Learning colloquial expressions has always been a problem for students because there are numerous expressions to be learned and it is difficult to memorise them out of context. Most people presumably have their favourite ways of learning foreign vocabulary and expressions. One way of doing so has proved to be observing the words and expressions in a context and thereby, creating a picture for them in the mind. The context can be anything such as articles, conversations, radio programmes, news, songs, etc.
One of the methods which can be used to facilitate language learning is the use of subtitles, as a type of audiovisual translation. Although some people assume subtitles to be distracting, many scholars such as Baltova (1999), Shea (1996), Danan (2004) and others, claim that they are perfect aids for improving linguistic abilities.
This research aimed to investigate the impact of watching movies with translated subtitles (interlingual subtitles) on learning colloquial expressions used in the movies. When those who are somehow familiar with the original language of the movie watch the version with translated subtitles, they can compare the original language (that they hear) with the translated subtitle written at the bottom of the screen, and their learning (in this case) of colloquial expressions will be facilitated because they see the colloquial expressions in contexts.
The study was started based on the following research questions.

1. Does watching movies in an L2 have any effect on extending the scope of students’ knowledge of lexical items and colloquial expressions?
2. If yes, are the subtitled movies more conducive to learning compared with those with conventional movies (without subtitle)?
3. Which of the following two modes of movie exposure is more efficient in learning and translation of lexical items and colloquial expressions:

3.1. Bimodal Subtitled Exposure (L1 subtitles and L1 audio)
3.2. Reversed Subtitled Exposure (L2 subtitles and L1 audio)

The research was of an ex-post-facto nature in which the sample population was exposed to a movie as test material. The movie used was Crash, an Oscar-winning feature film with three modes of subtitles (Persian, English and without subtitles) all of them with the original (English) sound track. Three groups of students studying translation at a university level participated in this study, each group watching the movie in one of the above-mentioned modes.
Before and after the exposure, a test was administered, once as the pre-test and once as the post-test. The results of the exposure and tests demonstrated that the reversed group proved to be the best, as its participants had the best results compared with the two other groups. The two other modes of exposure (bimodal and conventional) came second and third, with a very insignificant difference among the results.

References
Brown, G. & G. Yule (1983). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Givón, T. (1995). “Coherence in text vs. coherence in mind”. In Gernsbacher, M. & T. Givón (eds.), Coherence in spontaneous text. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 59-116.

Touran SAADATI has a BA from Azad University, Tehran Central Branch and an MA from Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran (Iran). She has taught translation courses at Islamic Azad University, Parand Branch and Payame Noor University and is presently teaching translation courses including Translation Techniques, Theories of Translation, Interpretation, Audiovisual translation, etc. at Islamic Azad University, Parand Branch. She also has ample translation experience including audiovisual translation and is an active member of the Translation Studies Centre at Allameh Tabataba’i University. Her publications include “Online Translation”, an article presented at the IT conference at Allameh Tabataba’i University (2006) and “Translation as Appropriation”, an article presented at the Conference of Socio-Cultural Studies at Shahid Beheshti University in 2007. She also has two books under publication for an MA entrance exam including a 10-year collection of general and technical English for MBA entrance exams, Arshad Publishers; and Flash cards for Translation Studies MA entrance exam, Rahpooyane Sharif Publishers.