Palabras clave: inglés conversacional, inglés como lengua extranjera, traducción,
guiones cinematográficos, naturalidad.
Sumario: 1. Conversational English: concept and typology. 1.1 Pragmatic and lexical traits.
1.2 Phonetic and grammatical traits. 2. Teaching CE in the EFL classroom: relevance and
challenges. 3. Audiovisual translation: an ally for CE teaching and learning. 4. Objectives. 5.
Participants. 6. Materials. 7. Methodological procedure. 7.1. Pre- and post-training sessions.
7.2. Training session. 8. Results and discussion. 8.1. Familiarity with CE expressions. 8.2
Influence of previous contact with native speakers. 8.3 Influence of viewing habits in original
version. 8.4 Benefits of AVT activities. 8.5 Level of satisfaction with the task. 8.6 Subjective
perception about level of naturalness achieved. 9. Conclusions.
1. Conversational English: concept and typology
Despite any speaker may have an intuitive idea about what
conversational English means, casual conversation has not traditionally
received much attention from linguists (Eggins & Slade 1997), as opposed to
academic discourse. The study of this dimension of the language is relatively
recent and terminological and typological systematization are still needed. If
we were to provide a definition of conversational English (CE), we could
refer to the two basic pillars upon which this concept is rooted, namely,
orality and colloquiality (see De Bustos 1995).
Orality is associated with the channel by which conversation usually
occurs. As opposed to written speech, the oral discourse is featured by the
following traits: pauses, hesitations and repetitions, due to its immediate and
spontaneous character (Calsamiglia & Tusón 2007); deixis and ellipsis
derived from the lack of need of using explicit references due to the physical
co-presence of speakers (Carter & McCarthy, 2006); fragmented syntax and
microtexts; turn-taking structure organized in adjacency pairs (Sacks,
Schegloff & Jefferson 1974: 23), such question-response or offer-
acceptance/refusal; back-channelling to encourage the speakers to extend
their turn (e.g., 'right', 'uh-huh', 'that's interesting'). On the other hand, the
colloquial character of conversational language is related to the concept of
linguistic register, i.e., the degree of formality of the discourse, which mainly
depends on the role of participants and the relationship among them. Other
features of colloquial conversation that have been pointed out also include
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the absence of specialized topics and its social purpose, which are related to
the interactional function of language.
Traditionally, orality and colloquiality tended to go hand in hand;
however, with the emergence of new communication technologies, which
allow conversation in real time, colloquial and orality traits can frequently be
observed in written screen discourse as well. In the following lines, based on
the typology we already proposed in Naranjo (2014), we offer here a
simplified TEFL-oriented classification of the most representative
phenomena of conversational English based on three linguistic levels
(pragmatic, lexical and grammatical):
1.1 Pragmatic and lexical traits
This category includes utterances whose function and meaning are
primarily determined by the context of use in conversation, among which we
can distinguish interjections (some of them with phonological alterations),
such as 'hey!', 'Oh, Gosh'! (instead of 'God') or 'Jeeez' (instead of 'Jesus');
onomatopoeias, such as 'eww', 'oh-oh' or 'wow'; vocatives, such as 'guys',
'mate', 'man' or 'honey'; fillers, such as 'um', 'er', 'well'; and discourse
markers, such as 'you know', 'I mean', 'sort of' or 'like', which are words
deprived from their original semantic content whose main function is to
signal transitions between the speakers and the message.
Moreover, the conversational lexicon of a language mainly involves
idioms (e.g., 'put someone on the spot', 'get something straight'), phrasal
verbs with metaphoric content (e.g., 'catch up', 'space out’, 'crack out') and
multipurpose words with generic semantic content, such as 'thing' or 'stuff'
(e.g., 'do your thing') or emphatic particles such as 'just' (e.g., 'just shut up!').
Finally, other traits such as the use of routine formulae would also be
envisaged under this category. Routines can be defined as highly
conventionalized pre-patterned expressions associated to a given illocutive
function such as denying or persuading (Ruíz 1998). The acquisition of
these repetitive interactional routines is of paramount importance since
people constantly encounter situations which involve routine and predictable
language use. Therefore, learning them will also prevent misunderstandings
and communication breakdowns in social situations. They include closing
and leaving formulas such as ‘hi, there!’, ‘see you around’, as well as
expressive and clarification expressions, such as 'no way!', 'are you kidding
me?', 'gotcha', 'you know what I mean?', among others.
