Effects of watching the subtitled tv series ‘Modern Family’ in the development of listening comprehension skills in colombian EFL adult learners

Watching TV series has become a popular leisure activity worldwide, facilitated by streaming services that offer a vast catalog of audiovisual productions. This trend has strengthened the belief that watching series can contribute to foreign language learning, since TV series provide learners with authentic material, offering exposure to the language in real-life contexts and tools like subtitles to support comprehension. However, debates persist about the best subtitle modality to use for learning purposes: target language subtitles (intralingual), native language subtitles (interlingual), or no subtitles at all. Due to the academic gap exploring this material, the objective of this study was to identify how different types of subtitles presented in a TV series influence learners' listening comprehension of the material, and to know the perceptions learners can get when using TV series as a learning strategy with different types of subtitles. Following a descriptive study research design, the study included the participation of seven Colombian EFL adult learners from a private language institute in Cali, for watching the series 'Modern Family' in three different modalities of subtitling. Additionally, the data was collected by using mixed questionnaires, and the obtained results were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and non parametric methods that showed that the use of subtitles during the viewing of a series can help to better understand the material including that learners might feel more confident while having them as a support tool. These findings could work as a guide for further studies and to learn more about the use of these materials within the classroom.