Learning Vocabulary Through Instructional Subtitled Videos1 Aprendizaje de Vocabulario a través de Videos Instructivos Subtitulados Jorge Luis Romero-Villamil and Claudia Patricia Guzman-Martinez2* Universidad del Tolima, Colombia 1 Received: April 1st 2020/ Accepted: July 18th 2020 2 jromerovillamil@yahoo.com; claudiap0308@hotmail.com Gist Education and Learning Research Journal. ISSN 1692-5777. No. 21 (July-December, 2020). pp. 7-25. 8 No. 21 Abstract The purpose of this research is to learn how the implementation of instructional subtitled videos contributed to improving students’ range of vocabulary in real life contexts. This mixed method research paper was developed by using action research approach and the applied data collection technique was stratified into five steps: a pre–test, three classroom observations, a teacher/investigation diary, a semi-structured interview, and a post-test.The analysis of the data demostrated that the employement of instructional subtitled videos helped students learn vocabulary. The students performed better in post-test compared to the pre-test, due to the three cycles of intervention. The target words were contextualized and presented through the simultaneous combination of sounds, images, and text. The data also showed that the participants considered the videos to be useful so as to remember new words and to be able to use them in communicative contexts. After discussing the findings of the study in light of the theory, the implications and limitations are presented, as well as some considerations for further research are suggested. Keywords: instructional subtitled videos; vocabulary learning; EFL (English as a Foreign Language); ESA (Engage, Study, and Activate) Model; and Action Research. Resumen El propósito de esta investigación es determinar cómo la implementación de videos subtitulados contribuye a mejorar el rango de vocabulario de los estudiantes en contextos de la vida real. Para el desarrollo de esta investigación se utilizó el método mixto, bajo el enfoque de la Investigación Acción Participativa. La técnica de recolección de la información se llevó a cabo en cinco pasos: una prueba preliminar, tres observaciones de aula, un diario de investigación del maestro, una entrevista semi-estructurada y una prueba posterior. El análisis de los datos mostró que la utilización de videos subtitulados hizo posible que los estudiantes obtuvieran mejores resultados en la prueba posterior aplicada que en la preliminar. Las palabras meta fueron contextualizadas y presentadas a través de la combinación simultánea de sonidos, imágenes y texto. Un factor determinante en el aprendizaje del vocabulario fue el trabajo de retro alimentación del investigador en cada uno de los cilcos de intervención. Además, se estableció que los videos son útiles para recordar las palabras nuevas y que los participantes las utilizaron en contextos significativos. Después de discutir los resultados del estudio a la luz de la teoría, se presentan las implicaciones y limitaciones, así como algunas consideraciones para futuras investigaciones. Palabras claves: videos instructivos subtitulados; aprendizaje de vocabulario; EFL (inglés como lengua extranjera); Modelo ESA (Participar, Estudiar y Activar); Investigación Acción. Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 9 No. 21 Resumo O propósito desta pesquisa é determinar como a implementação de vídeos legendados contribui para melhorar a categoria de vocabulário dos estudantes em contextos da vida real. Para o desenvolvimento desta pesquisa foi utilizado o método mista, sob o enfoque da Pesquisa Ação Participativa. A técnica de coleta da informação foi realizada em cinco passos: uma prova preliminar, três observações de aula, um diário de pesquisa do professor, uma entrevista semiestruturada e uma prova posterior. A análise dos dados mostrou que a utilização de vídeos legendados fez possível que os estudantes obtivessem melhores resultados na prova posterior aplicada que na preliminar. As palavras meta foram contextualizadas e apresentadas através da combinação simultânea de sons, imagens e texto. Um fator determinante na aprendizagem do vocabulário foi o trabalho de retroalimentação do pesquisador em cada um dos ciclos de intervenção. Além disso, estabeleceu-se que os vídeos são úteis para lembrar as palavras novas e que os participantes utilizaram-nas em contextos significativos. Depois de discutir os resultados do estudo considerando a teoria, apresentam-se as implicações e limitações, bem como algumas considerações para futuras pesquisas. Palavras chaves: vídeos instrutivos legendados; aprendizagem de vocabulário; EFL (inglês como língua estrangeira); Modelo ESA (Participar, Estudar e Ativar); Pesquisa Ação Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 10 No. 21 Introduction A n obvious fundamental component when learning a foreign language is vocabulary. Vocabulary is to communication as grammar is to transmission. (Wilkins, as cited in Heidari andAraghi, 2015). Learning vocabulary is a critical issue because a limited vocabulary in a foreign language interferes with fluid communication. Proper