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1.2 Phonetic and grammatical traits
From a phonetic and grammatical point of view, it is particularly
difficult to refer to general features of conversational English without
considering the different geographical varieties existing among the English-
speaking communities. As it also occurs with most languages, sociolectal
and dialectal traits are usually associated with the oral and colloquial
dimension of the language. Although it is beyond the scope of this paper to
include a detailed analysis of all English varieties, it is still possible to find
some commonalities that we could envisage as being part of the
‘conversational’ domain, regardless of the geographical origin of the
speakers. In this sense, we can include here suffixes such as '-ish' in words
like 'reddish', or '-o' in words like 'kiddo' or 'weirdo'; contractions and
shortenings, such as 'sec' from 'second', 'cause' from 'because', 'gotta' from
'got to' or ''em' from 'them'; double negation, usually marked with contraction
'ain't' (e.g., 'I ain't see nothing'); glottal stopping or non-standard
pronunciation of final ‘-t’ sound between vowels in words such as 'be'uh'
('better'); or softening of preceding consonant in words such as 'ya' ('you'),
'doncha' ('don't you') or 'ahright' ('alright'), among others. Most of them could
be considered as a by-product of relaxed pronunciation, even if some of
them, such as glottal stopping, may also have some sociolectal connotations
(see Brown 2006).
2. Teaching CE in the EFL classroom: relevance and challenges
More than 30 years ago, the traditional model of foreign language
teaching deeply founded in a purely formal linguistic perspective started
being replaced by what we know nowadays as the 'communicative
approach’. With this shift of paradigm, the importance of the functional and
communicative competence was fostered in the language classroom, where
the emphasis was placed on the ability to effectively use the language in
socially-relevant contexts (Calsamiglia & Tusón 2007: 30-31). Within this
context, the relevance of the ability to effectively use the language in a
variety of contexts justifies the need to also learn how to communicate in
informal situations. Indeed, some authors had warned about the importance
of teaching conversational English. With its thought-provoking title,
Engkent’s work (1989) reminds us that “real people do not talk like books”.
This phenomenon is referred to as “sounding bookish” by Fernández-Gavela
(2012), who reveals that materials used in the EFL classroom may be at
least partly to blame. In agreement with this author's work, we believe that,
beyond linguistic and situational adequacy, the social factor plays a decisive
role in terms of successfulness in foreign language acquisition. Neglecting
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the conversational sphere of a language may lead to a certain rigidity,
tension and misunderstandings among learners and native speakers, which
does not favor feeling at ease during conversation. On the contrary, a good
command of the conversational conventionalities may even foster the social
acceptance within the target language community in a real-world scenario.
Nowadays, the importance of learning spoken English is widely
acknowledged. However, despite the constant proliferation of new teaching
and learning methods, updating of textbooks by publishing houses, video
tutorials and infinite online resources, it still seems that learners experience
some difficulties when they try to engage in casual conversation. Beyond the
actual difficulty of learning English as a foreign language, some extra-
linguistic factors seem to be hampering the acquisition of conversational
skills. As already discussed previously, the epistemological confusion and
the lack of theoretical systematization that still prevails around the concept of
CE can make it difficult to adopt a clear approach from the didactics. In fact,
in the absence of consensus from the academic sphere, building a didactic
model can become a real challenge for teachers, whose available hours to
come out with innovative practices has been drastically reduced with the
countless tasks that an ever- more demanding administration and society
require from them.
Another limiting factor is the deeply-rooted emphasis on formal
accuracy which seems to be still dominating as the top-ranking criteria when
assessing learner’s degree of linguistic proficiency. This may be partly due
to the little specific weight that conversational English has traditionally had
within the legislative framework that regulates EFL curricula in some
countries. These curricula usually tend to be rather vague and fuzzy when
dealing with the communicative aspects of the language to be taught,
whereas they are usually much more specific when addressing the formal
and grammatical contents that need to be covered in each learning stage.
One more noteworthy obstacle is derived from the physical and
psychological boundaries of the classroom itself. It seems clear that teaching
how to engage in conversation needs a context of use in which learners fully
understand the role of the speakers, their relationship and all the proxemic
and situational elements that surround the communicative exchange;
however, the cloistered environment of the classroom is often insufficient to
reproduce all these extra-linguistic aspects.
