the effect of films with and without subtitles on listening

The effect of films with and without subtitles on listeningcomprehension of EFL learners_1004 181..192

Abdolmajid Hayati and Firooz Mohmedi

Abdolmajid Hayati is associate professor of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz. Firooz Mohmedi isMA student of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz. Address for correspondence: Dr. AbdolmajidHayati, Department of English, College of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Chamran University,Ahvaz, Iran. Email: [email protected]

AbstractThe present study represented a preliminary effort to empirically examine theefficacy of subtitled movie on listening comprehension of intermediate Englishas a Foreign Language students. To achieve this purpose, out of a total of 200intermediate students, 90 were picked based on a proficiency test. The materialconsisted of six episodes (approximately 5 minutes each) of a DVD entitled‘Wild Weather’. The students viewed only one of the three treatment condi-tions: English subtitles, Persian subtitles, no subtitles. After each viewingsession, six sets of multiple-choice tests were administered to examine listeningcomprehension rates. The results revealed that the English subtitles groupperformed at a considerably higher level than the Persian subtitles group,which in turn performed at a substantially higher level than the no subtitlegroup on the listening test.

IntroductionWith the increasing access to TV, video equipment and more recently, the computers,teachers have found more opportunities to use audio-visual materials at all levels offoreign language teaching, and they have frequently used them effectively in languageclasses (Kikuchi, 1997, p. 2; see also Canning-Wilson, 2000; Kothari, Pandey &Chudgar, 2004; Lewis & Anping, 2002; Meskill, 1996; Ryan, 1998; Weyer, 1999). Inthe same line, Richards and Gordon (2004, p. 2) maintain that video, as a medium,enables learners to use visual information to enhance comprehension. It allows learn-ers to observe the gestures, facial expressions and other aspects of body language thataccompany speech. It also presents authentic language as well as cultural informationabout speakers of English.

For many years, a widespread view on audio comprehension held that both target-language captions and native-language subtitles were anathema to developing listen-

British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 42 No 1 2011 181–192doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.01004.x

© 2009 The Authors. British Journal of Educational Technology © 2009 Becta. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 GarsingtonRoad, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

ing comprehension; but this popular view has not been well tested (Robin, 2007,p. 111). So, more and more English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers have begun,in recent years, to use movies in their classes at different levels; however, what hasunfairly remained unresolved is the use of subtitles in movies. Teachers of English aresometimes in a dilemma whether they should show a film with or without subtitles andin what language and, above all, which way will benefit their students most in relationto listening comprehension.

A huge gap is observed between the use of subtitled films and listening comprehensionin academic settings in Iran, too. In order to bridge this gap, the researchers took up thisissue and conducted a study in order to determine the role of unsubtitled/subtitled filmsin language learning/teaching in the Iranian contexts. In fact, the study aimed to findout which of the following is likely to be more effective in developing listening compre-hension: bimodal subtitling (English subtitles with English dialogues), standard subti-tling (Persian subtitles with English dialogues) or English dialogues with no subtitle.

Review of literatureMarkham (1989) investigated the effects of subtitled TV upon the listening comprehen-sion of beginner, intermediate and advanced learners of English. He used two subtitledvideos on topics not known to the learners. Each group viewed both movies with andwithout subtitle. He measured the participants’ comprehension through multiple-choice questions based on the language of the video. Coming to a point where all threegroups using the subtitles performed significantly better, he speculated that ESL(English as a Second Language) students might be able to improve their listening andreading comprehension simultaneously (see De Bot, Jagt, Janssen, Kessels & Schils,1986; Holobow, Lambert & Sayegh, 1984).

In a study, Garza (1991) compared Russian and ESL learners’ comprehension of videosegments with second language captions to that of video segments without captions.Five segments of authentic American and Russian video on a particular genre of video(drama, comedy, news, animation and music), each between 2 and 4 minutes in length,were selected. A 10-item (multiple-choice) comprehension test was used to measurestudents’ comprehension of the video segments. A total of 140 students, with varyinglevels of proficiency in Russian, viewed the captioned or captionless Russian videosegments. Comparison of the comprehension test scores of the two groups of studentsrevealed that students who viewed the video segments with captions gained the highestscores. Garza’s data clearly showed that a textually enhanced visual channel, whichpresents information redundant to that presented by the auditory channel, facilitatesstudents’ comprehension.

