Marina Bay Sand

Marina Bay Sands (MBS) is one of only two integrate resorts (IRs) in Singapore, locating in Marina Bay waterfront in the heart of the city. It developed by Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Corporation has opened officially in 2010. MBS does not only delude tourists by the fascinating design, but it also attracts visitors by a rich variety of services such as 2,560-room lodging property, amenities of spa, fitness centre, bar, theme park with infinite swimming pool, the state-of-art casino, convention, shopping mall, theaters, cinema and extraordinary lotus-shaped museum.Writing this report, the author aims to investigate MBS regarding the application of guest activity programming model. Overall, the model is very significant to MBS in delivery of service excellence to its guests. 2. The application of guest activity programming model to MBS It is not useless to spend time to explore the term of guest activity programs before applying the theory for MBS. According to Mill (2008), guest activity i s also called as recreation which is â€Å"an activity that takes place during one’s free time, is enjoyable, freely chosen, and benefits the individual emotionally, socially, physically, cognitively, and spiritually†.In other words, recreation means chosen activities that guests can receive benefits from it, including having fun together. And in order to satisfy guests, popularly the guest activity director who plays an active role in ensuring guests to get benefits will plan guest activity programs. The guest activity programming model (refers to Appendix) consists of 5 stages. First of all, it assesses guest needs. Perhaps it is influenced by 4 external factors such as history, environment, culture, and organization. These factors will contribute partly to generate guest needs.In particular, historical influences refer to the tradition and philosophy of the resort. Typically, the IR is a resort offering a rich variety of leisure and entertainment activities and casi no facilities. Thus, if developing a guest activity programming for MBS, it is possible to concern with these elements. On the other hand, environmental influences can be understood as the time of the year, weather, and nature. In Marina Bay, it inherits beautiful Singapore River which is ideal for sports on the river.Namely, MBS has collaborated with Singapore River Cruise in order to open a tour route across convenient locations surroundings the river such as Clarke Quay, Boat Quay, Merlion Park to the IR. Guests can enjoy the beauty of the river before arrivals of the IR. Cultural influences comprise of ethnicity, age, and religion of the guests. Singapore possesses multi-ethnic culture which is the most popular destination in Asia for Westerners and Easterners. Although Singaporean is mainly Chinese, Malay and Indian, most people are well-educated and comfortable with English.This cultural factor is the supporting to MBS’s business. Meanwhile, social influences are fads, trends, and news. In this respect, it can mention about the tendency of international guests in Singapore towards gambling and shopping interests. Finally, organizational influences are defined as values and mission of the company. An example of MBS, the chairman of LVS – Adelson claimed that the IR will aim to be â€Å"a catalyst for the economic future of Singapore and a launch pad for its tourism industry†.Usually LVS Corporation builds its properties in the purpose of developing the local economy, and MBS in Singapore is not an exception. Thus, in the first stage of needs assessment, the guest activity director should expect guest’s needs that reflect 4 external factors. In order to deploy the most effective needs assessment, the process must be conducted by interviewing existing and potential guests regarding their interests or learning national statistics to explore current trends in recreation.In the next stage, the guest activity director should develop objectives. After identifying what important to guests, the director will set objectives for the guest activity programming to enable guests to be satisfied. In particular, MBS will deliver outstanding services of 5-star hotel with the cutting-edge facilities. It means the IR seeks a level of over expectation to its guests. Furthermore, it is the stage of deploying cluster or activity analysis in order to meet identified objectives in the guest activity programming.According to Mill (2008), the scholar broke down each activity following by criteria: behavioral domains, skill level, interaction patterns, leadership, equipment, duration, facilities, participants, and age appropriateness. For instance, during Christmas and New Year Holidays, MBS might plan to have seasonal sales or decoration the property with sparkling style. And this involves the cluster of duration which occurs during the holiday. In addition, the external factor of environment – i. e. the time of the year, a lso generates the recreation.Beside seasonal arrangement, sometimes activity can schedule weekly or monthly in a period of the day. For instance, the Sands Fruit Festival has recently opened on July and August for 1 day. Moreover, other events require lighting, audio and visual aids such as The Social Pavilion for one’s own virtual photo shoot, exhibitions, movies and so on. All events are classified as the cluster of equipment criteria. From this stage, it can see that the use of guests, staff, resources and facilities in the model will be assisting tools together to deliver the guest experience in the next stage.The activity experience seems to be a process how much guests enjoy and have fun in recreation. Taking the example of Sands Fruit Festival, the holder promises that the festival will deliver a wide selection of premium fruits to visitors such as lychees, longans, rambutants, and mangosteens. It means the IR hopes the guests can experience high quality and fresh frui ts. Or in the lodging sector, MBS desires the guests to stay wonderful rooms. Guests can relax with spacious bathroom with freestanding bathtub and walk-in shower.In addition, they can invite friends into their rooms for conversations with coffee and tea made by in-room mini bar. Guests can watch 42-inch LCD with cable TV or movies on demand. Otherwise, business guests can take advantage of high-speed internet access for their needs. In the last stage, it is activity evaluation – an indispensable step in every process. Usually, the guest activity director might work with other department in the resort to publish customer feedback questions in order to get guest’s opinions regarding what they experience in the resort.This aims to determine whether or not objectives can be met. Otherwise, it will investigate how much objectives are met or which level of experience guests reach from unsatisfactory to delight. If there is any failure, this step will indicate clearly, as a result the resort will eliminate or make adjustment in the next guest activity programming model in order to offer better recreation. 3. Conclusion In conclusion, the guest activity programming model is very helpful tool for resorts in developing recreation and ensuring guests to be satisfied during their stays in resorts.The model consists of core 5 steps such as needs assessment, identification of objectives, activity analysis, activity experience and evaluation. The guest activity director should follow these steps to create the most efficient recreation to guests. Importantly, recreation will be built by the influences of 4 external factors such as environment, history, organization, social, and culture. Besides that, guest, staff, equipment/resources and facilities are useful tools in assisting the director to create successful recreation.

How to Lose Weight Without Going Insane Essay

At a certain age, we all reach a point in our lives where we are no longer satisfied with our appearance. Because of societies various portrayals of â€Å"beauty† by Hollywood celebrities and models, the average woman (or man) tends to become obsessed with perfection. The most common approach in changing their appearance is usually made through weight loss. Although it may take time to develop results, there are many ways to lose weight without going mad. The many keys in maintaining a successful weight loss plan is by limiting when and how much you eat, maintaining a well-balanced meal and also by exercising. The first step to losing weight is to create a list of foods you plan to eat throughout the week. You do not have to do this step, but if you feel this will help you may do so. Try to dispose of any unhealthy foods that may pressure you into eating unwisely. This will help you get motivated in achieving your goal in losing weight. If you feel the need to eat an hour or two after eating a large meal, serve yourself low-fat yogurt, smoothies, or cheese for a nourishing snack between meals. By doing this, your body goes into fat burning mode. If you skip meals and eat less than normal, your body goes into fat storing mode. This means, since your body is not getting the nutrients and proteins it needs, it won’t be able to get rid of your body’s waste products properly, therefore storing all your body’s fat. It is important to include healthy foods in your diet but when you tell yourself you can’t have a certain food, such as a cookie, you feel a sense of deprivation. If you crave a certain food, it’s best if you eat it. If not, eventually you will rebel against the deprivation and eat more cookies than your body needs. While you may feel out of control, this is a normal reaction to restricting foods. The key to a healthy relationship with food is to eat when you are hungry; eat exactly what you are hungry for and stop when you are satisfied. When you eat in this way, your body will stabilize at its natural weight. After listing your food choices, find different healthy recipes that will help your body during the process. Take a trip to the grocery store and buy foods that contain protein, calcium, nutrients, iron and fiber. Eating fish, meat, fruit, vegetables and any dairy product helps maintain your body’s metabolism, making it easier to lose weight. Starting your day with a high-fiber cereal is a great way to fill your daily needs. Add nuts to cereals, yogurts, or vegetables for added protein, fiber, and healthy fats. If you continue doing this, it won’t become a problem because your body will get used to this routine on a daily basis. When you are finished creating you’re eating schedule, try to make plans to exercise. Consider a reasonable plan for movement. Exercise is an excellent way to keep your body healthy and strong. However, exercise can become a compulsive activity causing physical and emotional problems. If you must exercise every day in order to feel relaxed or ease the anxiety, exercise different hours. If exercise gets in the way of other activities, you have probably become a compulsive exerciser. Focus on exercise as a way to stay fit rather than as a way to lose weight. Walking, jogging, running, even working on your garden is considered exercise. If you choose to develop a regular exercise schedule, make sure that it enhances your lifestyle rather than becoming an obsession. If you are not able to exercise every day, 3 or 4 days a week is more than enough. It may feel good to be active at times but try not to force it upon yourself. Exercise at your current size that feels comfortable for you. Some important things you can do for yourself, no matter what shape or body size you have, are to stay fit, eat according to your physical hunger, and develop a loving attitude toward your body. There are many programs that offer classes for larger people in a safe, accepting environment with an emphasis on fitness rather than weight loss. According to Martin Haracz, the key to having a high self-esteem is for you and your family to value who you are and respect your body, no matter what your size. If neither of these steps seem to work due to emotional reasons or constant overeating, consider getting help from a therapist so that you can directly deal with the issues in your life that makes you unhappy. Don’t blame yourself for the difficulties you encounter in maintaining weight loss. Rather than feeling shame, try to become compassionate with yourself. While you may solve some of the other difficulties in your life, compulsive eating behaviors require direct intervention. It is tough to live in a society that tells you that you are not â€Å"okay† just the way you are. Instead of trying to change the shape of your body, consider trying to change the messages which you’ve internalized. Remember that your genetics plays the greatest role in determining your size, followed by changes in your physiology due to dieting. The key to losing weight and being fit, is to be patient. If your reason for wanting to lose weight is to become â€Å"attractive,† feel better about yourself or just simply to be healthy, don’t hurt yourself in the process. There are happy and unhappy people at all sizes. Accept the fact that your body will naturally change throughout the life cycle. Celebrate the health and capacities of your body rather than trying to attain cultural ideas which are unrealistic. In time, you will see results. Be patient, live life, and above all, be confident about both yourself and your body.