3. Audiovisual translation: an ally for CE teaching and learning
Nowadays, using the listening exercises inserted in textbooks as the
main source of materials to practice oral comprehension and foster
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naturalness has been subject to criticism. Even if the quality of the tracks
has notably improved in the last years, in an attempt to adapt to the new
demands of the teaching and learning community, they are still straitjacketed
products which are far from faithfully representing spontaneous real talk (see
Goh & Burns 2012: 75-76). Despite the efforts of publishing houses in trying
to artificially insert elements of real communicative interactions― such as
dialectal and sociolectal traits, hesitations and some discourse markers―
they are still adapted, 'voice-acted' recordings by native speakers who recite
a previously prepared script and do their best to mimic a fake orality.
Considering that the classroom fails to provide full-immersion
experiences, films and other audiovisual products may be the closest we can
get, since actors are usually instructed to try to attain the highest possible
degree of naturalness in their performances. Even if screen dialogues are
subject to the constraints of pretended orality (i.e., imitations of spontaneous
speech), they make it possible to show students how people actually talk
and behave in different communicative situations. In fact, some authors
(see, for example, Canning-Wilson & Wallace 2000) have already pointed
out the effectiveness of watching films in OV due to their stimulating
potential, which usually favors motivation and students’ engagement with the
task. More specifically, some studies (Kabooha & Elyas 2015) have revealed
the efficiency of Youtube videos for the acquisition of vocabulary in EFL
contexts, as well as the use of intralingual subtitles for informal vocabulary
learning (Frumuselu et al. 2015).
Audiovisual products offer countless possibilities to design different
types of activities in the classroom, allowing to practice both active and
passive skills (Neves 2004: 130), but in this paper we propose to use AVT
as a tool with which learners may achieve a more active and cognitively
comprehensive approach to conversational English.
While translation-based exercises used to be old-school teachers’
preferred practice with the so-called grammar-method, translation seems to
have gained a bad reputation among teachers and scholars nowadays. The
widespread repercussions of the communicative approach, together with the
concerns about interferences from learners’ mother tongue or L1, have led
many academics and teaching professionals to discourage or even forbid
translation. However, we believe that favoring an immersion-like learning
environment to foster the use of L2 as a working language, is not necessarily
incompatible with using translation as an additional helping tool. In fact, from
a cognitive point of view, the benefits of translation practice, as an activity
that enables learners to establish parallelisms between L1 and L2 have also
been brought to light in recent literature, specifically with regard to
metalinguistic and intercultural awareness, as well as metacognitive and
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compensation strategies (see, for example, Källkvist 2004; Pokorn &
Koskinen 2013; Ustaszewski 2014). In Translation Studies, some authors
(Chiu 2012; Ibáñez & Vermeulen 2013; Krajka & Lewicka-Mroczek 2014;
Incalcaterra & Lertola 2014; Talaván & Rodríguez-Arancón 2015; Bolaños
2017) have also pointed out the beneficial effects for foreign language
acquisition of using AVT-related practices such as dubbing, subtitling,
fansubbing or even audiodescription.
Based on these premises, our teaching proposal in this work attempts
to foster naturalness by overcoming the barriers of the traditional EFL
classroom and moving a step closer to real English-speaking contexts
through audiovisual translation. While it is true that professional AVT is far
from being an easy practice due to its inherent semiotic multidimensionality,
the didactic purpose of this work justifies to sideline attention to the technical
restrictions and rather place the emphasis on the real linguistic challenges.
4. Objectives
The main objective of this study is to determine whether a training
session based on AVT-based activities can be effective to increase
naturalness in EFL learners' productions through the use of CE. Accordingly,
four objectives were formulated:
1. Determine participants' initial level of familiarity with conversational
expressions in English.
2. Determine the potential relationship between the frequency of contact
with native English speakers and the amount of conversational
expressions in participants' own productions.
3. Determine the potential relationship between the viewing habits of
audiovisual products in English and the use of conversational
expressions in participants' own productions.
4. Determine the potential benefits of an AVT-based training session for
increasing the number of conversation structures produced by
participants in their own productions.
5. Participants
Six EFL students from the University of Murcia (1 male and 5 females)
participated in this study. All of them were in their second year, with an age
range of 19 to 22 years old. They all belonged to the same academic
program with French as their first and English as their second foreign
language. Only two participants claimed to be in possession of an EFL
official certificate demonstrating B1 (Cambridge PET) and B2 (Cambridge
FIRST) level of competence. Viewing habits in OV varied among participants
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with only one of them reporting a relatively high exposure ('quite often').