In their study, Neuman and Koskinen (1992) investigated whether comprehensibleinput, delivered by captioned television programmes, affected the acquisition ofvocabulary and of conceptual knowledge. The participants were children in immersionprogrammes, and the video material was of science lessons. They picked out 90 of themost difficult words from these video lessons as target words, 10 for each week. Partici-

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pants were assigned to one of four treatment groups: captioned TV, TV withoutcaptions, reading along and listening to the soundtrack, and reading only. Results forthe vocabulary acquisition strand of their study, which used word recognition tests andtests of the words in context sentences, showed that the captioned TV group performedconsistently better (see Danan, 1992).

Danan (1992) investigated the effects of different subtitling conditions on vocabularyrecall. She found, like Holobow et al (1984), that reversed subtitling not only producedthe most favourable results, but that bimodal input also positively increased vocabularyrecall. The results also showed benefits for beginners using such bimodal input, whichwas not the case in the study conducted by Holobow et al. She explains the success ofreversed subtitling for vocabulary recall through the way in which translation facili-tates foreign language encoding and that it may help with the segmentation problems.She continues that students often have difficulty recognising word boundaries in thespoken language, especially if they are not familiar with some of the words. Listening toand reading the text at the same time can at least help students distinguish known fromunknown words (Danan, p. 521).

Automatic reading of subtitles, however, does not prevent the processing of thesoundtrack. To demonstrate this point, d’Ydewalle and Pavakanun (1997, as cited inKothari et al 2004, p. 29) carried out another group of cognitive experiments and reliedon a double-task technique measuring reaction times to a flashing light during a tele-vision programme. Their findings confirmed the value of bimodal L2 input forintermediate-advanced levels of L2 learners. According to their study, the slower reac-tions in the presence of both sound and subtitles suggested that more complex, simul-taneous processing of the soundtrack and the subtitles was occurring. According tothem, with both subtitles and sound, attention seemed in fact to be divided between thetwo according to the viewers’ needs, with more time usually devoted to subtitles for theprocessing of complex information.

One study by Koostra, Jonannes and Beentjes (1999) focused on 246 Dutch children inGrade 4 (before any formal instruction in English) and Grade 6 (following 1 year ofEnglish at school) after they watched a 15-minute American documentary shown twicewith or without subtitles. The study demonstrated that children acquired more Englishvocabulary from watching subtitled television, although even children in the conditionwithout subtitles learned some new words. Children in the subtitled condition alsoperformed significantly better on a word recognition test, consisting of words heard inthe soundtrack and words that could have been used in the context of the particularprogramme.

To examine the effect of captioning on aural word recognition skills, Markham (1999)designed another experiment involving multiple-choice tests administered orally. Atotal of 118 advanced ESL students watched two short video programmes (12 and 13minutes respectively) with or without captions. In the subsequent listening tests, par-ticipants heard sentences directly taken from the script and immediately followed byfour single words (one key word which belonged to a sentence just heard and three

Subtitled films and listening comprehension 183


distracters). The tests showed that the availability of subtitles during the screeningsignificantly improved the students’ ability to identify the key words when they subse-quently heard them again.

To test how subtitling affects listening ability regardless of semantic information, so asto assess recognition memory in relation to sound alone, Bird and Williams (2002)focused on the implicit and explicit learning of spoken words and non-words. Implicitlearning pertained to auditory word recognition while explicit learning referred to theintentional recollection and conscious retention of aural stimuli. A first experimentwith 16 English native and 16 advanced non-native speakers demonstrated that par-ticipants in the captioned condition were better able to implicitly retain the phonologi-cal information they had just processed. They also showed superior explicit recognitionmemory when asked to aurally identify words that had been presented in a previousphase. A second experiment with 24 advanced ESL students found that captioning hada beneficial effect on word recognition and implicit learning of non-word targets pairedwith two rhyming and two non-rhyming aural cues, especially in the rhyme condition.

