How to Best Use Subtitles to Learn a Language
Language exposure is crucial to the development of a second language, and fortunately, you can get plenty of exposure and have fun by watching movies and shows with subtitles! Nowadays, subtitles are more accessible than ever with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. These streaming services provide plenty of authentic movies and TV shows from different regions of the world so you can improve your listening skills. You can even change the language settings on your Netflix account so everything is written in a different language to get more reading practice (in addition to the subtitles of course!). Utilizing subtitles has several benefits. Subtitles help with attention to, comprehension of, and memory for the video being watched ( Gernsbacher, 2015 ). It can seem a bit overwhelming as a beginner to a new language, but there are several ways to go about sharpening different abilities using subtitles. I am going to outline a few of them here, and then I will share my own personal