Viewing comprehension activities with questions embedded in the form of subtitles: the opinion of fourteen Spanish as foreign language university students

Abstract

Listening, viewing, reading and writing simultaneously in a foreign language is very complicated. This work is part of wider research which investigates the use of viewing comprehension questions embedded in the video in the form of subtitles and synchronized with the pertinent fragments, for the purpose of language learning. Compared to viewings where the task is available only on paper, this technique could reduce the visual attention conflict between watching the video and completing the activity, by spatially and temporally approximating the questions and the relevant scenes. In this exploratory survey study fourteen university students with a B2+/C1 audiovisual comprehension level in Spanish as a Foreign Language expressed their opinion on this methodology. The instruments were an audiovisual comprehension activity and a questionnaire. The results suggested that, globally, students agreed that imprinted questions helped them. Finally, the limitations of the study are discussed and various directions for future research are suggested.