language Language use relies on effective interaction so long as the speaker has a sufficient set of words to construct messages in diverse contexts. The process of expanding vocabulary depends on using appropriate strategies to learn new words. Learning new words implies that students have an idea about how to use them, (Ellis and Farmer, as cited in Susanto, 2017). Students should link previous word  knowledge to the  new one  in order to process  new  information. A basic knowledge of grammar structures and word functions aid students in communicating ideas, opinions, and facts to people, when participating in common conversation. Subtitled videos are a multisensory resource. They have sound, image and text related to diverse topics: the arts, science, literature, social life, culture, and technology. Furtheremore, anybody can find current issues about life in the future life, mobile phone use, girls’ makeup, free personality development, early pregnancy, and drug consumption, sports figures/results. These alternatives permit students to explore what they would like to work on and could enhance learning vocabulary in contextualized situations. Likewise, teachers could decide the type of video which best fits the students’ expectations and needs. As such, the purpose of this study is to answer the following question: to what extent does the implementation of instructional subtitled videos influence the students’ learning of new vocabulary. Moreover, there are two subordinates areas: to determine how students use the target words when they developed the tasks for each video; and the advantages and dis advantages of using subtitles. Thus, it is expected the teacher- researcher can improve their classroom practice. By exploring useful alternatives in order to boost students’ vocabulary learning. Likewise, teachers and researchers might take advantage of this investigation in order for them to approach vocabulary learning from a very different perspective, going beyond the traditional way of doing so. Literature Review Learning vocabulary is crucial to communicate ideas in a new language, in this case, English. Some researchers have done studies and written academic papers about learners’ difficulties when they are in contact with vocabulary activities. Additionally, Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 11 No. 21 investigators have explored the type of methods and strategies teachers use to overcome unsettled issues related to vocabulary learning, word formation, type of words, and English languageEnglish subtitled videos. However, the instructional subtitled videos information was limited. It means, that researchers have focused on authentic material such as video clips, sitcoms, TV news, and documentaries. While there are plenty of non-instructional materials available to for people to watch, listen to and read the subtitles in the English language, for this study instructional or classroom designed material was used. The difference between these two resources are that classroom designed material, has the slowdown by small percentage. The following papers support the use of subtitles in the field of L2 teaching/ learning. Their findings suggest beneficial effects of vocabulary learning and content comprehension. The study conducted by Wang (2012), “Learning L2 Vocabulary with American TV Drama From the Learner’s Perspective, sought to explore the process of implementing American TV drama in L2 vocabulary learning from the learners’ perspective. Authentic video clips from three different American dramas were chosen- “How I met your mother”, “The King of Queens”, and “Reba” . Three sessions of class activities: clip watching, class discussion, and word listing were implemented. All the participants were adult Taiwanese learners between twenty to forty-five years old. Fifteen of them were females and thirteen were males. Before being assigned to classes, all twenty-eight students took a placement test (based on a reading). The results revealed low-intermediate to intermediate level learners. The researchers conducted the study during normal class sessions. The results of the investigation showed that students not only supported the positive effects of using American TV drama to promote L2 vocabulary learning, but they also illustrated the process of learning. For example, they found that the video contained “images” that facilitated new words to be more easily memorized and remembered. According to students, the plots, the events, and the characters’ emotions all helped them to learn the target words. Moreover, repetitions provided a chance for memory enhancement. For example, some of the words appeared more than once in the clip and subsequently drew the learners’ attention. Another study was “Smart subtitles for vocabulary learning”, by Kovacs and Miller. (2014). Their main objective was to compare smart subtitles against dual subtitles in their effectiveness in teaching vocabulary. After viewing a 5-minute video with one of the tools, participants took a vocabulary quiz, wrote a summary of the video clip, and filled out a questionnaire. They then repeated this procedure on another clip, with the other tool. Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 12 No. 21 The Smart Subtitles system currently supports videos in Chinese, Japanese, French, German, and Spanish. This system can be extended to other languages in which bilingual dictionaries are available. The findings of this project included but were not limited to the following observations: users correctly defined over twice as many new words on the vocabulary quiz when using Smart Subtitles than with dual subtitles; viewing times did not differ significantly between the tools; viewers’ self-assessed enjoyability did not differ significantly between the tools, and viewers’ self-assessed comprehension did not differ significantly between the tools. Naghizadeh and Darabi (2015), reported findings in study called: “The Impact of Bimodal, Persian and No-subtitle Movies on Iranian EFL Learners’ L2 Vocabulary Learning”. The participants included 27 male and female teenage (15-17 years old) intermediate learners who were studying English in Parvaz language institution in Izeh, Khuzestan, Iran. For the sake of homogeneity, the Oxford Placement Test (2007) was given to all learners. Within the Iranian context, the role of video materials in developing vocabulary had not been considered seriously. The findings can be beneficial to all people, engaged in language programs including curriculum and course designers, teachers and students. Course designers can benefit from the findings by incorporating subtitled movies of various types as a part of vocabulary development materials. It can also help teachers in choosing the right type of subtitles for the purpose of teaching new vocabulary to their student. The researchers found that the employment of subtitles is an effective factor influencing vocabulary learning. Additionally, bimodal subtitling is more influential in teaching and learning vocabularies than other subtitles. On the other hand, Persian subtitling e.g., L1 produces the same results as if no subtitles had been used. Visual Literacy Several types of “literacy” have been identified over the years. The use of adjectives is alive and well so as to identified things such as “Cultural literacy”.”Computer literacy” and even so gender pronoun literacy. For our purposes, the idea of visual literacy is salient. “Visual literacy refers to the ability to make meaning from information in the form of the image. The “reader” of this image has the competence or ability to interpret, evaluate, and represent the meaning in visual form. We live in a visual culture. Students’ everyday lives reflect the dominance of images on screen that are colorful, that have animation, texture, and dimensionality. The combined influences of the image have Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 13 No. 21 shifted the way students make meaning”. (Rowsell, McLean and Hamilton. 2012, p.4 45) Today, constructing a true meaning of anything is more complex since there are more mediums, materials and modalities. Nowadays, learners can activate more than one of five senses through the use of the multimedia material on the internet. For example, when they interact with video games, animations, risky virtual adventures, racing car competitions, they have to be skillful in reading and following instructions, finding solutions for puzzling situations or decision making process to select the best alternative. The concept of visual literacy is important to learn how to use dynamic materials that can be downloaded freely from the internet. The students in this digital area need to develop skills that interwine sounds, images, movements, and actions to communicate social and familiar information in more than one mode. For instance, a subtitled video that has been posted on a closed Facebook group can be played as many times as needed. By considering literacy within educational boundaries, Rowsell and Walsh (2011), identify new beliefs and views about the meaning of literacy which can be characterized as follow: • There is more emphasis on cultural practices than cognitive development. • Home and community is more involved in educational work. • Wider emphasis on screen textual structure than book textual structure. • Individuals who are achieving skills to become literate in terms of multimedia are observed carefully. In the field of new literacy studies, the literacy perspective has to do not only with the idea of mastering reading and writing abilities but multimedia technological texts, as well. Consequently, learners should be seen as multi-literate learners that are able to manage a paper-based text, and also computer-based or digital text (Street, 2009) Different types of subtitles Subtitles are defined as the permanently affixed onscreen text that represents the narration, dialogue, music, or sound effects in a program. Subtitled videos let learners not only listen but also simultaneously read the narrative of a speaker. Some applications permit students to deactivate subtitles to try to understand the content of the dialogues without any written reference. In the classroom, teachers can stop the video to emphisize in a specific part that requires an explanation or to pause when new words have to to be taught and learnt. Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 14 No. 21 There are different types of subtitles in English, and other languages. Standard subtitles (L2 audio with L1 captions), bimodal subtitles (L2 audio with L2 subtitles), and reversed subtitles (L1audio with L2 captions). L2 audio with L2 subtitles are used for this study because the main purpose is to encourage students to see and hear as much English as possible. L2- L1 can be an interference that creates a negative students’ habit: understanding only has place if they can translate from English to Spanish. (Vaezi, Sarkeshikian and Shah-Ahmadi, 2013). In the case of Colombia a huge gap can be observed between the use of subtitled videos and learning vocabulary films and in academic settings. In order to bridge this gap, the researcher tackled this issue and conducted a study to determine the role of instructional subtitled videos in learning vocabulary in a secondary school context. In fact, the study aimed to determine to what extend the use of subtitles videos influence the process of learning vocabulary. Methodology Action research is the most convenient method to follow since teacher-researcher can get immediate feedback from students’ about their performance. Subsequently and it is possible to make positive with respect to the resources.). Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) developed a concept for action research. They proposed a spiral model comprising four steps: planning, acting, observing and reflecting: Figure 1 Research Model Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 15 No. 21 Carr and Kemmis (1986) claim that AR is “simply a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out” (p. 162). Hence, AR provides the necessary elements to think of teaching as a way to increase and foster the learning opportunities of their students, which at the same time, allows teachers to develop as professional because AR “seeks to facilitate growth of teachers´ understanding of teaching and of themselves as teachers” (Richard and Farrell, 2005, p. 4). Taking into account the specific objectives that were set in this research, some steps were implemented to make the development of the research possible under a constant reflective process on the use of the strategy to learn vocabulary: Step 1. In this stage, a pre-test was applied to identify and measure the learners’ difficulties when they were working on the target words that were selected from the videos (ten words for each one) Step 2. After applying the pre-test, three sessions were developed by using 3 instructional subtitled videos downloaded from YouTube. The session was planned according to the stages proposed by Harmer (2009): engage, study and activate. The teacher facilitated and provided a clear idea about the purpose of each video task. Step 3. The classroom observations phase took a fundamental role in this inquiry since they helped teacher-researcher to highlight a set of relevant aspects that contributed to getting enough information about students’ performance during the whole process. Step 4 To know how the process of learning vocabulary using instructional subtitled videos progressed, the teacher-researcher used a diary with the aim of documenting conclusions drawn after each session. Step 5. After the task, a semi-structured interview was applied to receive students’ comments about the instructional subtitled videos as a visual strategy to learn vocabulary. Moreover, a post-test was applied with the purpose of determining how useful the use of the instructional subtitled videos was to learn vocabulary. Finally, the pre-test and post test results were compared and contrasted. By knowing how well subtitled instructional videos help students to learn vocabulary and the way they react in front them, four instruments were applied: teacher’s diary, students’ semi-structured interview, classroom observation, a test, and post- test. The three subtitled videos were : The pianist by By Brij Kothari (6’05’’), Zyppy the Zebra by Umilla Ellappan (4’50’’), and The Salt March by Esther David (5’01’’). The analysis of information was be done under two paradigms: Quantitative and Qualitative. The second one is related to the categories that emerge from students’ Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 16 No. 21 performance and the way they see the strategy. The first one has to do with the number of words students learn from the content of the videos. In order to explore the utility of instructional subtitled videos, this research addresses three questions: RQ1 To what extent instructional subtitled videos influence on students’ learning vocabulary? RQ2 What are students’ reactions using instructional subtitled videos in learning vocabulary? RQ3 What are the advantages and disadvantages of using instructional subtitled videos to learn vocabulary? Participants The instructional subtitled videos were shown to the 8-1 student cohort, composed of 15 learners: 10 boys and 5 girls, 13-16 years old. Most of them belong to