Students’ Perceptions Related to the Value of Intralingual Dubbing Activities as a Motivational Tool for the Enhancement of Oral Skills in EFL Learning

Abstract

Didactic Audiovisual Translation (DAT) can contribute a myriad of engaging and inspiring activities to foreign language (FL) education. One of the most inspiring modes is intralingual dubbing (ID), which can become a powerful and effective ally to practice and improve, among others, general oral skills such as pronunciation or intonation. Even though the design and implementation of ID activities have been studied over the past decade, their potential in aiding English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning environments is still largely unknown (Lertola, 2019). For this reason, this paper examines the implementation of ID exercises with 38 intermediate-level EFL students from Spain. The study focuses, through the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, on the participants’ perspectives on dubbing tasks as a potentially innovative, motivating, and useful tool for improving oral skills. In terms of perceived usefulness, 94.7% considered ID as “absolutely” or “quite” beneficial for their speaking skills, in line with previous research (Talaván & Costal, 2017). The results offered additional insights on ID’s engaging and innovative value, with 95% of participants expressing very favourable opinions towards the task.