Page 40 - Compétences plurilingues : perspectives et actions / Plurilingual competencies: perspectives and actions

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V. De Azevedo Camacho, M. Cervenkova, M. Seveckova: Motivation, ...
English-language videos, and therefore the main goal of the didactic project was to highlight
the role of YouTube as a useful tool for learning another foreign language, on the one hand,
and, on the other hand, to allow students to practice their plurilingual competence through
making videos and subtitles. Throughout the semester, we asked students to watch and
analyze some model YouTube videos. Then we placed them in 31 pairs, each pair made up
of students studying two different languages. Each pair ilmed a bilingual video on a given
topic and created their own subtitles in the foreign languages being learned. In this way, we
encouraged collaborative and interactive approaches to learning among students.

In this paper we describe the course of the didactic project as well as the research part,
which was carried out through a questionnaire survey, students’ self-re lective responses
and teachers’ observations.

Theoretical background

We decided to use YouTube for our project because it helps to convey the knowledge and
skills of the language and culture of the country in a more direct and often entertaining
way, offering cross-cultural overlap (foreign-language YouTubers who themselves live in
a foreign country and report on intercultural critical incidents that might have happened
to them), as well as training for real-life situations, thus strengthening autonomy, indepen-
dence (Kim, Sumi, and Hyeon-Cheol Kim, 2021; Yang, P., 2020), and motivation for foreign
language study (Isakovna, T. N., and Kosimov, A., 2023). Motivation and self-con idence can
be also increased by effective vocabulary learning and acquisition, and multimedia is one
of the functional resources that facilitate and accelerate the process, bringing authenticity
and realistic situations to the learning process (Sadiku, A., 2018). Subtitle use strengthens
the learner’s working memory and thus contributes signi icantly to L2 understanding and
learning. The importance of multimedia learning in second language acquisition is espe-
cially evident in motivating learners (Gass, S., 2019). The importance of subtitles in the for-
eign language learning process has been commented on by many experts in their research
(Yang, P., 2020; Kanellopoulou, C., et al., 2019; Gass, S. et al., 2019; Danan, M., 2016). Re-
search on multimedia learning theories provides valid evidence that subtitles are a useful
aid for understanding and learning new vocabulary (Gass, S., et al., 2019). That is why in our
project we focused on the use of vocabulary and the implementation of YouTube channels
in learning foreign languages.

We can ind many channels on YouTube focused on different interest groups and target
audiences. Creating a mutual link between users, YouTubers bring a horizontal and egal-
itarian approach, focusing on community and collaboration (Moeglin, P., 2007) and enable
the connection of social and educational context (Cf. Cancelas Ouvina, L.-P.; Herrera Barba,
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J. M., 2014) especially in the case of language learning YouTubers which we call for short
“LinguoYouTubers”. In our conception, LinguoYouTuber works on YouTube in the role of
a teacher of a foreign language, providing not only linguistic but also cultural and intercul-
tural content. Based on our research of the content of vlogs and videos of LinguoYouTubers
in the languages we teach (French, Russian, Spanish), we can classify these videos into the
following four categories:

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