Three of them claimed to watch them 'sometimes' and the remaining two
only 'occasionally'. Frequency of contact with native speakers was also
heterogeneous. Two participants reported a 'very frequent' contact; however,
one of these two claimed that her native contact was her private tutor.
Among the three students that indicated an 'occasional contact', one of them
specified having had frequent contact in the recent past. Only one of them
selected the option 'no contact'.
6. Materials
With the aim of assessing students' prior knowledge and level of
familiarity with conversational expressions, a pre-test was to be completed.
For the pre- and post-intervention sessions, two worksheets with prompts
and instructions were used for students to carry out a creative writing task.
Written prompts were also complemented with pictures that reflected the
situation portrayed in the texts (see Appendix 1). Finally, four short scenes
from well-known sitcoms that were currently aired at the time of the
experiment were used for the training sessions. All scenes showed a
conversation containing a high number of CE traits by the characters (see
Appendix 2). Participants were also provided with the scripts so that they
could easily follow the dialogues and work on the text. Right after completing
the writing tasks, participants were asked to fill in a retrospective
questionnaire in which personal data as well as their own impressions about
their performance in the tasks were collected (see Appendix 3).
7. Methodological procedure
The pedagogical intervention was partially based on the didactic
methodology proposed in Naranjo (2014) and carried out in three sessions:
one training session, a pre-training session and a post-training session. All
tasks proposed to participants in these sessions were presented as
independent activities to avoid that participants could guess the purpose of
the study. Both written productions and questionnaires filled in by our
participants were collected in paper. The use of Internet or dictionaries was
not allowed to complete the tasks in order to verify whether an actual
acquisition of conversational structures was attained. The order of the tasks
was sequenced as follows:
7.1. Pre- and post-training sessions
1) Creative writing exercise (45'). The participants were asked to write a
short script containing a dialogue between two characters. Scripts were
to be handwritten in paper and a minimum and maximum number of
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words was requested. Scene prompts were first read aloud in class,
making sure that participants understood all the relevant information
about the contexts and conditions in which the portrayed situations take
place. Pre- and post-intervention scenes were very similar in terms of
the topics and emotional content, both reflecting a situation in which
tension was built up, eventually giving rise to a conflict between the
characters. In the pre-training scene, a future bride and her maid of
honor realize they have been dating the same man at the same time.
Similarly, the post-intervention scene shows a situation of mistrust and
jealousy between a young couple after one of them reads a suspicious
message on the other's phone.
2) Retrospective questionnaire (10'). Through this questionnaire
participants provided personal information about their age, sex and
certified level of English, OV viewing habits in English as well as contact
with native speakers of English. Pre- and post- intervention sessions
took place a month apart from one another. Texts produced by the
participants were collected and assessed according to the number of CE
expressions used in each task.
7.2. Training session
1) Pre-test (10'). Pre-test consisted in trying to define, explain or translate
some conversational expressions of different kinds into participants'
mother tongue. Some of them were embedded in dialogues to ensure a
more accurate comprehension.
2) Workshop on Conversational English (1 h.). The workshop was divided
into four sections. First, results of the pre-test were discussed aloud in
class and awareness was raised toward the importance of CE
expressions in everyday communication. Then, some theoretical notions
about CE, its contexts of use and typology with specific examples were
shared with the group. Finally, participants were presented with the
videos and were then asked to identify CE traits in the scripts, as well as
translate some parts of the dialogues into their mother tongue.
The analysis of data was carried out by following a previously
designed rubric in which types and examples of conversational traits were
classified. For each task, one point was assigned for every conversational
expression used. Values for the final score were therefore expressed in
absolute terms instead of using a scale.
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8. Results and discussion
Results are offered by following each one of the objectives formulated
for this pilot study:
8.1. Familiarity with CE expressions
The threshold to pass the initial test to verify previous knowledge of
Conversational English was set in 7.5 points out of a total of 15. Accordingly,
as shown in Table 1, only one participant passed the test obtaining 9 points.
Four out of six participants were far from the minimum required with scores
ranging from 0 to 2. Therefore, a general lack of CE knowledge was found.