Qatar Airways Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Qatar Airways - Research Paper Example Along with that companies differentiated their services based on the consumer demographics and marketing mix. This also helped in changing the overall perspectives for the airlines industry in Qatar. According to the IATA (2010) report, the growth of Middle East airlines industry was more than 10% by the end of June 2009 which was one of the fastest growth rates in the global airlines industry. Some of the reasons of the better performance of the Middle East airlines are their customer focused approach, competitive services that is helping them increasing the customer base. The reduction of prices of premium and luxury services has helped in increase demand of this segment. Some companies have established their names for the high standard services among their customers and competitors. Emirates and Qatar airlines are leading in this area to provide high benchmarking standards for the other competitors. Qatar Airways was established in the year 1993 and started its operations in 1994. The first flight of this airline was 737-200. By the year 2003, the company had 35 aircraft that covered 52 destinations. In the year 2005 the number of aircrafts increased to 52 and by 2010 it is 71 aircrafts. The destinations covered increased to 60 in the year 2005 and 84 in the present scenario. The numbers of people using the Qatar Airways services are more than 120, 000, 000. The company has home offices across the 90 countries in the world including Al-Maha Tower in Qatar (See Appendix Route Map). The organisation has a strong team of 664 pilots. These include 67 Qataris pilots and 80 pilots under training. The current fleet size of 71 aircraft includes 8 B-777-300ERs, 2 B-777-200LRs and others such as A300, A320, A340, A321. Qatar Airways has ongoing orders for 200 more aircrafts and has expansion plan of 110 aircrafts by the year 2013. On Order Fleet are 5 A380, 26 B-777, 60 B-787 and 80 A-350. It is expected that five of the

Journal e Week 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Journal e Week 2 - Assignment Example The ultimate goal of health care should be equalizing everyones chances in getting medical attention. In advanced nursing practice justice and beneficence is when a nurse delays to attend to a patient because at that time the nurse is attending to a very ill child who requires instant medical attention. There are scenarios where nurses encounter legal and ethical dilemmas. However, the nurse must be ready to make the correct decision regardless of how unpopular they are. The moral dilemmas can be solved through education. There are ethical laws that regulate the ethics in nursing, for instance the Nurse Practice Act. A nurse can serve a jail term if found guilty for violating the standards of the nursing profession (Guido, 1996). In teaching nursing students about the ethical and legal issues in nursing case studies are very important and effective. Nevertheless, each case that a nurse will encounter in her career will be unique just as the patients but the principles behind the legal issues remain the same. In this manner, the nurse will be able to apply the ethical and legal aspects of nursing in her career (Fry, Veatch & Taylor,

Promised land or purgatory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Promised land or purgatory - Essay Example But it has taken useful and proven information from Psychiatrist John Ratey, from research of Carolyn Meltzer on serotonin, pharmacy, hospital and social care information on over-medication. It has also collected valuable information from aging, but mentally and physically agile people like Professor Scheibel about brain’s plasticity. Further information is collected from aerobic studies along with data from active social life of improved self-worth. Report includes results from studies by Joel Tsevat on social contact, scientists’ research on anti-aging remedies in search of Fountain of Youth, and studies on antioxidants. 4. Author discovered that with proper guidance and right steps, mental problem in old age could be completely avoided2, anti-aging remedies and antioxidants are ineffective, social contact and psychological positive thinking are helpful and over-medication could lead to disaster in old age. Report says that brain’s plasticity could be maintained well into very old age by mental work forcing the brain to evolve, while, aerobic and normal exercises keep the mind agile. Altruism, friendship and social relationships are important for feeling of self-worth. This would also help in negating the useless feeling and aggressive nature due to helplessness of old age3. 5. Report does not mention the food and nutrition that could strengthen the elderly. It has not given a thought for the nutritious food that should be consumed in preparation to old age, so that old age could be healthier mentally and physically. Also it lacks information about Eastern and Western differences because Eastern elderly are not lonely and hence, are not troubled much by mental problems. 6. Report provides a very positive view about old age, rightly condemning the horrifying picture of old age the suicide agents like Jack Kevorkian provide. It warns against over medication and lethargic way of life, and rightly so. It has focused on social contact, a much needed

Mindfulness practice in my life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mindfulness practice in my life - Essay Example We must have patience in order to achieve our aspirations. We must have the mentality that everything is possible but this can only be done by someone who has patience. Some people cannot wait for tomorrow and this is very dangerous since it often leads to failure to achieve the desired goals in life. I have chosen this focus because it is not stressful. If you do your things at your own pace, you are rest assured that you will achieve the desired goals one of the days. This gives you peace of mind such that you carefully plan your things in advance. You are also in a position to decide on the exact path to take in pursuit of your goals. You will be under no pressure to such an extent that you may attempt to fast track certain events that simply require taking their due course in order to accomplish them. If you are patient in what you are doing, you are likely to review progress of the course of action you are taking. This can help you review the action being taken and make necessary changes that can help you to achieve your goals. One good thing about having patience in life is that you will have peace of mind. You do not have any stress that can negatively impact on your normal life. People who are stressed often experience numerous health problems and some can cause severe illness. People who have stress often experience problems such as loss of concentration in what they are doing. Some of them often suffer from depression and anxiety after realising that their wishes are aspirations are taking ages to be fruitful. I have learned that the subject of mindfulness is quite complex but it is very enlightening since it is comprised of real life events. What I liked most about this subject is that we tend to take some things in our lives for granted but upon a closer look, they are not that simple. This we often view as simple and walk over can be complex and challenging such that you may end up failing to get a solution for such

The Return of Martin Guerre Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Return of Martin Guerre - Assignment Example The Return of Martin Guerre The new Martin Guerre was in fact Arnaud du Tilh from another village. The real Guerre had fled to Spain and fought in their war against his home country, where he lost one leg in battle. du Tilh, nicknamed â€Å"Pansette† (the belly) for his voracious appetite for life’s finer things (including women) was also something of a con man and spent years perfecting the Guerre persona, for Pansette also looked remarkably like Guerre. He fooled all the villagers, including Guerre’s sisters but the one person he didn’t hoodwink was Bertrande, Martin’s wife. However, Pansette was all of what Martin never had been, perhaps more of a man, and Bertrande helped the man perfect his lie, living with him as his wife. The one downfall for Pansette was when he sold some of the family holdings and demanded an accounting of his â€Å"father’s† estate from Uncle Pierre, the executor in Martin’s absence. Enraged, Pierre managed to gather enough doubt that Pansette was the real Martin and brought him to trial. With supporters on both sides, the judge craftily turned the case over to Parliament, whose agent decided Pansette was in fact probably Martin. In the midst of that confusion, the real Martin Guerre showed back up on his crutch and proved his identity to be true. Therefore Pansette was executed by hanging. Bertrande, because of her adultery, was sentenced to the same fate but only spared due to her being female. Instead she was forced to watch probably the only man she loved die and had to live with the man who deserted her. So what was life like for the peasant class of sixteenth century Europe, France in particular? For one thing the health conditions were horrendous. The infant mortality rate was so high that thirty-three per cent of babies born failed to survive past their first birthday. That was little wonder, for such diseases as typhus, measles, malaria, smallpox, and scarlet fever were rampant. Add to that the most famous disease of the time, the Bubonic Plague, or Black Death, which killed without mercy from the lowest peasant to the Royal Families themselves. It wiped out huge percentages of the populations within days during its sporadic outbreaks, one of which occurred during Guerre’s time. However, even if one managed to avoid all of this, the average life expectancy was around forty years old. Essential services were nonexistent. There was very little fresh drinking water and raw sewage ran in the fields and streets. Hygiene was very seldom practiced and people went weeks or months without bathing. Without refrigeration, meats and dairy products spoiled very quickly. Fresh fruits and vegetables were also scarce so scurvy and rickets were commonplace. All of this contributed to an abundance of vermin such as rats and their fleas, which in turn were directly responsible for the Plague. Clothing was simple and mostly handmade for the peasant class, for fabric was expensive and rare. The French peasants, like their counterparts throughout Europe, toiled with the same primitive tools their ancestors had used for centuries. Draft animals such as horses were scant so most of the work was done by hand. The money-based economies were growing for the middle and upper

Enviroment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Enviroment - Essay Example re not controlled by forest guards and other environmental conservationists in conjunction with the citizens, then reforestation is all that will be done and before those trees grow to curb the carbon dioxide, it will be several decades. Widespread destruction of forests is one of the setbacks that is being experienced not only in United States but in other continents too like Australia and this has meant that the governments are spending most of their conservation resources meant to benefit the future generation’s environment fighting these fires. This impact negatively on the rest of the population who have to continue waiting before the environment becomes better. The Copenhagen Agreement of 2009 is a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and is aimed on ensuring climate change impacts are dealt with not only on paper but on the ground too. It especially focuses on cutting deeply the global emissions which are the greatest headache for climate change (Fabra and Mackenzie, 295). Blevins, Gene. â€Å"Wildfire grows chases thousands out of Southern Calif. Forest.† NBCnews, 3/9/2012. Retrieved from:

Models of Comparative Healthcare Analysis Essay

Models of Comparative Healthcare Analysis - Essay Example Each nation has devised its own health care system, which is adapted to provide for health needs of the citizens. Different countries devise different models, which they follow to attain the chief objectives of the healthcare system that include protection of families and individuals from financial exploitation and ruin through healthcare bills, treatment, and care of the sick people and keeping individuals healthy (Paranjape & Sadanad, 2010). It is not necessary to study the variations and health systems that exist in every nation, as the arrangements for health care providers seem to follow a similar pattern. Though there tend to be four models of healthcare analysis, the span of this write up does not encompass all the four models, but three models only.The first model of comparative healthcare analysis is The Beveridge Model, which was named after a social reformer who designed the National Health System of Britain. This social reformer was named William Beveridge, and he was a f amous person who influenced the health system in Britain for long. The system advocates for payment and provision of health services by the government, which finances the operations through taxes and revenue collection from the citizens (Wurman, 2004). In countries where the model operates, most of the hospitals, clinics and other health infrastructures are owned by the nation, and most of the health personnel who work in the health facilities are employees of the government (Paranjape & Sadanad, 2010).... This social reformer was named William Beveridge, and he was a famous person who influenced the health system in Britain for long. The system advocates for payment and provision of health services by the government, which finances the operations through taxes and revenue collection from the citizens (Wurman, 2004). In countries where the model operates, most of the hospitals, clinics and other health infrastructures are owned by the  nation, and most of the  health personnel who work in the health facilities are employees of the government (Paranjape & Sadanad, 2010). However, other doctors and nurses in this model work on a private basis, and they get their salaries from the government. Britain’s citizens never get hospital bills that wipe out the entire savings of families, relatives and friends (Institute of Medicine, 1994). The Beveridge Model has reduced per capita since the government regulates the practices of doctors and other medical personnel, as well as the fees that they charge for treatment of patients. The Beveridge Model is popular in the original place where it started (Great Britain), and other regions and countries, such as Scandinavia, Spain and New Zealand. Hong Kong has maintained The Beveridge Model of the healthcare system, which is a symbol of the ideology that the nation has maintained after its independence from the Britons. Despite the fact that The Beveridge Model is evident in most parts of the world, Cuba is a perfect example of a country where this model is practiced to the letter. The government has total control of the heath system, and it controls all services and operations of doctors. Patients get their health services at the expense of the government, and every citizen is guaranteed

What kind of leadership style improves employee satisfaction in China Literature review

What kind of leadership style improves employee satisfaction in China - Literature review Example Work by 9 different authors (Fu et al (2011), Shen, J (2010), Talehgani et al (2010), Hsu and Chen (2011), Ngo et al (2008), Wong et al (2007), Madlcok (2008), Loi and Ngo (2010) and Wu and Chiang (2007)) between 2007 and 2012 have been primarily discussed in the study to identify their methodology for studying the different factors determining employee job satisfaction, the reliability and validity of the data and methodology, their findings and to identify if any major similarities or differences exist in their observations. This critical review of the mentioned available literature is useful in understanding the relationship between leadership styles and employee satisfaction. Topic review It is understood that leadership is a process that has influence on the motivation and performance of group activities as the group works towards realizing the common goals. The type of leadership provided by the leader or manager and the specific environment are seen to determine the successful achievement of the organizational goals in every organization or group across the globe (Talehgani et al, 2010, p 92). This prompts one to explore what leadership style or styles exist that is identified to be more successful than others and what impact these styles have on factors including employee motivation and subsequent job satisfaction. Their study draws on a combination of Robert House’s direction-goal model (House, 1996) and Geert Hofstede’s study on dividing of cultural dimensions (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2012) to develop a model that aimed to assess the cultural behaviour pattern in 18 countries. The researchers divided leadership styles into four categories: directional, supportive, participatory and success oriented... The purpose of this research is to study the different leadership styles employed by managers in the different organizational settings to assess the impact on employee satisfaction in China. The focus of the study is to understand the different kinds of organizational settings or firm ownership and identify what specific patterns of leadership exist within these different organizations to affect employee motivation and job satisfaction. This study is important in the background of China facing talent shortage as per a 2010 survey by Manpower Inc. and another joint survey conducted by Kelly Services and Harvard Business Review. It is understood that leadership is a process that has influence on the motivation and performance of group activities as the group works towards realizing the common goals. The type of leadership provided by the leader or manager and the specific environment are seen to determine the successful achievement of the organizational goals in every organization or g roup across the globe. This prompts one to explore what leadership style or styles exist that is identified to be more successful than others and what impact these styles have on factors including employee motivation and subsequent job satisfaction. Their study draws on a combination of Robert House’s direction-goal model and Geert Hofstede’s study on dividing of cultural dimensions to develop a model that aimed to assess the cultural behaviour pattern in 18 countries. The researchers divided leadership styles into four categories: directional, supportive, participatory and success oriented leadership.

Apple Inc Development Essay Example for Free

Apple Inc Development Essay Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had withdrawn from Reed College and UC Berkeley, respectively by 1975. Wozniak designed a video terminal that he could use to log on to the minicomputers at Call Computer. Alex Kamradt commissioned the design and sold a small number of them through his firm. Aside from their interest in up-to-date technology, the impetus for the two Steves seems to have had another source. In his essay From Satori to Silicon Valley (published 1986), cultural historian Theodore Roszak made the point that the Apple Computer emerged from within the West Coast counterculture and the need to produce print-outs, letter labels, and databases. Roszak offers a bit of background on the development of the two Steves’ prototype models. In 1976, Wozniak started attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club. New microcomputers such as the Altair 8800 and the IMSAI inspired him to build a microprocessor into his video terminal and have a complete computer. At the time the only microcomputer CPUs generally available were the $179 Intel 8080 ($773.00 in present-day terms[11]), and the $170 Motorola 6800 ($734.00 in present-day terms[11]). Wozniak preferred the 6800, but both were out of his price range. So he watched, and learned, and designed computers on paper, waiting for the day he could afford a CPU. When MOS Technology released its $20 ($82.00 in present-day terms[11]) 6502 chip in 1976, Wozniak wrote a version of BASIC for it, then began to design a computer for it to run on. The 6502 was designed by the same people who designed the 6800, as many in Silicon Valley left employers to form their own companies. Wozniaks earlier 6800 paper-computer needed only minor changes to run on the new chip. Wozniak completed the machine and took it to Homebrew Computer Club meetings to show it off. At the meeting, Wozniak met his old friend Jobs, who was interested in the commercial potential of the small hobby machines. The Apple I was sold as an assembled circuit board and lacked basic features such as a keyboard, monitor, and case. The owner of this unit added a keyboard and a wooden case. The very first Apple Computer logo, drawn by Ronald Wayne, depicts Isaac Newton under an apple tree. The Apple logo in 1977 created by Rob Janoff with the rainbow color theme used until 1998. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had been friends for some time, having met in 1971, when their mutual friend, Bill Fernandez, introduced 21-year-old Wozniak to 16-year-old Jobs. Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a machine and selling it. Jobs approached a local computer store, The Byte Shop, who said they would be interested in the machine, but only if it came fully assembled. The owner, Paul Terrell, went further, saying he would order 50 of the machines and pay US $500 ($2.04 thousand in present-day terms[11]) each on delivery.[12] Jobs then took the purchase order that he had been given from the Byte Shop to Cramer Electronics, a national electronic parts distributor, and ordered the components he needed to assemble the Apple I Computer. The local credit manager asked Jobs how he was going to pay for the parts and he replied, I have this purchase order from the Byte Shop chain of computer stores for 50 of my computers and the payment terms are COD. If you give me the parts on a net 30 day terms I can build and deliver the computers in that time frame, collect my money from Terrell at the Byte Shop and pay you.[13] With that, the credit manager called Paul Terrell who was attending an IEEE computer conference at Asilomar in Pacific Grove and verified the validity of the purchase order. Amazed at the tenacity of Jobs, Terrell assured the credit manager if the computers showed up in his stores Jobs would be paid and would have more than enough money to pay for the parts order. The two Steves and their small crew spent day and night building and testing the computers and delivered to Terrell on time to pay his suppliers and have a tidy profit left over for their celebration and next order. Steve Jobs had found a way to finance his soon-to-be multimillion-dollar company without giving away one share of stock or ownership. The machine had only a few notable features. One was the use of a TV as the display system, whereas many machines had no display at all. This was not like the displays of later machines, however; text was displayed at a terribly slow 60 characters per second. However, this was still faster than the teleprinters used on contemporary machines of that era. The Apple I also included bootstrap code on ROM, which made it easier to start up. Finally, at the insistence of Paul Terrell, Wozniak also designed a cassette interface for loading and saving programs, at the then-rapid pace of 1200 bit/s. Although the machine was fairly simple, it was nevertheless a masterpiece of design, using far fewer parts than anything in its class, and quickly earning Wozniak a reputation as a master designer. Joined by another friend, Ronald Wayne, the three started to build the machines. Using a variety of methods, including borrowing space from friends and family, selling various prized items (like calculators and a VW bus) and scrounging, Jobs managed to secure the parts needed while Wozniak and Wayne assembled them. But the owner of the Byte Shop was expecting complete computers, not just printed circuit boards. The boards still being a product for the customers Terrell still paid them.[14] Eventually 200 of the Apple Is were built. Apple II Main article: Apple II series Wozniak had already moved on from the Apple I. Many of the design features of the I were due to the limited amount of money they had to construct the prototype, but with the income from the sales he was able to start construction of a greatly improved machine, the Apple II; it was presented to the public at the first West Coast Computer Faire on April 16 and April 17, 1977. On the first day of exhibition, Jobs introduced Apple II to a Japanese chemist named Toshio Mizushima who became the first authorized Apple dealer in Japan. The main difference internally was a completely redesigned TV interface, which held the display in memory. Now not only useful for simple text display, the Apple II included graphics, and, eventually, color. Jobs meanwhile pressed for a much improved case and keyboard, with the idea that the machine should be complete and ready to run out of the box. This was almost the case for the Apple I machines sold to The Byte Shop, but one still needed to plug various parts together and type in the code to run BASIC. Building such a machine was going to be fiscally burdensome. Jobs started looking for cash, but Wayne was somewhat gun shy due to a failed venture four years earlier, and eventually dropped out of the company. Banks were reluctant to lend Jobs money; the idea of a computer for ordinary people seemed absurd at the time. Jobs eventually met Mike Markkula who co-signed a bank loan for US$250,000, and the three formed Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. The name Apple was chosen because the company to beat in the technology industry at the time was Atari, and Apple Computer came before Atari alphabetically and thus also in the phone book. Another reason was that Jobs had happy memories of working on an Oregon apple farm one summer.[15] With both cash, and a new case design in hand thanks to designer Jerry Manock, the Apple II was released in 1977 and became the computer generally credited with creating the home computer market[citation needed]. Millions were sold well into the 1980s. A number of different models of the Apple II series were built, including the Apple IIe and Apple IIGS, which could still be found in many schools as late as 2005.[citation needed] Apple III While the Apple II was already established as a successful business-ready platform because of Visicalc, Apple was not content. The Apple III (Apple 3) was designed to take on the business environment. It was released on May 19, 1980. The Apple III was a relatively conservative design for computers of the era. However, Steve Jobs did not want the computer to have a fan; rather, he wanted the heat generated by the electronics to be dissipated through the chassis of the machine, forgoing the cooling fan. Unfortunately, the physical design of the case was not sufficient to cool the components inside it. By removing the fan from the design, the Apple III was prone to overheating. This caused the integrated circuit chips to disconnect from the motherboard. Customers who contacted Apple customer service were told to drop the computer on the desk, which would cause the ICs to fall back in to place. Thousands of Apple III computers were recalled and, although a new model was introduced in 1983 to rectify the problems, the damage was already done. Apple IPO In August 1980, the Financial Times reported that Apple Computer, the fast growing Californian manufacturer of small computers for the consumer, business and educational markets, is planning to go public later this year. [It] is the largest private manufacturer in the U.S. of small computers. Founded about five years ago as a small workshop business, it has become the second largest manufacturer of small computers, after the Radio Shack division of the Tandy company.[16] On December 12, 1980, Apple launched the Initial Public Offering of its stock to the investing public. When Apple went public, it generated more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956 and instantly created more millionaires (about 300) than any company in history.[17] Several venture capitalists cashed out, reaping billions in long-term capital gains. In January 1981, Apple held its first shareholders meeting as a public company in the Flint Center, a large auditorium at nearby De Anza College, which is often used for symphony concerts. (Previous meetings were held quietly in smaller rooms, because there had only been a few shareholders.) The business of the meeting had been planned (or choreographed) so that the voting could be staged in 15 minutes or less. In most cases, voting proxies are collected by mail and counted days or months before a meeting. In this case, after the IPO, many shares were in new hands. Steve Jobs started his prepared speech, but after being interrupted by voting several times, he dropped his prepared speech and delivered a long, emotionally charged talk about betrayal, lack of respect, and related topics.

