Out-of-School Learning: Subtitling vs. Dubbing and the Acquisition of Foreign-Language Skills

Frauke Baumeister (), Eric A. Hanushek () and Ludger Woessmann ()
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Frauke Baumeister: ifo Institute, University of Munich
Eric A. Hanushek: Stanford University
Ludger Woessmann: University of Munich

No 17991, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The development of English-language skills, a near necessity in today’s global economy, is heavily influenced by historical national decisions about whether to subtitle or dub TV content. While prior studies of language acquisition have focused on schools, we show the overwhelming influence of out-of-school learning. We identify the causal effect of subtitling in a difference-in-differences specification that compares English to math skills in European countries that do and do not use subtitles. We find a large positive effect of subtitling on English-language skills of over one standard deviation. The effect is robust to accounting for linguistic similarity, economic incentives to learn English, and cultural protectiveness. Consistent with oral TV transmission, the effect is larger for listening and speaking skills than for reading.

Keywords: TV; English as a foreign language; language skills; movies; dubbing; subtitles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 L82 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-07
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