Table 1. Pre-test scores (minimum score to pass: 7.5 points)
PRE-TEST SCORES
PARTICIPANT 1
1
PARTICIPANT 2
0
PARTICIPANT 3
2
PARTICIPANT 4
6
PARTICIPANT 5
1
PARTICIPANT 6
9
Only participant 6 pass the pre-test with a score of 9 points
8.2 Influence of previous contact with native speakers
Objective 2 aimed to find out whether participants with a stronger
contact with native speakers of English would use more CE expressions in
their own productions. For this analysis we used the texts produced in the
pre-training task to make sure that participants were still not conditioned by
the training. According to the results displayed in Table 2, two participants
reported 'very frequent contact'. One of them was the participant with the
highest number of CE structures (4); however, that was not the case for the
other who informed that this very frequent contact was held with her private
tutor. The participant with the second highest number of CE units reported
having 'occasional contact'. The two highest scores coincided with
participants whose native contacts were friends even if frequency of contact
was not exactly the same in both cases (occasional and very frequent).
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Table 2. Comparison between CE-related performance and frequency of contact with native
speakers of English
FREQUENCY OF CONTACT
WITH NATIVE SPEAKERS
NR. CE
STRUCTURES
(TASK 1)
PARTICIPANT 1
No contact
1
PARTICIPANT 2
Occasional contact
0
PARTICIPANT 3
Occasional contact (friends)
3
PARTICIPANT 4
Very frequent contact (friends)
4
PARTICIPANT 5
Very frequent contact (three days
a week with a native teacher)
2
PARTICIPANT 6
Occasional contact
0
The two highest scores (4 and 3) correspond to participants with a close personal relationship
with native speakers).
8.3 Influence of viewing habits in original version
Objective 3 intended to assess whether stronger viewing habits of
audiovisual products in English would result in a higher spontaneous
production of CE expressions. In this case, as displayed in Table 3 the
participant with the highest number of CE structures (4) was also who
reported the highest frequency of viewing habits in English ('quite often');
however, one participant who informed watching audiovisual products in
English only occasionally was the second highest score (3). Three of them
who chose the option 'sometimes' and the remaining one reporting an
occasional frequency all rendered a low production of CE structures ranging
from 0 to 2.
Table 3. Comparison between CE-related performance and viewing habits in English
FREQUENCY OF CONTACT
WITH NATIVE SPEAKERS
NR. CE
STRUCTURES
(TASK 1)
PARTICIPANT 1
Sometimes
1
PARTICIPANT 2
Occasionally
0
PARTICIPANT 3
Occasionally
3
PARTICIPANT 4
Quite often
4
PARTICIPANT 5
Sometimes
2
PARTICIPANT 6
Sometimes
0
Participant with the highest score in Task 1 also reported the highest frequency of viewing
habits in English.
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8.4 Benefits of AVT activities
Finally, objective 4 was aimed at determining whether the training
session based on AVT activities would help participants produce a higher
number of conversational expressions. As we can see in Table 4, all
participants produced a higher number of CE expressions in the post-
training task. Only in one case, the production of CE units was discreetly
improved (from 3 to 5); the rest of participants, however, seem to have
significantly increased their production of CE expressions with 9.83 points of
difference in the means for the two conditions:
Table 4. Comparison between CE-related performance in the pre- and post-training sessions
NR. CE STRUCTURES
(TASK 1)
NR. CE STRUCTURES
(TASK 2)
PARTICIPANT 1
1
16
PARTICIPANT 2
0
9
PARTICIPANT 3
3
5
PARTICIPANT 4
4
17
PARTICIPANT 5
2
13
PARTICIPANT 6
0
9
MEAN
1.67
11.5
All participants' scores were higher after the training session
8.5 Level of satisfaction with the task
In Table 5 we collect data from the retrospective questionnaire that
show the level of satisfaction of each participant with their own performance
in both tasks in relation to the number of CE structures used. If we compare
the level of satisfaction experienced, we can see that most participants
remained with the same impression about their performance in both tasks.
Only one participant informed about a higher level of satisfaction in the post-
training task. Also, no potential correlations seem to be observable between
high or low levels of satisfaction and high and low number of CE structures
used.