Benefits of Subtitles in English Learning

Benefits of Subtitles in English Learning CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background All through the years, there has been an increasing emphasis on teaching English as an instrument for communication, and technology has played a critical function in facilitating authentic communication. The movement of language teaching objectives and practices has changed from the printed word and knowledge of language systems to the use and communicative value of the spoken language in the everyday setting (Vanderplank, 1993). In a sense, the efficacy of multimedia has drawn great consideration and is presumed, under the theory of adding an additional channel of media to send out a message, to significantly improve communication and comprehension (Dwyer, 1978). Multimedia technology (like TV, computers, networks, emails video cassette recorders (VCRS), compact disc ready-only memories (CD-ROMs) and interactive multimedia) aids the teaching technique of integrating real-life situations with the target language into the language classroom. In this meticulous setting, learners slowly expand their language acquisition by being exposed to the authentic environment of the target language. According to one of the most outstanding theories of second language acquisition, Krashen (1985) proposed that learners can learn a large amount of language unconsciously through ample comprehensible input. The Input Hypothesis, stated by Krashen, argues that the use of a target language in real communicative environments and the stress on rich comprehensible input by exposing the learners to the target language in the classroom facilitate their language acquisition. In other words, language acquisition only happens when comprehensible input is suitably delivered. In this respect, language teachers struggle to employ a wide range of teaching techniques to make authentic situations and to promote learners language acquisition. Many researchers have presented strong evidence that multimedia (like computers, video, and TV) have helpful effects on language learning due to rich and authentic comprehensible input (Brett, 1995; Egbert Jessup, 1996; Khalid, 2001). Results of these studies demonstrated the significance of the use of multimedia develops learners language performance in reading, listening comprehension and vocabulary recognition. One survey study by the American Association of School Administrators showed that 94 percent of teachers and supervisors believe that technology has enhanced students learning considerably. Similarly, many English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) teachers concur that educational technology presents many possibilities for progressing students language proficiency, including their vocabulary, reading, listening, and speaking. Similarly, television programs and videos have created a place in the communication of information and are powerful apparatus in improving language teaching (Anderson Lorch, 1983). Both TV and videos communicate not only visually through pictures but also aurally throughout the spoken word, music and sound effects. The subtitle, a key role on television and videotapes, is coordinated with the dialogue or narration of the programs audio track, expanding comprehension and understanding of TV programs and videos. Lambert, Boehler and Sidoti (1981) have asserted that the constant general movement indicates that information coming through two input types (e.g., dialogue and subtitles) is more systematically processed than if either dialogue or subtitles are presented alone. This result is in agreement with the dual-coding theory by Allan Paivio (1971), sustaining the usefulness of multiple-channel communication. In the same way, Hartmans (1961a) findings support the between-channel redun dancy theory which suggested that when information is redundant between two input sources (e.g., dialog and subtitles), comprehension will be superior than when the information is coming through one input form, (e.g., dialog). He also gave a description of redundant information as identical information from the visual and verbal stimuli. In this respect, Hartman completed that the benefit of the multiple-channel learning system is this: information coming from two information sources is more comprehensible than that through one. Information input through different sensory channels supplies receivers with additional stimuli reinforcement to guarantee that more complete learning happens. More explicitly, the additional stimuli reinforcement helps out learners in systematizing and structuring the incoming information. However, a contrasting theory, the single channel theory proposed by Broadbent (1958), states that human can only process information throughout one channel at a time. This theory assumes that the decline of learning takes place if the information is received through two or more sources. The learning is delayed when the multiple-channel presentation of information is used in the teaching-learning process. Along with this contentious viewpoint between the single and the multiple-channel presentation, an awareness of and interest in the use of multimedia resources have been increasing, like the presentation of subtitled materials. Today, language learning has turned out to be more available by implementing multimedia with spoken information and full visual context, such as subtitles. For instance, subtitled videos representing words and pictures in an aural and in a visual form are more probable to activate both coding systems in the processing than words or pictures alone. The dual-coding theory proposed by Paivio (1971) suggests that when pictures are added to the meaning, the number of signals connected with the message increases. Viewers then will be more probable to keep the message in mind. Therefore, the results of the past research appear to sustain the aspect that the use of subtitles causes multi-sensory processing, interacting with audio, video and print mechanisms. These information input foundations get the process of language learning better, improve the comprehension of the content, and increase vocabulary by looking at the subtitled words in meaningful and stimulating circumstances. In addition , a lot of teachers consider subtitles shed some new light on a better way of using various multimedia in the ESL classroom. When subtitled technology appeared more than 15 years ago, many educators quickly saw value in exploiting its potential in helping students process language in a different way and effectively by means of the printed word. (Goldman, 1996; Holobow, Lambert, Sayegh, 1984; Koskinen, Wilson, Gambrell, Neuman, 1993; Parks, 1994; Vanderplank, 1993). 1.1.1 Subtitle Subtitles, which are English written subtitles on instructional English-as-second-language (ESL) videos in this study, are the written version of the audio constituent that permits dialogue, music, narration and sound effects to be shown at the bottom of the screen on most televisions. There are two kinds of subtitles explained in general terms: the open subtitle and the closed subtitle. Closed subtitles refer to the subtitles that are not automatically visible to the viewer; however can be viewed by turning on through use of a remote control or an electronic subtitle decoder. By contrast, open subtitles are visible to all viewers without turning them on with a remote control. Subtitling is not only the main function of the TV but a positive function of video tapes. Video tapes offer subtitling by those who specialize in computer workstations. To make subtitles visible, an electronic subtitle decoder is obligatory, that is easily attached to a television set. Although it is not avail able in some areas of the world, subtitling technology is broadly accessible and draws great attention in the United States. In 1990, the U. S. Congress passed the Television Decoder Circuitry Act requiring that all new televisions, thirteen inches or larger, be prepared with subtitle decoder circuitry. The function of the decoder circuitry is to receive, decode, and show closed subtitles from cable, DVD signals and videotape appropriately. With reference to this regulation, the consumer is no longer required to pay for a separate decoder, when in possession of an applicable TV set. Therefore, thousands of people in the U.S. have access to subtitles without any trouble by pushing the button on the remote controls (National Subtitleing Institute, 1989). However, available access of subtitles on foreign film videos is still restricted in other countries, such as Taiwan and Japan, where external subtitle decoders are necessary for viewing. Subtitleing was devised initially for the hearing impaired. The statistics on the number of decoders sold confirm that more than half were bought for the hearing impaired who assert that decoders are helpful to them. Increasingly, the use of subtitles has also augmented among the non-native speakers who are motivated to improve their language learning. A study by Hofmeister, Menlove, and Thorkildsen (1992) discovered that 40 percent of people other than the hearing impaired buy the decoders, such as foreign students. To be explicit, the motive for this phenomenon is that subtitles show words in a motivating atmosphere where the audio, video and print media help viewers comprehend the unknown words and meanings in their context. However, subtitles have a great impact on comprehension improvement of specific TV programs and improve English language learning progressively. For the benefits of the multimedia approach, ESL programs began to incorporate subtitled materials into the curricula to help ESL students language learning. The focus on teaching techniques and on means of optimizing students comprehension of the second language has been of great concern through this multimedia. Koskinen, Wilson, Gambrell, and Neuman (1993) stated that the subtitled video is a new and promising approach for improving students vocabulary, reading comprehension, and motivation. Other researches have been conducted to inspect whether subtitled TV and video improve or obstruct students learning. The results have indicated that subtitled TV and videos are helpful for the hearing impaired, ESL students and disabled students (Bean Wilson, 1989; Borras Lafayette, 1994; Ellsworth, 1992; Garza, 1991; Goldman, 1996; Goldman Goldman, 1988; Markham, 1989; Nugent, 1983; Parlato, 1985; Price, 1983; Vanderplank, 1991; Webb, Vanderplank, Parks, 1994; Wilson Koskinen, 1986). Despite a large number of studies suggesting/demonstrating the benefits of the use of subtitles for the hearing-impaired, language learners, and disabled students, similar studies on the use of English subtitles in English teaching are still limited in Iran. Thus, there is great scope for additional examination into the potential use of subtitled television videos to enhance language teaching to English-as-Foreign-Language (EFL) students. The design of this research elaborates mainly on the language learning achievements. This study adds to the aforementioned to investigate the exposure of target language input to students through the presentation subtitled videos. This research focuses on the absence or presence of 10 English subtitled ESL instructional video episodes for a period of five weeks as a primary variable in an experiment to help determine the conditions for the improvement of Iranian college students learning English as a foreign language in Iran. 1.2 Statement of the Problem Many people in Iran have problems when it comes to communicating with foreigners in English. In addition, to get information from the Internet, having a fair amount of English knowledge is required. That makes accessing information a problem for those with limited English language proficiency. In addition, those Iranian students who wish to study abroad, language is the main problem since they have studied in Farsi for all their educational life, and thus adapting to a non-Persian environment is consequently very difficult. Students in Iran, start learning the Basic English at their secondary schools, however the curriculum structure, is based on teaching grammar rather than oral skills; therefore, most students oral communication skills are limited. . Moloney (1995) states that the emergence of English in the global market has resulted in the current ardor for learning English in developing countries. The need for English in Iran is unique. English is not only a required course for Iranian students, but also required and tested as part of major entrance examinations in Iran. These mentioned issues are going to be considered in proposing subtitles in videos and English learning movie solution. 