In all, various studies have demonstrated the positive effects of subtitling on productiveskills such as verbatim recall and retention, reuse of vocabulary in the proper context,as well as communicative performance in specific oral and written communicationtasks (Baltova, 1999; Borrás & Lafayette, 1994; Garza, 1991; Neuman & Koskinen,1992; Vanderplank, 1988, 1990). However, while interest in subtitled materials isrelatively growing, research in this field is still limited in Iran compared to those in othercountries. In fact, the link between the availability of subtitles and listening compre-hension seems to be missing in the instructional setting and it needs to be searched forby a systematic study. In the same line, the main goal of the present research is toexamine whether captions and subtitles can also improve listening comprehension.More importantly, it is hoped to find out which one is likely to be more effective indeveloping listening comprehension: English subtitles with English dialogues (bimodalsubtitling), Persian subtitles with English dialogues (standard subtitling) or Englishdialogues with no subtitle.

Research questionsIn order to examine the efficacy of films recorded in English with three different subtitleoptions on listening comprehension, the following questions are posed:

1. Do films with English subtitles help EFL students improve their listening comprehen-sion more than films with Persian subtitles or without subtitles?

2. Do films with Persian subtitles help EFL students improve their listening comprehen-sion more than films with English subtitles or without subtitles?

3. Do films without subtitles help EFL students improve their listening comprehensionmore than films with Persian or English subtitles?

MethodologyParticipantsThis study was conducted with 90 students, with the average age of 22, studying atIslamic Azad University of Masjed Soleyman, a city located in southwest of Iran. The



participants were chosen from a group of 200 juniors and seniors majoring in TeachingEnglish as a Foreign Language on the basis of their scores on the English languageproficiency test. The details of the test will be given below. Descriptive statistics of themean scores were computed from the proficiency test to determine which students wereentitled to participate in the study. Then, the participants filled out a background ques-tionnaire immediately after giving their consent to participate. Table 1 shows thedetails about the subjects participating in the study.

MaterialsThe materials used in this study were as follows:

1. English Language Proficiency Test (Sharpe, 2001): The test contained 70 multiple-choice items, and it was used to enable the researchers to select a homogeneousgroup. This test consisted of grammar (31 items), vocabulary (26 items) and readingcomprehension (three passages with 13 items). The time allotted to answer the testwas 50 minutes.

2. A Documentary Film: An English film on ‘natural disasters’ with authentic andcontemporary language called ‘Wild Weather’, developed by BBC WorldWide Ltd.(2002), was prepared to be used for the study. The four-part series Wild Weatherlooks at the extremes of the earth’s climate and how man lives with and ultimatelyaffects the weather. The total film is approximately 231 minutes long. There are fourepisodes, each one of which contained 10 parts. Two episodes were selected as themain source of the experiment. Out of these two episodes, only six parts (eachapproximately 5 minutes long) were chosen and the whole study lasted 6 weeks. Thetitles of the selected parts are given below:Part 1: An experience (4 minutes)Part 2: Jungle (5 minutes)Part 3: Desert (5 minutes)Part 4: Marathon of the sands (6 minutes)Part 5: Ice storm (7 minutes)Part 6: On patrol (7 minutes)

3. Comprehension test: Six sets of multiple-choice tests, with 10 items each, werederived from the video episodes (one for each video segment) to test the participants’

Table 1: Characteristics of the three groups

CharacteristicsGroup 1: English

subtitle group (ESG)Group 2: Persian

subtitle group (PSG)Group 3: without

subtitle group (WSG)

GenderFemales 20 22 23Males 10 8 7

University classificationJuniors 16 20 18Seniors 14 10 12



comprehension. Each question contained language that occurred somewhere in theepisode. A final comprehension test was also administered.

4. Participants used the computers with CD-ROMs to watch the films.

(It is worth mentioning that through a pilot study conducted on 25 students in aninterval of 2 weeks, the reliability of both tests, the proficiency test and the compre-hension test, was calculated by SPSS through the Kudar and Richardson’s formula(KR-21) and the results were 0.814 and 0.961 respectively.)