the lower middle classes. They hace a basic A1 (CEFR), English level being familiar with vocabulary related to the house, family, days of the week, months of the year, weather, festivities, time, animals, routines, nationalities, ordinal and cardinal numbers, jobs, sports, likes and dislikes, things they can/can’t do. The institution where this research was developed (Tolima-Ibagué), provides an educational service to 1700 students, in primary and secondary school. There are two (2) English and (2) Spanish teachers who are members of the Humanities Faculty. The students attend thirty (30) class hours a week, three (3) of which are English, 10% of instruction time. Data collection procedure For gathering the information, several instruments were selected to achieve the necessary information to provide answers to the research questions asked. In this study a pre-test, students’ artifacts, class observation, a researcher’s diary, and a post-test was used. The teacher-researcher collected the data over three sessions (three videos). A worksheet was elaborated for each video consisting of five exercises: (1) matching pictures to words, (2) synonyms and antonyms, (3) definitions, (4) fillings in the gaps, and (5) sentence writing activities. Students and teacher performance was recorded on video for each session. To know students’ reactions during the process of intervention class observation was used. A semi-structured interview was conducted to see the advantages and disadvantages of instructional subtitled videos as a visual strategy. Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 17 No. 21 Sagor (2000) states that triangulation “involves the use of multiple independent sources of data to establish the truth and accuracy of a claim.” (p. 113) For that reason, it is fundamental to address the research questions from different angles using diverse instruments of data collection. The following triangulation matrix adapted from Sagor (2000) shows three interdependent relationships: (1) the instruments (2) the research questions they attempt to answer and (3) their level of importance to the questions. (p.115) Table 1. Triangulation Matrix (After Sagor’s, 2006) Source: the Author (2017) Data analysis Interpreting the data was based on four aspects: First, the subtitled video where the data was collected; second, the type of instrument used to collect the data; and third, the participant from whom the data was collected. A code was assigned to each aspect, and the data was labeled with different codes. Table 2. Coding process Source: The author (2018) Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 18 No. 21 This coding process was useful to identify the data that illustrated the categories and sub-categories emerging from the data analysis. For instance, information that is related to a participant 1, subtitled video ZZ, from teacher’s diary, it would be identified as S1.ZZ.TD. The exactitude of the coding process permitted a thorough and exact reading of the data. By searching evidence in the data that legitimized or questioned it, the categories and subcategories that emerged from analysis were identified. The data analysis process in this study was realized under the grounded approach (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Consequently, the categories are the result of inductive analysis of the data gathered to develop a deep understanding of the phenomena under study. The data analysis procedures consisted of reading all the data collected through the classroom observation, teacher’s diary, students’ semi-structured interview, students’ artifacts that provided validity and reliability to the findings of this study. Careful reading began right after the data gathering process started; in a simultaneous process of data collection and analysis (Johnson and Christensen, 2004).Source: The Author (2018) Table 3. Categories resulting from the analysis Category 1: Learning Words. Explains students’ performance to learn new words and there is sub category related to the unknown words. Category 2. Subtitled Videos. Refers to subtitled videos as visual strategies and it has subcategory: positive attitudes towards the use of videos Category 3. Participant’s Previous Experience. Identifies students’ vocabulary activation. It has two subcategories: students’ engagement and participation. Category 4. Participants’ Performance in Learning Vocabulary. Concentrates on the way students performed during the implementation of the video tasks. It has a subcategory: the target words. Category 5. Images and Words. Suggests the importance of supporting vocabulary learning with images. It has one sub-category: The use of images, and texts. Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 19 No. 21 The categories are reference points in the analysis of class observation, the teacher’s diary, and the semi structured interview in each video used as part of the action research process. Findings By using instructional subtitled videos the participants obtained better results in learning the target vocabulary, implying that the information was received through multisensory channels: audio, images and text. The students’ senses were interacting with movement, color, sound effects and the picture sequences that support the plot of each story, According to the semi- structured interview, the students thought that the use of instructional subtitled videos assisted them, to learn vocabulary more easily, practiced pronunciation and intonation, and had a more positive view of their English class, going beyond the traditional activities that can be boring and non-motivational in L2 acquisition. To facilitate students’ interaction with the videos and tasks, ESA (Engage, Study, Activate), (Harmer,2009, p.52) was used so as to have a didactic sequence, and activate students’ background. Each video topic conveyed a particular context where the students’ reactions were diverse. For instance, some liked Zyppy the Zebra more than Salt March, because the Zebra was trying to get rid of the fleas in an annoying but humorous situation,. It made some students laugh, especially when the animal was scratching on the ground with his legs upside down, literally going belly up. The students were able to predict, interpret and understand the video plot by following the sequence of events that take place while the video was playing. The learners concentrated on visual clues such as facial expression, dress, gesture, posture and on details of the environment. to construct meaning It is worth noting that there were some disadvantages related to students’ performance during the intervention process . On the one hand, students risked only reading the subtitles and not focusing on the video images. On the other hand, subtitles might interfere with the students who simply wanted to enjoy the video images. The students who were able to follow images and subtitles concurrently had more chances to understand the plot of the stories. Likewise, students may get a little bored if there is too much information being illustrated in the same picture. The instructional subtitled videos did not have characters’ speech audio but a narrator that described the story, using pictures related Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 20 No. 21 to the facts that occurred during the development of the plot of the video. For instance, in “The Pianist”, there is a scene where the child pianist is sitting at the piano, and the narrator explains how the little pianist practiced not only at school but also at home. It is illustrated with two pianos: a big one that was located at the school and a small one whose owner was the child. To give the idea that the pianist practices at both places, both images of the of the piano are shown separately . Pre-test and Post- Test Results Undoubtedly, the use of instructional subtitled videos was a powerful strategy that helped students learn vocabulary in an easier way since they had the possibility to have information in oral and written visual form simultaneously. Hence, some could remember the new words when they see them inserted in full complete sentences, when the words were narrated or when the images of the video images illustrated what was taking place By contrasting the pre-test and the post-test, we observed from figures below that the students performed much better in the post test.None of them failed the post- test and all of them got a higher score with respect to the pre- test. In the pre-test only five (5) students had a score above fifteen (15) right answers, and one student obtained (18) However , in the post-test, the minimum score of all of the students succeded in reaching more than twenty two (22) out of thirty (30) answers. It indicated that the intervention during the three cycles was useful and permitted the students to learn the target words thanks to the use of instructional subtitled videos as visual strategy. Figure 2. Post –Test Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 21 No. 21 Figure 3. Post- Test According to research by Naghizadeh and Darabi (2015) , the participants performed better results when they were exposed to bimodal subtitles (subtitles and audio in English). In the same vein, the learners of the present research showed better as the three cycles experiment unfolded. Concerning to the use of multimedia resources that can be downloaded for free from the internet, Harji, Woods, & Alavi, (2010), point out that learners who received the language through multisensory channels had a wider spectrum to put into practice their skills so as to work out the target vocabulary. In a similar context, the students who came into contact with subtitled videos could experiment how beneficial aural, text and images were to making sense out of the new words to be learnt. Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 22 No. 21 Conclusions The goal of this research was to know to what extent instructional subtitled videos could influence students’ learning vocabulary. These videos were Zyppy the Zebra, The Pianist and The Salt March. The findings are not in doubt, the implementation of subtitled videos contributed to learning vocabulary. The main factors associated with the outcome of this research included (1) the participants’ interest in the implementation process (2) the methodological procedure which took into account the following steps: Engage, Activate, and Study, which are suggested by Harmer (2009). EAS highly contributed to appropriately using the video material. The use of words in their visual context supports vocabulary learning. Regarding to the writing production process, students were able to organize their ideas by using the target words and the pictures as learning aids . The majority of them went from simple words to complete sentences during the three cycles . This achievement showed how the activation of learners’ background play a crucial role in creating a suitable atmosphere to be prepared to watch the videos. The design of video task material played an important role in this investigation making learning easy because the exercises could gradually motive students to learn the L2 vocabulary.Also, the students established a connection between the subtitled images, sound, and text, which made learning meaningful, and interactive. By using new words and pictures in a real context, the students were engaged in their learning process. Regarding the strategies to learn vocabulary: word association, synonyms/ antonyms sentence construction, all of them pave the way to communicate ideas, enabling the students to go beyond the words so as to express what they wanted to say in written form. The analysis showed that the systemic reflection process in each cycle of this study made it possible to incorporate changes in favor of instructional subtitled videos as a visual strategy since new details appeared during the intervention process. For instance, it was necessary for the students to develop skills and perform extra activities to gain experience in reading, watching, and listening. This research also showed that subtitled videos motivated students to learn English because of their acceptance and positive attitude toward them. It means that the vocabulary was related to artistic real social life situations. On the other hand, by writing down sentences the design of the video tasks let students go from simple exercises to more complex ones,. Limitations This study, like any other study, had its limitations. One of them was that students’ knowledge of the language varied greatly, some of them were not competent enough, Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 23 No. 21 which was noticeable during the implementation of the three videos. While some only wrote words associated with the images, others could write complete sentences. More importantly each student advanced according to his or her own skill possibilities. In the future, they should face authentic subtitled videos, as they progress in their learning. In the same direction, it is important to embody subtitled videos with characters and issues, that students identify with. I that way, they should be more committed to learning it. In other words, videos in which speech is clear enough for them to understand the topic addressed, and the message behind it, should engage students enough so that they will continue learning English. Future Research This study allowed the comprehension of the use of instructional subtitled videos in learning vocabulary in 8-2 grade, Ibagué, Colombia. However, it would be interesting to conduct further studies in this field in other EFL skills like reading, listening or writing. For example, pronunciation. Viewing without sound only reading, then read out loud. Students could then compare their pronunciation to that of the video. Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez 24 No. 21 References Harji, M. B., Woods, P. C., & Alavi, Z. K. (2010). The effect of viewing subtitled videos on vocabulary learning. Journal of College Teaching & Learning (TLC), 7(9). Kovacs, G., & Miller, R. C. (2014, April). Smart subtitles for vocabulary learning. In  Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 853-862). ACM. Naghizadeh, M., & Darabi, T. (2015). 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He     holds a Master degree in English Didactics and a BA in Modern Languages from Universidad del Tolima. He has been teaching English for over 20 years. His research interests include Foreign Language Didactics and English Learning Vocabulary. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1446-9593 Claudia Patricia Guzman-Martinez holds a Master degree in English Didactics from Universidad del Tolima. He holds a BA in Plastic Art from Universidad del Tolima. She is an English teacher at La Aguadita school in state of Tolima, Colombia.  She studied Bilingual and Computer Secretary at Instituto Meyer in Bogota. Her research interests encompass Didactics of Pedagogy, and Innovation in Education. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9796-9365 How to reference this article: Romero-Villamil, J. L., & Guzman-Martinez, C. P. (2020). Learning Vocabulary Through Instructional Subtitled Videos. GIST – Education and Learning Research Journal, 21, 7-25. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.841 Vocabulary through Instructional Videos Romero-Villamil & Guzman Martinez