1.3 Objectives of the Study The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of subtitled videos in enhancing university students language learning in Iran [English as a foreign language (EFL)]. In the study, the term language learning represents two types of performances. The first is students content comprehension of a particular video episode, as evaluated by a Content Specific Tests (CST) and the second is to investigate the learners vocabulary acquisition. 1.4 Significance of the Study Teachers professional development activities always focus on those types of teaching strategies that help students improve along with their path of learning process. As the research has been designed to discover the effectiveness of presenting subtitles on the movies on vocabulary acquisition and content comprehension, it would be of much significance if confirmed that this strategy works. Generally speaking, it can also been resulted that the finding of this research also could be added to the body of language teaching, learning and use of multimedia technology knowledge. The findings of this study can be share with the curriculum designers, EFL/ ESL teachers for the technology to be implemented in the classroom, materials developers for English teaching 1.5 Hypotheses This study focuses on English language learners performance on the Content-Specific Tests (CST) of vocabulary, and content comprehension of videos with and without subtitles. The researcher tested each of the following null hypotheses as she controls the initial differences of the participants in their general English proficiency. Ho 1: There is no significant difference on the scores of the content comprehension subtest of the CST between subjects watching videos with subtitles and those watching videos without subtitles. Ho 2: There is no significant difference on the scores in the content vocabulary subtest of the CST between subjects watching videos with subtitles and those watching videos without subtitles. 1.6 Research Question 1. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their vocabulary significantly? 2. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their content comprehension significantly? 3. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their English language proficiency significantly? 1.7 Definition of the Terms The definitions are given here to make sure uniformity and understanding of these terms throughout the study. 1.7.1 Subtitle Subtitle is the spoken words designed for the deaf and hearing-impaired people helping them read what they cannot hear. The terms subtitles and subtitles are interchangeably used in this research and are described as the translations of the spoken words to the written with the identical language shown at the bottom of the screen. 1.7.2 Closed Subtitle A subtitle of spoken words viewed by a special decoding device installed in the television set or a special decoder machine. 1.7.3 Open Subtitle A subtitle of spoken words that always is printed at the bottom of the screen. 1.7.4 Content-Specific Test (CST) An instrument designed by the researcher for this study used to measure learners overall comprehension in terms of vocabulary and content comprehension of a particular video segment. The CST includes the two subtests: vocabulary and content comprehension. 1.7.5 Content Vocabulary The vocabulary that comes into sight from the particular video piece viewed by the subjects 1.7.6 Content Comprehension Content comprehension that focuses mainly on the whole story script and test viewers comprehension of the particular information shown in the video 1.8 Limitation of the Study The researcher encountered difficulty in access to the samples of all Iranian population of EFL learners since the country is very huge and the numbers of English learners are so many. It was very hard to control teachers inside-class activities based on the methodologies presented to them. Non-generalizability of the findings to all English learners, especially ESL learners is another which is because the research is conducted in an EFL (Iran) context. The last but not the least limitation is the material choice since there are various types of videos. Therefore, the researcher had to restrict the video to an instructional video, connect with English since it is both with and without subtitle available as well as being suitable for the proficiency level of the participants. 1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter I introduces the foundation for this research, the purpose of the study, and definitions of key terms used throughout the study to diminish potential misunderstanding. Chapter II presents a review of the literature of the use of subtitles. It starts with a theoretical review of the cognitive information processing relevant to the single channel theory and the multiple-channel theory, with focus on the cue-summation theory, the between-channel redundancy theory, the dual-coding theory and the capacity theory. It then keeps on with a discussion of the schemata theory, the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis by Krashen and the ACT Model by Anderson. Subsequently, the relevant major research on subtitles for the hearing-impaired, disabled, normal reading ability, and language learners is offered. Chapter III outlines the method of hypotheses testing formulated in Chapter I. It also includes the research design, followed by a description of the subjects in this study, the treatment materials employed, the testing instruments, the data collection procedure, and the details of the data analysis applied. In Chapter IV, the analyses are performed to reveal the research hypotheses are explained in detail, with the quantitative results of these analyses and an interpretation of the results. The final chapter, Chapter V, summarizes the findings of the study in light of research hypotheses and discusses the performance of the subjects and the results of the analyses shown in Chapter IV. The conclusion interprets the effect of subtitled videos on EFL students language learning in relation to their listening and reading comprehension and their vocabulary. To synthesize the conclusion of this study, pedagogical implications, the limitations of the study and further research are presented. CHAPTER II 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Cognitive Processing Theories In many communities around the world, competence in two, or more, languages is an issue of considerable personal, socio-cultural, economic, and political significance. (Fred Genesee McGill University, WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT BILINGUAL EDUCTION FOR MAJORITY LANGUAGE STUDENTS). Historical documents indicate that individuals and whole communities around the world have been compelled to learn other languages for centuries and they have done so for a variety of reasons such as language contact, colonization, trade, education through a colonial language (e.g., Latin, Greek), intermarriage, among others (Lewis, 1977). The term learning has been considered in different ways by psychologists throughout history. Some behaviorists believe that learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior which occurs as a result of experience or practice. In addition Iranian students consider the radical-changing world as a situation of globalization that makes them study English as their second language and also a key to main language of scholarship. Thus Iranian government obliged students to start studying courses in English from early primary school through to university over a course of about 7 years. Despite this, reports show poor linguistic results; thus there is a requirement for an in-depth analysis of the teaching methods to understand the reasons for failure. Analyzing the process of effective learning, usually this is divided into two different components, first is individual interest in a topic and the second part is situational interest (Hidi, 1990). Individual interest is said to be the degree to which the learner or the reader is interested in a certain topic, subject area, or any special activity (Prenzel, 1988; Schiefele, 1990). Situational interest is explained as an emotional state aroused by situational stimuli (Anderson, Shirey, Wilson, Fielding, 1987; Hidi, 1990). The literature shows that the individual interest of the reader learner has a positive influence on text comprehension (Anderson, Mason, Shimey, 1984; Asher, 1980; Baldwin, Peleg-Bruckner, McClintock, 1985; Belloni Jongsma, 1978; Bernstein, 1955; Entin Klare, 1985; Osako Anders, 1983; Renninger, 1988; Stevens, 1982). However these researchers defined individual interests as the relatively long-term orientation of an individual towards a type of object, activity, or area of knowledge. This is why exciting tools such as movies seem to have positive effect on learning. (Schiefele, 1987). Schiefele also believes that individual interest is itself a domain-specific or topic-specific motivational characteristic of personality, composed of feeling-related and value-related valences. Then, individual interest is naturally generated by a text that constitutes a feeling of enjoyment or involvement. Individual interest motivates the learner to become involved in reading the specific subject matter. Fransson (1977) indicated that students who were interested in a special topic exhibited and showed deeper processing of a related text. Using free recall and extensive interviews, Fransson found that high-interest subjects made more connections between both different parts of the text and also between what was read and prior knowledge or personal experience. Benware and Deci (1984) and Grolnick and Ryan (1987) arrived at almost the same results, demonstrating that topic-interested We shall also call it intrinsically motivated students exhibited markedly greater conceptual comprehension of text content in contrast with non-interested and extrinsically motivated students. The process of the language learning is seen as a complicate cognitive skill. According to Neisser (1967), cognitive psychology considers that all information passes a process through which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, focused, stored, recovered and used. Gardner and Lambert (1972) are said to be pioneers in the investigation of socio-psychological aspects of second-language learning. They conducted numerous studies on the relationships of attitudes and social-context to the process of learning a second language. They proposed a distinction between these two models: integrative and instrumental motivation. The former is defined as a full identification by the learner with the target-language group and readiness to be identified as part of it. The latter indicates interest in learning L2 only as a tool to procure a better future through social mobility; in this case the learner does not identify with the target-language speakers. However integrative motivation is often considered more likely to lead to success in second language learning than instrumental motivation. Banduras (1986) and Zimmermans (1989). In particular, some of cognitive theorists believe that information-processing theory has the concept of capacity theory within itself. They suggest that the human capacity for learning a language is not regarded as an apart and disconnected from cognitive processes. According to Beck and McKeown (1991), most research on vocabulary leaning has focused on written text, probably because vocabulary research has developed under the umbrella of reading research. Having this fact in mind that arousing interests causes effectives in learning, is supported by a number of studies which have clearly indicated that television programs and movie videos may also be used as a motivational tool to affect teaching techniques in the field of language learning, especially in the area of vocabulary learning. For instance, Rice and Woodsmall (1988) found that children learn words from their first language when watching animated films with voice-over narration. Such learning can be further improved when the films are subtitled, i.e., when voice is accompanied by orthographic information. Schilperoord, Groot, Son (2005). Researches shows that in countries like the Netherlands, where almost 20% of all programs on Dutch public TV and commercial televisions are foreign, learners are provided with opportunities to learn foreign languages, especially since the 1980s, when the teletext was introduced. Similarly, Koolstra and Beentjes (1999) maintain that in the small language communities, a considerable number of television programs are subtitled, causing and creating the possibility of vocabulary acquisition not only in ones first language but also in his foreign languages learning process. Actually, the use