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Table 5. Comparison of level of (dis)satisfaction with performance in the tasks
PARTICIPANT
NR. CE
STRUCT
URES
(TASK 1)
T1_
SATISFACTIO
N
NR. CE
STRUCTUR
ES (TASK
2)
T2_
SATISFACTI
ON
1
1
Very satisfied
16
Very satisfied
2
0
Very satisfied
9
Very satisfied
3
3
More or less
satisfied
5
more or less
satisfied
4
4
More or less
satisfied
17
More or less
satisfied
5
2
More or less
satisfied
13
More or less
satisfied
6
0
More or less
satisfied
9
Very satisfied
MEAN
1.67
Very satisfied
11.5
Very satisfied
No potential correlations were found in terms of scores achieved and level of satisfaction with
the task
8.6 Subjective perception about level of naturalness achieved
Through the retrospective questionnaire, we also asked participants
about their impression with regard to the naturalness achieved in their
dialogues. In this case, no differences were generally found in their personal
impressions in terms of naturalness achieved in their dialogues before and
after the training session, despite having produced a higher number of CE
expressions in the second task. Only one participant reported having
produced a more spontaneous text the second time.
Table 6. Comparison of level of naturalness achieved in pre- and post-training tasks according
to participants' subjective perception
NR. CE
STRUCTUR
ES (TASK
1)
T1_NAT
URALNE
SS
NR. CE
STRUCTURE
S (TASK 2)
T2_NATUR
ALNESS
PARTICIPANT 1
1
Yes
16
Yes
PARTICIPANT 2
0
Yes
9
Yes
PARTICIPANT 3
3
Yes
5
Yes
PARTICIPANT 4
4
Yes
17
Yes
PARTICIPANT 5
2
No
13
Yes
PARTICIPANT 6
0
Yes
9
Yes
MEAN
1.67
Yes
11.5
Yes
No observable differences were found when comparing participants impressions about
naturalness achieved in their productions before and after the training session.
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Our results so far point to an increase in naturalness through the use
of a higher number of CE expressions after an induction training session
which includes a formal theoretical introduction and AVT-based activities.
However, no differences were observed between the pre-and post-training
tasks in terms of the level of satisfaction or participants' perception about the
level naturalness achieved in both tasks. Since one month had passed
between the first and the second task, participants may not remember how
they did the first time and did not assess the second task in relation to the
first. This also suggests that they may have increased the number of CE
units without being fully aware of it.
The questionnaire revealed that other factors inherent to the
individuals that may also play a role when assessing the level of naturalness
of their productions in English. Accordingly, results in objective 2 seem to
suggest that, even though, frequency of contact with native speakers can be
a predictor, the closeness of the personal relationship between speakers
could also be relevant. While strong viewing habits of audiovisual products in
English may not be a predictor for using a high number of CE structures, low
frequency habits do seem to correlate with a weaker use of CE.
Similarly to other previous studies (Chiu 2012; Ibáñez & Vermeulen
2013; Krajka & Lewicka-Mroczek 2014; Incalcaterra & Lertola 2014; Talaván
& Rodríguez-Arancón 2015; Bolaños 2017), this work seems to reveal a
beneficial effect of Audiovisual Translation for foreign language acquisition.
More specifically, our results are aligned with the conclusions reached by
Frumuselu et al. (2015) about the benefits of translating audiovisual products
to enhance learners' linguistic competence in informal discourse.
9. Conclusions
This study has aimed to assess the effectiveness of an AVT-based
training session to increase naturalness in EFL learners' productions through
the use of CE expressions. For this purpose, a pre- and post- intervention
sessions were used to compare learners' performance in a creative writing
task where they were instructed to produce a script for two previously
described scenes. The situations described in the prompts were designed
with the aim of stimulating the use of expressive language in the dialogues,
being both similar in terms of the relationship between the characters and
emotional tone.
Although bigger sample sizes and use of inferential statistic tests
would be necessary to attain conclusive results, our data point to a beneficial
effect of the AVT-based pedagogical intervention in the acquisition of
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conversational structures. Also, a more extended and carefully planned
methodological design may be useful to tell us more about what specific
activities or parts of the training sessions are more effective to our main
goal. Finally, the production of fictional texts in writing may be a too limited
resource to evaluate mastery of spontaneous language in EFL contexts,
which is why in further studies naturalness in speech may be most
accurately assessed through learners' oral performance in immersion-like
settings that enable casual conversation.
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Appendix 1. Pre- and post- intervention prompts
Task 1 (pre-intervention)
Rose and Emily are best friends. They live in different countries but they are still
very close, since they went to school together. The scene takes place in a coffee
shop. After an emotional reunion at the airport, both friends are chatting excitedly
about the ‘big’ event coming up: Rose is getting married the following week. Emily
will be her maid of honor, even if she has not met her friend's future husband yet.
