Researchers at Royal Holloway and the University of Nottingham have called into question claims that turning on television subtitles can help children learn to read.
Public campaigns backed by celebrities and politicians have argued that television subtitles may dramatically improve children’s reading abilities. However, there has been no convincing research evidence for these claims.
The study, funded by Nuffield Foundation, tracked the eye movements of 180 primary school children in Years 1 to 6, whilst they watched movies with and without subtitles.
They found that the children did not even look at subtitles until they were able to read relatively fluently. The children who were not good readers tended to ignore subtitles.
The children who did look at subtitles were able to read at least one word per second. This level of reading proficiency is generally only achieved after three to four years of reading instruction, when children are in Year 3.
Dr Anastasiya Lopukhina, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, who led on the new research paper, said: “Subtitles are presented too quickly for young children to be able to engage with them. If young children do not look at subtitles, then it is hard to see how they could learn from them.
“Our results imply that being a proficient reader drives children to look at subtitles rather than the reverse.”
Professor Kathleen Rastle, also from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, and Principal Investigator of the project, added: “These claims were appealing because they suggested that the hard work of learning to read could be replaced by watching television with subtitles. However, our findings show that subtitles are not a magic bullet for literacy.
“Children need evidence-based reading instruction and several years of book-based reading practice to become proficient.”
Dr Walter van Heuven from the School of Psychology at University of Nottingham said: “It is important that children get substantial reading practice even after the initial years of reading instruction.
“Once children are sufficiently fluent, it is possible that subtitles can provide additional reading practice, but future research is needed to confirm that subtitles have a causal impact on reading."
Eleanor Ireland, Education Programme Head at the Nuffield Foundation, said: “The findings published in this article are important for parents and those working with children in helping them understand what approaches are most effective in helping children learn to read.
“Knowing that subtitles are unlikely to benefit early readers will allow parents and educators to focus on evidence-based approaches, such as shared reading and reading instruction.”
The paper 'Where do children look when watching videos with same-language subtitles?' is published in Psychological Science, as available here.
