Eye-tracking and subtitle reading: a systematic review

Abstract

Watching subtitled material has been repeatedly suggested to be a good source of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). With the use of eye-tracking based methodologies, many studies have observed this phenomenon and have documented the effectives and drawbacks of using subtitled materials in SLA. Hence, it is important to systematize these findings in order to be able to visualize what past research has found, where we stand, and possible future research endeavors. In this context, this systematic review is aimed at reviewing and analyzing recent studies on the reading of subtitles based on eye-tracking methodologies. It illustrates the beginnings of this technology and how it operates, the measures used in the studies, and what they reveal in terms of one’s cognitive processing while engaged in video watching activity from a Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) perspective. The results show that, despite indicating the inherent possibility to use standards for eye-tracking measures, the studies vary considerably and sometimes lack clarity as to their full replicability. Concerning CLT, it might still be early to come up with robust answers considering the results reported in the reviewed studies, especially considering the variability of the nature of the studies herein included. The outcomes from this research bring about the need for the standardization in eye-tracking studies while encouraging the field to conduct more research so that we can count on a more comprehensive and clear method of measuring all facets involved in subtitled video watching tasks and eye-tracking based methodologies in the future.