of television programs and movie videos for educational purposes is not new. What researchers are interested in is how much learners can learn from films and television programs, and what factors influence the amount and kind of learning and how much. According to Reese Davie (1987 ) to address this concern, researchers have examined features like message structure and format characteristics to identify those which best facilitate learning. Reese Davie report studies which suggest that visual illustrations are most effective when they are accompanied by the script. Looking at socio-cultural factors attitude affecting in success of learning, however the combinations of traits explain the use that the learner makes of the available learning opportunities, all of which affect L2 learning. Wong-Fillmore (1991) indicates three main factors affecting L2 learning: the need to learn the second language, speakers of the target language who provide learners access to the language [cultural openness], the social setting that brings learners and target-language speakers into contact frequently enough that makes language developments possible [social openness, cultural openness, interaction between learners and target-language speakers]. Clement (1980) also places great emphasis on the L2 learners motivation and the cultural milieu. In Clements model, primary motivational process, is defined as the net result of two opposing forces—integrativeness minus fear of assimilation. Integrativeness refers to the desire to become an accepted member of the tar get group; fear of assimilation refers to the fear of becoming completely like the other culture and losing ones native language and culture. Fear of assimilation along with fear of loss of ones native language and heritage may weaken L2 learning motivation, especially in the countries like Iran where people are brightly proud of the history and heritage. Schumann (1986) suggests a model focusing on a cultural aspect of learning that he terms â€Å"acculturation,† that is, integration of the social and the psychological characteristics of learners with those of target-language speakers. Under this heading, he classifies the social and affective factors cluster both as a single variable. According to Schumann, there are two factors in acculturation [social integration psychological openness] namely, sufficient contact and receptiveness between members of target-language and L2-learner groups. There are clearly a number of common features between the above models. They all include the effect of social context attitudes (integrative or instrumental) and acculturation. A problematic social context usually affects L2 learning negatively, especially when the learners are minorities learning L2 as the language of the dominant group like it seems to have the same role with English language as a semi-dominant language of the world especially in contrast with the middle east languages. However, learners awareness of the necessity for learning the L2 affects their success positively even if it symbolizes a conflict between the minority and the majority. L2 learners apply instrumental motivation, which operates as a meta-cognitive strategy whereby they persuade themselves to engage in L2 learning even though they have no liking for the language and the culture (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993; Bandura, 1986; Zimmerman, 1989). Looking to the movies and TV programs as a motivational tool in learning a language, and based on a justification of the outperformance of students exposed to subtitled video theories are grounded in research either on the single channel theory or on the multiple-channel theories. Multiple-channel theories hold an overview of the cue-summation, the between-channel redundancy theory, the capacity theory and dual-coding theory. Moreover, the schema theory, the Krashens Comprehensible Input Hypothesis and the ACT model by Anderson are also evaluated in the following part, attending to how information processes and learning happens. 2.2 Schema Theory According to Bartlett (1932), a schema is defined as a store of perceived sensory information in memory. He explains that schemata are formed and culturally regulated. As the number of schemata increases, one is able to recall an ever-larger amount of information in minimum time; adapting new information to an appropriate schema allows one to remember new and important ideas (Rumelhart, 1981, 1984). However consistency with an existing schema leads to understanding and inconsistency generally causes problems in the comprehension process. Schemata can impede and slow down reading comprehension and memory; details that are inconsistent with ones schema are deleted, or transformed, and rationalized to fit the existing schemata in the memory. On the other hand, schemata can also play a facilitating role when their details are consistent with the reading content; in this case cognitive processing occurs quickly without serious obstacles (Anderson, 1987; Van Dijk Kintsch, 1983). Researche rs usually compare reading of culturally-familiar and unfamiliar stories by students from different ethnic backgrounds. Results have shown that students comprehension of cultural stories is a function of their cultural familiarity with these stories (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993, 1995; Abu-Rabia Feuerverger, 1996; Adams Collins, 1977; Anderson Gipe, 1983; Anderson, Reynolds, Schallert, Goetz, 1977; Baldwin et al., 1985; Carrell Eisterhold, 1983; Lipson, 1983; Paul, 1959; Reynolds, Taylor, Steffensen, Anderson, Shirley, 1982; Steffensen, Joag-Dev, Anderson, 1979; Yousef, 1968; Zegarra Zinger, 1981). However, learners awareness of the necessity for learning the L2 affects their success positively even if it symbolizes (according to Abu-Rabias above) a conflict between the minority and the majority. Second language learners apply instrumental motivation, which operates as mentioned like a meta-cognitive strategy whereby they persuade themselves to engage in L2 learning even though they have no liking for the language and the culture (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993; Bandura, 1986; Zimmerman, 1989). 2.3 The Single Channel Learning Theory The single channel theory is based on the principles that the human processing system has limited capacity in the central nervous system (Trave Benefits of Subtitles in English Learning Benefits of Subtitles in English Learning CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background All through the years, there has been an increasing emphasis on teaching English as an instrument for communication, and technology has played a critical function in facilitating authentic communication. The movement of language teaching objectives and practices has changed from the printed word and knowledge of language systems to the use and communicative value of the spoken language in the everyday setting (Vanderplank, 1993). In a sense, the efficacy of multimedia has drawn great consideration and is presumed, under the theory of adding an additional channel of media to send out a message, to significantly improve communication and comprehension (Dwyer, 1978). Multimedia technology (like TV, computers, networks, emails video cassette recorders (VCRS), compact disc ready-only memories (CD-ROMs) and interactive multimedia) aids the teaching technique of integrating real-life situations with the target language into the language classroom. In this meticulous setting, learners slowly expand their language acquisition by being exposed to the authentic environment of the target language. According to one of the most outstanding theories of second language acquisition, Krashen (1985) proposed that learners can learn a large amount of language unconsciously through ample comprehensible input. The Input Hypothesis, stated by Krashen, argues that the use of a target language in real communicative environments and the stress on rich comprehensible input by exposing the learners to the target language in the classroom facilitate their language acquisition. In other words, language acquisition only happens when comprehensible input is suitably delivered. In this respect, language teachers struggle to employ a wide range of teaching techniques to make authentic situations and to promote learners language acquisition. Many researchers have presented strong evidence that multimedia (like computers, video, and TV) have helpful effects on language learning due to rich and authentic comprehensible input (Brett, 1995; Egbert Jessup, 1996; Khalid, 2001). Results of these studies demonstrated the significance of the use of multimedia develops learners language performance in reading, listening comprehension and vocabulary recognition. One survey study by the American Association of School Administrators showed that 94 percent of teachers and supervisors believe that technology has enhanced students learning considerably. Similarly, many English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) teachers concur that educational technology presents many possibilities for progressing students language proficiency, including their vocabulary, reading, listening, and speaking. Similarly, television programs and videos have created a place in the communication of information and are powerful apparatus in improving language teaching (Anderson Lorch, 1983). Both TV and videos communicate not only visually through pictures but also aurally throughout the spoken word, music and sound effects. The subtitle, a key role on television and videotapes, is coordinated with the dialogue or narration of the programs audio track, expanding comprehension and understanding of TV programs and videos. Lambert, Boehler and Sidoti (1981) have asserted that the constant general movement indicates that information coming through two input types (e.g., dialogue and subtitles) is more systematically processed than if either dialogue or subtitles are presented alone. This result is in agreement with the dual-coding theory by Allan Paivio (1971), sustaining the usefulness of multiple-channel communication. In the same way, Hartmans (1961a) findings support the between-channel redun dancy theory which suggested that when information is redundant between two input sources (e.g., dialog and subtitles), comprehension will be superior than when the information is coming through one input form, (e.g., dialog). He also gave a description of redundant information as identical information from the visual and verbal stimuli. In this respect, Hartman completed that the benefit of the multiple-channel learning system is this: information coming from two information sources is more comprehensible than that through one. Information input through different sensory channels supplies receivers with additional stimuli reinforcement to guarantee that more complete learning happens. More explicitly, the additional stimuli reinforcement helps out learners in systematizing and structuring the incoming information. However, a contrasting theory, the single channel theory proposed by Broadbent (1958), states that human can only process information throughout one channel at a time. This theory assumes that the decline of learning takes place if the information is received through two or more sources. The learning is delayed when the multiple-channel presentation of information is used in the teaching-learning process. Along with this contentious viewpoint between the single and the multiple-channel presentation, an awareness of and interest in the use of multimedia resources have been increasing, like the presentation of subtitled materials. Today, language learning has turned out to be more available by implementing multimedia with spoken information and full visual context, such as subtitles. For instance, subtitled videos representing words and pictures in an aural and in a visual form are more probable to activate both coding systems in the processing than words or pictures alone. The dual-coding theory proposed by Paivio (1971) suggests that when pictures are added to the meaning, the number of signals connected with the message increases. Viewers then will be more probable to keep the message in mind. Therefore, the results of the past research appear to sustain the aspect that the use of subtitles causes multi-sensory processing, interacting with audio, video and print mechanisms. These information input foundations get the process of language learning better, improve the comprehension of the content, and increase vocabulary by looking at the subtitled words in meaningful and stimulating circumstances. In addition , a lot of teachers consider subtitles shed some new light on a better way of using various multimedia in the ESL classroom. When subtitled technology appeared more than 15 years ago, many educators quickly saw value in exploiting its potential in helping students process language in a different way and effectively by means of the printed word. (Goldman, 1996; Holobow, Lambert, Sayegh, 1984; Koskinen, Wilson, Gambrell, Neuman, 1993; Parks, 1994; Vanderplank, 1993). 