First insights into keyword subtitling and free commentary tasks to enhance children's second language vocabulary acquisition

The benefits of Didactic Audiovisual Translation (DAT) in second language acquisition have been investigated over the last two decades (Lertola, 2019a; Talaván et al., 2023). However, a large body of research focuses on university students and there seems to be a paucity of papers investigating the potential of DAT in children's language learning (Beltramello & Nicora, 2021; Fernández-Costales, 2021a, 2021b; Lertola, 2021; Nicora, 2022). This paper aims to provide first insights into keyword subtitling and free commentary tasks to enhance children's second language vocabulary acquisition. The study involved 18 learners of Italian (aged 9–12) at the Youth Academy—University of Galway, Ireland—enrolled in a six-week, online DAT-focused language course. Subjects were randomly assigned to the Experimental Group (EG), which carried out DAT tasks, and the Control Group (CG), which conducted other types of language tasks. A receptive multiple-choice vocabulary pre-test (VPT), immediate post-test (VIPT), and delayed post-test (VDPT) were devised. The data analyses shed light on the didactic value of keyword subtitling and free commentary tasks in the development of children's lexical competence and encourages further large-scale and longitudinal investigations on DAT tasks in language education for children.