ProcedureThe experiment, lasting for 6 weeks, was conducted at the language laboratory ofIslamic Azad University of Masjed Soleyman. The following three steps were taken inthis study:

Step 1: After drawing out 200 junior and senior students who had passed languagelaboratory 4 with the score of at least 12 or above on the scale of 20, a proficiency testwas administered. The allotted time for answering the questions was 50 minutes. Aftercorrecting the papers, 90 students whose scores fell between 26 and 48 out of 70 wereselected as the intermediate group.Step 2: Based on their score in language proficiency test, the participants were ran-domly assigned to three groups, that is, English Subtitle Group (ESG), Persian SubtitleGroup (PSG) and Without Subtitle Group (WSG).Step 3: At this stage, all three groups were asked to watch one part of the episode on thesame day, and in order to increase the reliability of the study, each group watched thesame segment with the assigned condition, namely ESG, PSG or WSG. By the end ofeach session, immediately after watching the film, a multiple-choice comprehensiontest was administered in order to evaluate their listening comprehension and providegrounds for comparison.Step 4: After the final test, the students in each group were asked to write their view-points about the effect of subtitled and/or unsubtitled films. To make it easier andstress-free for the students, they were allowed to give their comments in their firstlanguage.

Finally, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether the differencesbetween mean scores of ESG, PSG and WSG were statistically significant. Scheffe testwas also administered to specify the possible priority of one of the mentioned groups(ESG, PSG, or WSG) over the other.

ResultsA subject was given 1 point for each correct answer, with the highest possible scorebeing 10 and the lowest possible score being 0. From the total average scores obtainedby the groups, the mean of ESG condition was substantially higher than PSG condition,and PSG condition in turn got significantly higher score than WSG condition. Theseresults verified that students receiving the episode with English subtitle outperformedthe other groups (PSG and WSG). Table 2 illustrates descriptive statistics on the perfor-mance of the students on the listening comprehension tests.



Table 3 illustrates the results of the one-way ANOVA for the listening comprehensiontests during 6 weeks. As can be observed, there is a significant difference among theperformance of the three groups [F(2, 15) = 41.897, p < 0.05].

In order to determine which group is superior to the other, a post hoc test was run. Theresults of the Scheffe test revealed that differences among groups were significant. Asshown in Table 4, ESG had a better performance than PSG followed by WSG condition.The level of significance was set at 0.05.

In sum, all participants who were exposed to English subtitles reacted very positivelycompared to Persian subtitle or without subtitle in this study, and they believed that thesubtitles not only assisted their understanding of the video but also helped them do thetests. This is consistent with the results of the study by Borrás and Lafayette (1994) whoargue that subtitles have potential value in helping the learners not only to comprehendthe authentic linguistic input better but to also produce comprehensible communica-tive output. More specifically, students commented that the subtitles enhanced theirability to notice, comprehend, spell and recall new English material. The test outcomesand the comments suggest that under similar circumstances, students who are learningboth vocabulary and content in English will benefit more from watching English videossubtitled in English than from watching English videos subtitled in Persian.

As a subsidiary effect of the study, regarding listening comprehension, it was alsoindicated that compared to films with no subtitles, those with Persian subtitles

Table 2: Descriptive statistics of listening comprehension tests

GroupsNumberof tests Mean

Standarddeviation

Standarderror

95% Confidenceinterval for the mean

Lowerbound

Upperbound

ESG 6 6.6367 0.53646 0.21901 6.0737 7.1996PSG 6 5.0867 0.51771 0.21136 4.5434 5.6300WSG 6 4.1033 0.38077 0.15545 3.7037 4.5029Total 18 5.2756 1.16514 0.27463 4.6961 5.8550

ESG, English subtitle group; PSG, Persian subtitle group; WSG, without subtitle group.

Table 3: ANOVA of the listening comprehension tests

Sum of squares df Mean square F Significance

Between groups 19.574 2 9.787 41.897 0.000Within groups 3.504 15 0.234Total 23.078 17 0.38077

ANOVA, analysis of variance.



facilitated recognition of English words by supplying the meaning of the content in thestudents’ native language and led to better understanding of listening materials.

DiscussionBased on the findings of the present study, intermediate students benefited frombimodal L2 input because the proficiency level of intermediate students in terms of therange of vocabulary items and listening skill was high enough. Therefore, the interme-diate students, as acknowledged by the participants, can understand the spoken lan-guage better and refer less to the subtitles except when they do not know the meaningof some key words, which are essential for comprehension. Only then do they take aquick glance at those words while listening to the text; thus, there is no translationprocess. That is, there is no need to switch from one language to another since it takestime, and the learners may lag behind and lose the track. Besides, from the point of viewof language learning, students might not benefit much due to the overwhelming depen-dence upon their native language subtitles. The participants in the survey also com-mented that the Persian subtitles distracted their attention and prevented them fromconcentrating on the spoken language. It is hypothesised that Persian may not onlyhave been used to comprehend the general message but might also have allowed sub-jects to bypass the English completely.

