Visual attention, perception, and performance of international students in EMI lectures with automatic live intralingual subtitles

Abstract This article presents a study that examines how international university students perform in English Medium Instruction (EMI) lectures with live intralingual subtitles, or lectures in which the lecturer’s words are subtitled in real time in the same language as the speaker. It investigates which study variables are predictive of the students’ performance, taking into account perception, visual attention and cognitive load. Two one-hour simulated Research Methodology lectures were examined to determine the effects of live subtitling. The lectures were in English for international students. Automatic voice recognition was used for the live subtitling. Data collection used: online language tests; an online demographic questionnaire; online questionnaires regarding the lecture content and students’ perceptions and academic motivation; and eye tracking glasses to gauge visual attention and cognitive load. Findings show that students did not benefit from subtitles as much as expected, suggesting that the presence of subtitles may not significantly enhance comprehension or retention for all learners.