Title of Study: English Subtitled K-dramas: Assessing Its Effectiveness in

Enhancing English Language Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension among Gen

Z Learners

Rationale

Students show up in colleges with numerous English language issues: limited

vocabulary, weak comprehension, slow reading, poor grammar, and low-level

conversational aptitudes as indicated by Carhill-Poza and Chen (2020). Incidents like

these piloted various studies concerning developing strategies in language teaching

and learning. However, the concept of language learning strategies has been studied

extensively in the last three decades, especially in vocabulary building and reading

comprehension, and although there have been various attempts, researchers have

never come to a single conclusion, (Vymolova, 2018). In order to make the most of

academic opportunities, the teachers must consider the dispositions and needs of

their students. Thus, according to Mohr and Mohr (2017), the starting point is to

consider which current course assignments seem to work well with today’s students.

Anas and Zakaria (2019) proclaims that we got to admit that students do not tolerate

pen and paper that much anymore hence making the teaching of a language not an

easy task. It can never be denied that it is crucial for teachers these days to make

the learning experience as interesting as possible given that the anxiety will also

always be there especially in learning a second or foreign language, (Sabouri and

Zohrabi, 2015).

In a latest lecture, "Engaging Generation Z Students," Vickie Cook (2015)

affirms that Gen-Z post-secondary learners have tendencies to desire continuous

instructive opportunities that utilize technological innovation and visual media.

Obviously, Gen-Y and Gen-Z students can quickly resent assignments that are
viewed as “busy work” or mundane according to Grace and Seemiller (2016) and in

seeking another learning strategies in form of leisure activities, this led to what Al-

haq (2017) that the technology of social media nowadays makes people catch on

different kinds of entertainment like television shows, soap operas, and films and are

recognized by Hasan and Prihhartini (2020) that they provide an invaluable

extension of what we might call the technologies of language acquisition that have

been used to educate learners the fundamentals of learning English in elementary

and high schools or institutions. Young people nowadays tend to watch more foreign

TV series and movies than in the past mainly because of the growth of Over-The-

Top (OTT) media services such as Netflix and Viu which provide movies in many

languages and from various nations, the possibility for the public, in general, to

watch any movies in any language is limitless (Hasan and Prihhartini) hence,

exposing them to another outlet of learning another language now that most of these

entertainments are known internationally.

According to Ahmed (2018), researchers attempt to practice new teaching

techniques and to apply theories of linguistics, psychology and education to English

classrooms and one of which is through enabling subtitles whenever they watch any

audio-visual entertainment. The benefits of subtitles for improving general L2

(second language) reading comprehension have been investigated by many

researchers, however what is lacking is research that explores what contribution they

may make to learning beyond just comprehension. Results from Sabouri and

Zohrabi's questionnaire suggest that learners paid most attention to captions or

subtitles and implied that captioned and subtitled video tends to aid recognition of

written word forms and the learning of word meaning thus, aiding in reading

comprehension through building vocabulary. Bellalem, et al., (2018) also reveal that
research in the field of second language acquisition indicates that exposure to

subtitled movies as comprehensible input generally enhances the acquisition of

vocabulary. Osbueis (2015) supports this by stating that vocabulary and listening-

comprehension are not the only skills improved by watching movies. Subtitle and

closed captioning (lines and other sound data set at the lower part of each edge of

the film) enable the watchers to expand their reading and comprehension pace. In

addition, Osbouei asserts that there has been so much successful research into the

many benefits and uses of subtitles and captions on video and television that has

recognized the need for subtitles and captioning.

Sabouri and Zohrabi claim that its influence on language learning includes the

definitions of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. In Osbouei's conclusion of his study,

he stated that those who had watched English subtitled movies in classrooms had

performed better in the vocabulary achievement tests and their scores increased

significantly. Watching TV series with English subtitles also belongs to the self-

determination theory and is related to intrinsic motivation – an activity done for “its

own sake in order to experience delight and fulfillment, such as the delight of doing a

specific action or fulfilling one's interest" (Bellalem, et al.) and in the Fear of Missing

Out (FOMO) anxiety (Strong, 2016) because these learners in today's time do not

want to be missed out in whatever is "trending" that presented to them by the

mainstream media. Mohr and Mohr express that Digital Natives have grown up in the

Information Age and while comfortable with technology to access the plethora of

news bits and sound bites, they have a tendency to succumbed to binge-watching of

favorite shows and instructors may not understand or identify how current students

can get caught up in, or lost on, the Internet. Seemiller and Grace added that

assignments that require students to access information online should be very clear
as to goals, sources, time-spent, ways to glean, and evaluate the content.