With regard to the benefits of text-supported video for listening comprehension,Vanderplank (1988, p. 278) suggested that subtitles unlock television for intermediatelevel or higher learners who are literate in English and increase the redundancy in thelanguage and in bringing down the level of ungraded, authentic language. Therefore,like Holobow et al (1984), there is an indication that subtitles are of benefit to compre-hension for those who already have a certain level of L2 knowledge and skills. Althoughacknowledging the need for further research, Vanderplank (1988) dismisses the impli-cation that learners are in fact merely reading while watching a video. He, however,believes that learners were doing more than reading and that they were matching thesounds with the text and comparing their match for correctness. He sees additional

Table 4: Scheffe test of listening comprehension tests

(I)VAR00001

(J)VAR00001

Meandifference (I–J)

Standarderror Significance

95% Confidence interval

Lower bound Upper bound

ESG PSG 1.5500* 0.27905 0.000 0.7927 2.3073WSG 2.5333* 0.27905 0.000 1.7761 3.2906

PSG ESG -1.5500 0.27905 0.000 -2.3073 -0.7927WSG 0.9833* 0.27905 0.011 0.2261 1.7406

WSG ESG -2.5333* 0.27905 0.000 -3.2906 1.7761PSG 0.9833* 0.27905 0.011 -1.7406 -0.2261

*The mean difference is significant the 0.05 level.ESG, English subtitle group; PSG, Persian subtitle group; WSG, without subtitle group.



benefits for subtitles in promoting a low affective filter and for unlocking accents anddialects (p. 279).

Considering ESG (L2 subtitle) and PSG (L1 subtitle), it seems that the subjects in PSGhave to perform an additional process and that is translation. With L1 (Persian) sub-titles, Iranian EFL students grasped the meaning by reading L1 subtitles and simulta-neously translated the L2 (English) information for chunking the flow of L2 audio.Because the translation process is difficult to manage and exceeds the learner’s process-ing capacity, factors such as the presentation speed or the difficulty level of the text maylower the effectiveness of L1 subtitling. This might be due to limitations in their readingability or overloading information input due to three media: audio, visual and subtitles.Accordingly, the benefits of Persian subtitles are less than those of English subtitles and‘the additional process of translation may sometimes hinder understanding’(Markham, 1989, p. 40). It might also be observed that while Markham found thatsubtitles significantly improved students’ ability to identify key words when hearingthem again, this study showed that students with good vocabulary, listening skills andability to understand the spoken language, needed only to glance at subtitles to confirmtheir understanding of keywords without losing track of what was being said.

The results of the study indicate that subtitles in the target language facilitate studentlistening comprehension and give the students the opportunity to receive visual as wellas auditory messages. It seems that reading and listening to messages simultaneouslyenhance learning of foreign language. Moreover, grounded upon the data collectedfrom the survey, most students mentioned that video subtitles in the target language didhelp them associate the aural and written forms of words more easily and quickly thandid videos with Persian or without subtitles.

However, few students expressed a need for subtitles in their mother language. They alsonoted that the presence of Persian subtitles distracted their attention from audio; there-fore, they did not pay attention to the soundtrack. So, the researchers concluded thatthe subjects of this study were more experienced in reading English than in listening toit. This is in line with Guillory’s (1998) study that the PSG performance was attenuatedby the degree to which reading the subtitles interfere with attention paid to the linguis-tic message.

ConclusionThe purpose of this study was to investigate what kind of film is more effective indeveloping listening comprehension: ESG, PSG or WSG in the context of intermediateEFL students. All three groups were exposed to three different treatments. ESG watchedthe movie with English subtitles and English soundtrack. PSG viewed the same moviewith Persian subtitles and English audio, and WSG watched the same film withoutsubtitles but with the same soundtrack.