1.1.1 Subtitle Subtitles, which are English written subtitles on instructional English-as-second-language (ESL) videos in this study, are the written version of the audio constituent that permits dialogue, music, narration and sound effects to be shown at the bottom of the screen on most televisions. There are two kinds of subtitles explained in general terms: the open subtitle and the closed subtitle. Closed subtitles refer to the subtitles that are not automatically visible to the viewer; however can be viewed by turning on through use of a remote control or an electronic subtitle decoder. By contrast, open subtitles are visible to all viewers without turning them on with a remote control. Subtitling is not only the main function of the TV but a positive function of video tapes. Video tapes offer subtitling by those who specialize in computer workstations. To make subtitles visible, an electronic subtitle decoder is obligatory, that is easily attached to a television set. Although it is not avail able in some areas of the world, subtitling technology is broadly accessible and draws great attention in the United States. In 1990, the U. S. Congress passed the Television Decoder Circuitry Act requiring that all new televisions, thirteen inches or larger, be prepared with subtitle decoder circuitry. The function of the decoder circuitry is to receive, decode, and show closed subtitles from cable, DVD signals and videotape appropriately. With reference to this regulation, the consumer is no longer required to pay for a separate decoder, when in possession of an applicable TV set. Therefore, thousands of people in the U.S. have access to subtitles without any trouble by pushing the button on the remote controls (National Subtitleing Institute, 1989). However, available access of subtitles on foreign film videos is still restricted in other countries, such as Taiwan and Japan, where external subtitle decoders are necessary for viewing. Subtitleing was devised initially for the hearing impaired. The statistics on the number of decoders sold confirm that more than half were bought for the hearing impaired who assert that decoders are helpful to them. Increasingly, the use of subtitles has also augmented among the non-native speakers who are motivated to improve their language learning. A study by Hofmeister, Menlove, and Thorkildsen (1992) discovered that 40 percent of people other than the hearing impaired buy the decoders, such as foreign students. To be explicit, the motive for this phenomenon is that subtitles show words in a motivating atmosphere where the audio, video and print media help viewers comprehend the unknown words and meanings in their context. However, subtitles have a great impact on comprehension improvement of specific TV programs and improve English language learning progressively. For the benefits of the multimedia approach, ESL programs began to incorporate subtitled materials into the curricula to help ESL students language learning. The focus on teaching techniques and on means of optimizing students comprehension of the second language has been of great concern through this multimedia. Koskinen, Wilson, Gambrell, and Neuman (1993) stated that the subtitled video is a new and promising approach for improving students vocabulary, reading comprehension, and motivation. Other researches have been conducted to inspect whether subtitled TV and video improve or obstruct students learning. The results have indicated that subtitled TV and videos are helpful for the hearing impaired, ESL students and disabled students (Bean Wilson, 1989; Borras Lafayette, 1994; Ellsworth, 1992; Garza, 1991; Goldman, 1996; Goldman Goldman, 1988; Markham, 1989; Nugent, 1983; Parlato, 1985; Price, 1983; Vanderplank, 1991; Webb, Vanderplank, Parks, 1994; Wilson Koskinen, 1986). Despite a large number of studies suggesting/demonstrating the benefits of the use of subtitles for the hearing-impaired, language learners, and disabled students, similar studies on the use of English subtitles in English teaching are still limited in Iran. Thus, there is great scope for additional examination into the potential use of subtitled television videos to enhance language teaching to English-as-Foreign-Language (EFL) students. The design of this research elaborates mainly on the language learning achievements. This study adds to the aforementioned to investigate the exposure of target language input to students through the presentation subtitled videos. This research focuses on the absence or presence of 10 English subtitled ESL instructional video episodes for a period of five weeks as a primary variable in an experiment to help determine the conditions for the improvement of Iranian college students learning English as a foreign language in Iran. 1.2 Statement of the Problem Many people in Iran have problems when it comes to communicating with foreigners in English. In addition, to get information from the Internet, having a fair amount of English knowledge is required. That makes accessing information a problem for those with limited English language proficiency. In addition, those Iranian students who wish to study abroad, language is the main problem since they have studied in Farsi for all their educational life, and thus adapting to a non-Persian environment is consequently very difficult. Students in Iran, start learning the Basic English at their secondary schools, however the curriculum structure, is based on teaching grammar rather than oral skills; therefore, most students oral communication skills are limited. . Moloney (1995) states that the emergence of English in the global market has resulted in the current ardor for learning English in developing countries. The need for English in Iran is unique. English is not only a required course for Iranian students, but also required and tested as part of major entrance examinations in Iran. These mentioned issues are going to be considered in proposing subtitles in videos and English learning movie solution. 1.3 Objectives of the Study The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of subtitled videos in enhancing university students language learning in Iran [English as a foreign language (EFL)]. In the study, the term language learning represents two types of performances. The first is students content comprehension of a particular video episode, as evaluated by a Content Specific Tests (CST) and the second is to investigate the learners vocabulary acquisition. 1.4 Significance of the Study Teachers professional development activities always focus on those types of teaching strategies that help students improve along with their path of learning process. As the research has been designed to discover the effectiveness of presenting subtitles on the movies on vocabulary acquisition and content comprehension, it would be of much significance if confirmed that this strategy works. Generally speaking, it can also been resulted that the finding of this research also could be added to the body of language teaching, learning and use of multimedia technology knowledge. The findings of this study can be share with the curriculum designers, EFL/ ESL teachers for the technology to be implemented in the classroom, materials developers for English teaching 1.5 Hypotheses This study focuses on English language learners performance on the Content-Specific Tests (CST) of vocabulary, and content comprehension of videos with and without subtitles. The researcher tested each of the following null hypotheses as she controls the initial differences of the participants in their general English proficiency. Ho 1: There is no significant difference on the scores of the content comprehension subtest of the CST between subjects watching videos with subtitles and those watching videos without subtitles. Ho 2: There is no significant difference on the scores in the content vocabulary subtest of the CST between subjects watching videos with subtitles and those watching videos without subtitles. 1.6 Research Question 1. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their vocabulary significantly? 2. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their content comprehension significantly? 3. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their English language proficiency significantly? 1.7 Definition of the Terms The definitions are given here to make sure uniformity and understanding of these terms throughout the study. 1.7.1 Subtitle Subtitle is the spoken words designed for the deaf and hearing-impaired people helping them read what they cannot hear. The terms subtitles and subtitles are interchangeably used in this research and are described as the translations of the spoken words to the written with the identical language shown at the bottom of the screen. 1.7.2 Closed Subtitle A subtitle of spoken words viewed by a special decoding device installed in the television set or a special decoder machine. 1.7.3 Open Subtitle A subtitle of spoken words that always is printed at the bottom of the screen. 1.7.4 Content-Specific Test (CST) An instrument designed by the researcher for this study used to measure learners overall comprehension in terms of vocabulary and content comprehension of a particular video segment. The CST includes the two subtests: vocabulary and content comprehension. 1.7.5 Content Vocabulary The vocabulary that comes into sight from the particular video piece viewed by the subjects 1.7.6 Content Comprehension Content comprehension that focuses mainly on the whole story script and test viewers comprehension of the particular information shown in the video 1.8 Limitation of the Study The researcher encountered difficulty in access to the samples of all Iranian population of EFL learners since the country is very huge and the numbers of English learners are so many. It was very hard to control teachers inside-class activities based on the methodologies presented to them. Non-generalizability of the findings to all English learners, especially ESL learners is another which is because the research is conducted in an EFL (Iran) context. The last but not the least limitation is the material choice since there are various types of videos. Therefore, the researcher had to restrict the video to an instructional video, connect with English since it is both with and without subtitle available as well as being suitable for the proficiency level of the participants. 1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter I introduces the foundation for this research, the purpose of the study, and definitions of key terms used throughout the study to diminish potential misunderstanding. Chapter II presents a review of the literature of the use of subtitles. It starts with a theoretical review of the cognitive information processing relevant to the single channel theory and the multiple-channel theory, with focus on the cue-summation theory, the between-channel redundancy theory, the dual-coding theory and the capacity theory. It then keeps on with a discussion of the schemata theory, the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis by Krashen and the ACT Model by Anderson. Subsequently, the relevant major research on subtitles for the hearing-impaired, disabled, normal reading ability, and language learners is offered. Chapter III outlines the method of hypotheses testing formulated in Chapter I. It also includes the research design, followed by a description of the subjects in this study, the treatment materials employed, the testing instruments, the data collection procedure, and the details of the data analysis applied. In Chapter IV, the analyses are performed to reveal the research hypotheses are explained in detail, with the quantitative results of these analyses and an interpretation of the results. The final chapter, Chapter V, summarizes the findings of the study in light of research hypotheses and discusses the performance of the subjects and the results of the analyses shown in Chapter IV. The conclusion interprets the effect of subtitled videos on EFL students language learning in relation to their listening and reading comprehension and their vocabulary. To synthesize the conclusion of this study, pedagogical implications, the limitations of the study and further research are presented. CHAPTER II 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Cognitive Processing Theories In many communities around the world, competence