Conversely, giving exacting rules to web-based viewing and searching and divided

tasks could assist students with evading the binge-mentality that can make them

burn-through time and lose concentration. The emergence of the social mediascape

became a noteworthy element of the growth of the Korean entertainment industry as

they strategically adopt social media to achieve global reach (Jin and Yoon, 2016)

Social mediascape also allowed the younger generation fans to be more

participative, open, vocal and updated due to the availability of Internet access in any

country - Western or Asian. These assertions and observations led to why the TV

series in Korea was chosen as a focus of the study. Although there are a lot of

internationally renowned films, programs, and series, the most prominent in today's

time is the Hallyu that is also known to be the Korean Wave. This domination has

reached the South East Asian countries as well including the Philippines over the

past decade and spreads Korean cultural products such as dramas, popular music,

and movies. Among those cultural products, dramas have become popular for

teenagers and even adults (Rahmawati, 2013). Over the years, Korean dramas have

evolved immensely. But we can all agree that it has been for the better. The reach

and impact they have today are so much greater than back in the day (Manse,

2017). Watching Korean-dramatizations is a reading undertaking that is a wellspring

of learning and satisfaction. Learners use a variety of language learning strategies

for second language acquisition and this particular leisure activity can be considered

contextualized learning. Likewise, Mohr and Mohr recommend that instead of

adversely generalizing the students and their learning practices, staff ought to

consider generational contrasts that may impede or help the teaching-learning

dynamic and react all the more decidedly.

the world and since not many of them speak Korean, the web pages that release

such series utilize the English language in subtitles to make the arrangement

accessible to a more extensive crowd. As a learning source, reading will review

previously learned vocabulary and grammatical forms, and it will also help learners

acquire new vocabulary and forms. When learners increase their skill and fluency in

reading, they will get more enjoyment through reading (Nation, 2019). Watching

Korean dramas with English subtitles, based on Chun's (2015) assertions, it can be

categorised as contextualized learning, since learners encounter new vocabulary in

written and visual context. Likewise, as indicated by Nation, contextualized learning

is helpful for learning low-recurrence words since their sum is immense to the point

that there is no chance of covering every one of them in classroom

teaching. Vymolova also added that when the learners have sufficient level of the

language, deducing the meaning of a new word from the context can be very

effective way of acquiring vocabulary. Because as what Nyikos and Fan (2017)

argue, vocabulary acquired by inferring meanings from contextualized reading

appears to be more meaningful and better remembered than decontextualized rote

memorization. Vymolova believes that this learning strategy has the potential to be

used as homework assignments in the English language classroom in order to

advance learners’ low-frequency vocabulary and to motivate them to learn from the

series on their own and thus enhance their vocabulary in a continuous process.

This study has been motivated by the recent increase in global popularity of

South Korean culture, known as the Hallyu wave and its possible impact on learning

English, especially vocabulary and reading comprehension enhancement. There

have been many studies asserting the effectiveness of this learning strategy like the
conclusion Vymolova laid out in her investigation that watching Korean dramas with

English subtitles could be used as a learning strategy for vocabulary enhancement.

This corresponds also to what Osbouei emphasizes that viewers can acquire a

better knowledge of the English language and expand their vocabulary by watching

such TV series. Likewise, Fajariyah (2018) deduced that watching K-dramas with

English subtitles has many advantages for the viewers: reading new words that they

never encountered before and finding out the meaning through context, reviewing a

few words they recently figured out how in order to comprehend the story, and

allowing them to get new words and use them in their practice. The main aim of this

study is to assess whether the leisure activity of watching Korean dramas with

English subtitles positively contributes to the vocabulary development and reading

comprehension enhancement of the viewers who belonged to Generation Z or those

who are born from the year 2000.

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