The present study has found that bimodal L2 inputs generally strengthen the verbalmessage, suggesting that the double modal input may be processed more deeply because



attention can alternate from the auditory to the visual format or be directed alongparallel visual and auditory routes simultaneously. Rather than being a distraction, thedouble modal input appears to enhance comprehension better than simply processingsubtitle through silent reading. Perhaps reading would be improved if readers wereencouraged to read aloud so as to provide themselves with an accompaniment,although it is an area that needs further research.

The results proved the hypothesis that the video programmes with English subtitles willhelp EFL intermediate students improve their listening comprehension more than theother programmes. However, watching a film with L1 subtitles is claimed to be appro-priate for beginners due to their limited range of vocabulary items, and they can usetheir native language for better comprehension of the film. The third condition, WSG, isbut claimed to be beneficial to the advanced students because immersing students in aflow of foreign utterances without any preparation may be of little help for intermediateEFL students. On the other hand, the proficiency level of advanced students is higher,and they may have little problem in understanding the films. Another claim is thatstudents who practise listening a lot and spend too much time listening and watchingfilms, can watch unsubtitled English films with less difficulty because they are accus-tomed to this way of watching and their ears are tuned to English spoken language.

Pedagogical implicationsWith respect to second language comprehension, this study has found that L1 subti-tling is less effective for L2 listening comprehension than bimodal L2 input. Bimodal L2inputs generally strengthen or enhance the verbal message, suggesting that the doublemodal input may be processed more deeply because attention can alternate from theauditory to the visual format or be directed along parallel visual and auditory routessimultaneously. Rather than being a distraction, the double modal input appears toenhance comprehension better than simply processing subtitle through silent reading.Perhaps reading would be improved if readers were encouraged to read aloud so as toprovide themselves with an accompaniment.

Finally, this study suggests new ways of teaching that might incorporate certain fea-tures of the bimodal L2 input procedures. For instance, judging from the results, itwould apparently be beneficial in L2 instruction to have the intermediate studentsfollow the subtitles of the materials while the teacher reads the same materials aloud tothem in L2. Because beginners do not have native-like command of L2, they might bediscouraged from reading aloud in L2 until their listening skill is improved. Similarly,taped material could be played in L2 while students follow the same texts in L2.

Limitations of the studyThis study examined the effects of three versions of subtitled video programmes onlistening comprehension of intermediate EFL students. One programme consisted ofEnglish audio and English subtitles. The second programme consisted of English audioand Persian subtitles, and the third programme consisted of English audio and nosubtitles.



The sample population was intermediate level EFL learners. Therefore, we cannot gen-eralise the findings to beginners or advanced students in second or foreign languagestudy. For example, the bimodal L2 input procedure obviously requires a certain level ofskill in L2, and to test its generalisability, studies are required with pupils who haveconventional levels of skills in L2, eg, as can be found in EFL programmes.

The result of the study can be applied only to institutions such as schools, colleges anduniversities that have intermediate-level EFL students. Assessment of the learningoutcome was measured only with multiple-choice tests. The problem lies with the needto devise alternative assessment techniques that tap various aspects of listeningcomprehension.

Suggestions for future researchThis study represents a preliminary effort to empirically examine the efficacy of sub-titled movie on listening comprehension of intermediate EFL students. There is ahypothesis against the results of this study that over an extended period of time, sub-titles may prevent learners from developing listening comprehension skills. When stu-dents become accustomed to subtitling, they may become overly dependent upon theprinted information (subtitles) to understand the contents that they no longer focus onthe audio information. Future research, therefore, should be directed towards investi-gating the use of subtitles with students of different proficiency level over longer periodswith video materials of varying difficulties.

Since the study has evaluated on documentary films in three versions, replication of thestudy with different kinds of movies in other genres would also be advisable. Since ESGhas proved to be a highly motivating and effective tool for listening comprehension,curriculum designers, programme developers and educators should incorporateEnglish subtitled educational programmes into English language curriculum. Furtherresearch could employ different videos of different contents such as news reports,feature films, academic lectures or interviews.

It is also cautioned that varying the length of video may produce different results.Moreover, the means of measurement employed, such as multiple-choice items, short-answer questions, and true or false, could be important factors affecting the results. Also,how to present these test items, orally or in writing, is a critical point needing consider-ation. In addition to examining students’ listening comprehension, investigating therecall success rate after a long time lapse may be a good topic for further investigation.

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