They are both thrilled. After a while, Emily starts telling Rose (the future bride) about
her first date with a boy she just met. She is super excited because, after 5 failing
relationships, she has finally met the man of her life. At a certain point, Emily
excuses herself to go to the toilet leaving her phone on the table. Suddenly, the
phone screen lights up and Rose sees that Emily has a background picture with the
face of a boy. When she sees the picture, she freezes in pain: she realizes that the
boy is her future husband. They have been dating the same person! She starts
getting very anxious.
When Emily comes back, Rose tells her friend about what she just found out. Emily
gets pale and remains quiet, shocked by the news. Watching her friend's reaction,
Rose starts getting suspicious and paranoid. She starts thinking the two of them
have had a love affair at her back and they plan to ruin the wedding and run away
together. Even though Emily tries to convince her that it is not true, Rose gets very
nervous, starts crying and shouting accusing her friend of being a traitor. She
makes a phone call to cancel the wedding.
Task 2 (post-intervention)
A British girl, Emma, and an American boy, Jacob, have started a long-distance
relationship. After 6 months of not seeing each other, they have a very emotional
reunion at the airport. The scene takes place at Jacob’s apartment. They are cosily
cuddling on the sofa. They laugh, play and tease each other. Sometimes Emma
gives Jacob this flirty, naughty look and he likes her even more... They can’t take
their eyes away from each other. After a while, Jacob gets up to go to the toilet
leaving his phone on the table. The phone buzzes and Emma sees a message with
the words 'I miss you already' from someone called 'Vicky'. This name sounds
familiar to her. She remembers a girl named Vicky from when she went to visit him
to the States. It was one of Jacob’s friends. She remembers getting shocked by how
extremely smart and beautiful this girl was. She was even very nice to her, as she
took her shopping and showed her around the city while Jacob was working. During
the tour of the city, Vicky told Emma that she had recently lost her dad. Emma had
lost her dad too when she was very young and she decided to give Vicky a good-
luck charm her father had once gave her as a gift. They both got emotional with
tears. As Jacob comes back to the kitchen, Emma does not want to act like the
typical jealous girlfriend but she cares too much to ignore the message. She starts
asking subtle questions and making acid sarcastic comments to see how he reacts.
He repeatedly denies that there's another girl in his life. She doesn't believe him.
They end up breaking up.
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Appendix 2. Scenes scripts used in training session
Scene 1. Friends (season 1, pilot)
MONICA: (to All) Okay, everybody, this is Rachel, another Lincoln High survivor. (to
Rachel) This is everybody, this is Chandler, and Phoebe, and Joey, and- you
remember my brother Ross?
RACHEL: Oh God... well, it started about a half hour before the wedding. I was in the
room where we were keeping all the presents, and I was looking at this gravy boat.
This really gorgeous boat. When all of a sudden I realized that I was more turned on
by this gravy boat than by Barry! And then I got really freaked out, and that's when it
hit me: how much Barry looks like Mr. Potato Head. Y'know, I mean, he always
looked familiar, but... Anyway, I just had to get out of there, and I started wondering
'Why am I doing this, and who am I doing this for?'. (TO MONICA) So anyway I just
didn't know where to go, and I know that you and I have kinda drifted apart, but
you're the only person I knew who lived here in the city.
MONICA: Who wasn't invited to the wedding...
RACHEL: I was kind of hoping that wouldn’t be an issue
Scene 2. Modern Family (season 1, pilot)
CLAIRE: Kids, breakfast! Kids? Phil, would you get them?
PHIL: Yeah, just a sec.
CLAIRE: Kids!
PHIL: That is so,..
CLAIRE: Okay...
PHIL: Kids, get down here!
HALEY: Why are you guys yelling at us, when we're way upstairs, just text me.
CLAIRE: Alright, That's not gonna happen, and, wow, you're not wearing that outfit.
HALEY: What's Wrong with it?
CLAIRE: Honey, do you have anything to say to your daughter... about her skirt?
PHIL: Sorry? Oh yeah, that looks really cute sweetheart!
HALEY: Thanks!
CLAIR : No, it's way too short, people know you're a girl, you don't need to prove it to
them.
ALEX: Luke got his head stuck in the banister again.
PHIL: I got it. Where's the baby oil?
CLAIRE: It's on our bedside tip... I Don't know, find it. Come on!
