The Efficacy of Foreign Language Media Consumption as a Tool for Second Language Acquisition

The primary goal of the present study is to gain a better understanding of how one might use foreign language media as a tool for second/third language acquisition (SLA) and to evaluate its efficacy through a personal case study. Studies of second language acquisition have been done in many regions and across many languages, with many different populations, making it difficult to come to definitive, generalizable conclusions on the best way to acquire a second language. Many theories of second language acquisition have been proposed to bridge this gap. The foundation for most of these theories refers back to Stephen Krashen’s comprehensive theory of language acquisition (1981). Research in this area of study so far has thus largely been limited to children’s incidental language acquisition, with very few studies focusing on the experience of this acquisition. Because of time constraints and limited resources, this study is informed by previous longitudinal studies and takes the form of a personal case study, thus placing more focus on qualitative aspects of the experience rather than measurable, quantitative results. The author acts as a primary research subject, watching four hours of Italian media per week and taking notes on distinctive cultural aspects, important plot points, and new or difficult Italian words. The ACTFL scale was used to evaluate the level of Italian language proficiency at three stages of the media-consumption period: a base-line measurement before beginning the study; at the mid-way point of the study; and after the study was complete. This evaluation took the form of a conversational test administered by an Italian language professor at Arizona State University. Throughout the experience, a variety of studies that examined SLA were analyzed in order to better inform this study. Results of this study suggest that foreign language media can be an extremely helpful resource, even when no other language learning tools are implemented. Both my experience, and the research studies reviewed, suggest that one may be able to measurably increase one’s second language proficiency by multiple levels on the ACTFL scale by engaging in regular viewing of film/media in the language of study over a long period of time.