in two, or more, languages is an issue of considerable personal, socio-cultural, economic, and political significance. (Fred Genesee McGill University, WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT BILINGUAL EDUCTION FOR MAJORITY LANGUAGE STUDENTS). Historical documents indicate that individuals and whole communities around the world have been compelled to learn other languages for centuries and they have done so for a variety of reasons such as language contact, colonization, trade, education through a colonial language (e.g., Latin, Greek), intermarriage, among others (Lewis, 1977). The term learning has been considered in different ways by psychologists throughout history. Some behaviorists believe that learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior which occurs as a result of experience or practice. In addition Iranian students consider the radical-changing world as a situation of globalization that makes them study English as their second language and also a key to main language of scholarship. Thus Iranian government obliged students to start studying courses in English from early primary school through to university over a course of about 7 years. Despite this, reports show poor linguistic results; thus there is a requirement for an in-depth analysis of the teaching methods to understand the reasons for failure. Analyzing the process of effective learning, usually this is divided into two different components, first is individual interest in a topic and the second part is situational interest (Hidi, 1990). Individual interest is said to be the degree to which the learner or the reader is interested in a certain topic, subject area, or any special activity (Prenzel, 1988; Schiefele, 1990). Situational interest is explained as an emotional state aroused by situational stimuli (Anderson, Shirey, Wilson, Fielding, 1987; Hidi, 1990). The literature shows that the individual interest of the reader learner has a positive influence on text comprehension (Anderson, Mason, Shimey, 1984; Asher, 1980; Baldwin, Peleg-Bruckner, McClintock, 1985; Belloni Jongsma, 1978; Bernstein, 1955; Entin Klare, 1985; Osako Anders, 1983; Renninger, 1988; Stevens, 1982). However these researchers defined individual interests as the relatively long-term orientation of an individual towards a type of object, activity, or area of knowledge. This is why exciting tools such as movies seem to have positive effect on learning. (Schiefele, 1987). Schiefele also believes that individual interest is itself a domain-specific or topic-specific motivational characteristic of personality, composed of feeling-related and value-related valences. Then, individual interest is naturally generated by a text that constitutes a feeling of enjoyment or involvement. Individual interest motivates the learner to become involved in reading the specific subject matter. Fransson (1977) indicated that students who were interested in a special topic exhibited and showed deeper processing of a related text. Using free recall and extensive interviews, Fransson found that high-interest subjects made more connections between both different parts of the text and also between what was read and prior knowledge or personal experience. Benware and Deci (1984) and Grolnick and Ryan (1987) arrived at almost the same results, demonstrating that topic-interested We shall also call it intrinsically motivated students exhibited markedly greater conceptual comprehension of text content in contrast with non-interested and extrinsically motivated students. The process of the language learning is seen as a complicate cognitive skill. According to Neisser (1967), cognitive psychology considers that all information passes a process through which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, focused, stored, recovered and used. Gardner and Lambert (1972) are said to be pioneers in the investigation of socio-psychological aspects of second-language learning. They conducted numerous studies on the relationships of attitudes and social-context to the process of learning a second language. They proposed a distinction between these two models: integrative and instrumental motivation. The former is defined as a full identification by the learner with the target-language group and readiness to be identified as part of it. The latter indicates interest in learning L2 only as a tool to procure a better future through social mobility; in this case the learner does not identify with the target-language speakers. However integrative motivation is often considered more likely to lead to success in second language learning than instrumental motivation. Banduras (1986) and Zimmermans (1989). In particular, some of cognitive theorists believe that information-processing theory has the concept of capacity theory within itself. They suggest that the human capacity for learning a language is not regarded as an apart and disconnected from cognitive processes. According to Beck and McKeown (1991), most research on vocabulary leaning has focused on written text, probably because vocabulary research has developed under the umbrella of reading research. Having this fact in mind that arousing interests causes effectives in learning, is supported by a number of studies which have clearly indicated that television programs and movie videos may also be used as a motivational tool to affect teaching techniques in the field of language learning, especially in the area of vocabulary learning. For instance, Rice and Woodsmall (1988) found that children learn words from their first language when watching animated films with voice-over narration. Such learning can be further improved when the films are subtitled, i.e., when voice is accompanied by orthographic information. Schilperoord, Groot, Son (2005). Researches shows that in countries like the Netherlands, where almost 20% of all programs on Dutch public TV and commercial televisions are foreign, learners are provided with opportunities to learn foreign languages, especially since the 1980s, when the teletext was introduced. Similarly, Koolstra and Beentjes (1999) maintain that in the small language communities, a considerable number of television programs are subtitled, causing and creating the possibility of vocabulary acquisition not only in ones first language but also in his foreign languages learning process. Actually, the use of television programs and movie videos for educational purposes is not new. What researchers are interested in is how much learners can learn from films and television programs, and what factors influence the amount and kind of learning and how much. According to Reese Davie (1987 ) to address this concern, researchers have examined features like message structure and format characteristics to identify those which best facilitate learning. Reese Davie report studies which suggest that visual illustrations are most effective when they are accompanied by the script. Looking at socio-cultural factors attitude affecting in success of learning, however the combinations of traits explain the use that the learner makes of the available learning opportunities, all of which affect L2 learning. Wong-Fillmore (1991) indicates three main factors affecting L2 learning: the need to learn the second language, speakers of the target language who provide learners access to the language [cultural openness], the social setting that brings learners and target-language speakers into contact frequently enough that makes language developments possible [social openness, cultural openness, interaction between learners and target-language speakers]. Clement (1980) also places great emphasis on the L2 learners motivation and the cultural milieu. In Clements model, primary motivational process, is defined as the net result of two opposing forces—integrativeness minus fear of assimilation. Integrativeness refers to the desire to become an accepted member of the tar get group; fear of assimilation refers to the fear of becoming completely like the other culture and losing ones native language and culture. Fear of assimilation along with fear of loss of ones native language and heritage may weaken L2 learning motivation, especially in the countries like Iran where people are brightly proud of the history and heritage. Schumann (1986) suggests a model focusing on a cultural aspect of learning that he terms â€Å"acculturation,† that is, integration of the social and the psychological characteristics of learners with those of target-language speakers. Under this heading, he classifies the social and affective factors cluster both as a single variable. According to Schumann, there are two factors in acculturation [social integration psychological openness] namely, sufficient contact and receptiveness between members of target-language and L2-learner groups. There are clearly a number of common features between the above models. They all include the effect of social context attitudes (integrative or instrumental) and acculturation. A problematic social context usually affects L2 learning negatively, especially when the learners are minorities learning L2 as the language of the dominant group like it seems to have the same role with English language as a semi-dominant language of the world especially in contrast with the middle east languages. However, learners awareness of the necessity for learning the L2 affects their success positively even if it symbolizes a conflict between the minority and the majority. L2 learners apply instrumental motivation, which operates as a meta-cognitive strategy whereby they persuade themselves to engage in L2 learning even though they have no liking for the language and the culture (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993; Bandura, 1986; Zimmerman, 1989). Looking to the movies and TV programs as a motivational tool in learning a language, and based on a justification of the outperformance of students exposed to subtitled video theories are grounded in research either on the single channel theory or on the multiple-channel theories. Multiple-channel theories hold an overview of the cue-summation, the between-channel redundancy theory, the capacity theory and dual-coding theory. Moreover, the schema theory, the Krashens Comprehensible Input Hypothesis and the ACT model by Anderson are also evaluated in the following part, attending to how information processes and learning happens. 2.2 Schema Theory According to Bartlett (1932), a schema is defined as a store of perceived sensory information in memory. He explains that schemata are formed and culturally regulated. As the number of schemata increases, one is able to recall an ever-larger amount of information in minimum time; adapting new information to an appropriate schema allows one to remember new and important ideas (Rumelhart, 1981, 1984). However consistency with an existing schema leads to understanding and inconsistency generally causes problems in the comprehension process. Schemata can impede and slow down reading comprehension and memory; details that are inconsistent with ones schema are deleted, or transformed, and rationalized to fit the existing schemata in the memory. On the other hand, schemata can also play a facilitating role when their details are consistent with the reading content; in this case cognitive processing occurs quickly without serious obstacles (Anderson, 1987; Van Dijk Kintsch, 1983). Researche rs usually compare reading of culturally-familiar and unfamiliar stories by students from different ethnic backgrounds. Results have shown that students comprehension of cultural stories is a function of their cultural familiarity with these stories (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993, 1995; Abu-Rabia Feuerverger, 1996; Adams Collins, 1977; Anderson Gipe, 1983; Anderson, Reynolds, Schallert, Goetz, 1977; Baldwin et al., 1985; Carrell Eisterhold, 1983; Lipson, 1983; Paul, 1959; Reynolds, Taylor, Steffensen, Anderson, Shirley, 1982; Steffensen, Joag-Dev, Anderson, 1979; Yousef, 1968; Zegarra Zinger, 1981). However, learners awareness of the necessity for learning the L2 affects their success positively even if it symbolizes (according to Abu-Rabias above) a conflict between the minority and the majority. Second language learners apply instrumental motivation, which operates as mentioned like a meta-cognitive strategy whereby they persuade themselves to engage in L2 learning even though they have no liking for the language and the culture (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993; Bandura, 1986; Zimmerman, 1989). 2.3 The Single Channel Learning Theory The single channel theory is based on the principles that the human processing system has limited capacity in the central nervous system (Trave