Scene 3. Bojack Horseman (season 5, episode 10)
DIANE: Hey. Did you really mean what you said, before the screening? About how
Philbert made you feel okay, about yourself?
BOJACK: I don't know...
DIANE: Because, you know, that's not the point of Philbert...For guys to watch it and
feel okay.
BOJACK: Diane, it's a compliment. You did a good job. Relax.
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DIANE: I don't want you, or anyone else, justifying their shitty behavior because of
the show.
BOJACK: - Excuse me?
DIANE: What is going on with you? You're a mess.
BOJACK: Am I?
DIANE: I feel like I barely know you anymore.
BOJACK: Bullshit. Don't give me that.
DIANE: - It's true. I don't know you.
BOJACK: No. You know me. You do.
DIANE: And I know you went to Oberlin during your bender three years ago because
a bunch of students posted pictures of you on Facebook.
BOJACK: What I don't understand is why you feel like you deserve to know every
shitty thing I ever did.
DIANE: I don't deserve anything. I would like to know when you've done shitty things.
BOJACK: Why is that your business?
DIANE: Because I'm your friend, and I care about you. So if it gets out that you're
doing
creepy stuff, that makes me look bad.
BOJACK: Wanna know about New Mexico? You want to know about the one little
thing that I did in New Mexico, which, by the way, wasn't even really a thing?
DIANE: You know what? Spare me.
BOJACK: No, I'm gonna tell you.
BOJACK: Or the dozens of other shady things that may or may not have occurred in
my life that I can barely even remember 'cause I was high or drunk or it was 30 years
ago?
DIANE: And you don't feel bad, about any of this stuff?
BOJACK: Yeah, of course I do!
DIANE: No, I wanna know how you're the victim of the Sarah Lynn story. I'm serious.
Explain to me...how Sarah Lynn's overdose was really rough for you.
BOJACK: Shut up.
DIANE: And then when she was sober, you took her on a month-long bender? And
then she died. And she is dead now.
BOJACK: Why are you bringing this shit up? Is this fun for you?
BOJACK: You win! You scored all the points in the argument! But you know what? I
don't care.
Because I'm trying to move forward.
DIANE: You haven't changed at all.
BOJACK: Yes! Congratulations! You are the last person to get that. I'm not gonna
change. When I met you, I was depressed because I didn't like myself. And when you
wrote that book and sold a bajillion copies, you taught me that as screwed up as I
am, that's okay.
DIANE: I think you want me to tell you that you can be better. And even though
you're being a total asshole right now, I still believe it. I don't think this is a good
relationship for either of us.
BOJACK: Diane, come on.
DIANE: I'm going home.
BOJACK: No, Diane, we're saying things, but let's just go back to the party.
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DIANE: I'm done... with all of this.
BOJACK: That's the dumbest part of all of this! I didn't do anything. I mean, the fact
that this has turned into such a thing for you... You know, maybe I didn't tell you
because there was nothing to tell.
Scene 4. Bojack Horseman (season 5, episode 10)
GINA: So, tonight, are we, like, together-together at this thing? Oh, uh, well I mean, I
know we're together. I just meant publicly. Like, are we gonna introduce the world to
"BoJina"?
BOJACK: Well, yeah, I just I'm not sure the world is ready for, um, BoJina.
GINA: Oh, yeah, you're probably right.
[phone chimes]
BOJACK: [sighs] What do you want, Mr. Peanutbutter?
MR. PEANUTBUTTER: Gotcha! It's not Steven Spielberg. I changed my name in
your contacts.
Appendix 3. Post-task questionnaire
INITIALS: _____
ENGLISH CERTIFICATES: yes/no
TYPE: Cambridge/Trinity/EOI/Other Others: ______
CERTIFIED LEVEL: A1/A2/B1/B2/C1/C2
1. Considering the scene will be performed by actors, how satisfied are you with your
script?
No satisfied at all More or less satisfied Very satisfied
2. Why?
3. Did you manage to make your script spontaneous, as you were requested?
Yes No
4. How often do you watch movies in English?:
never occasionally sometimes quite often always
5. How often do you engage in casual conversation in English with foreign people?
I have very frequent contact with foreign people in English (everyday/almost
every day)
I have some regular contact with foreign people in English (once a
week/month)
I have occasional contact with foreign people in English (once every 4-6
months)
I do not have contact with foreign people in English at this moment
