Learning from academic video with subtitles: When foreign language proficiency matters

Previous multimedia research suggests that learning from an academic video in a foreign language may represent a boundary condition for the redundancy principle, such that subtitles assist learning, especially for low-proficiency learners. The effects of the subtitle language and the learners' foreign language proficiency level plus any interaction between the two on learning from a subtitled video were examined. In an online study, 131 francophone students allocated to three English proficiency levels studied a video lecture under three conditions: subtitles in English (same as audio), subtitles in French or no subtitles (control). They were then asked to provide subjective ratings (cognitive load and interest) and perform comprehension tasks. Neither a main effect of the condition nor interactions were found on any measure. However, there was a main effect of language proficiency on inference and transfer outcomes as well as on extraneous cognitive load. The findings did not provide evidence for any effect of subtitles in the same or native language, but confirm the leading role of foreign language proficiency in content learning from video in a foreign language.