We study the influence of television translation techniques on the worldwide distribution of English-speaking skills.

We identify a large positive correlate for subtitled original version broadcasts, as opposed to dubbed television, on English proficiency scores…The magnitude of our effect is large, equivalent to 16.9% (one and a half standard deviations) of the average level of English skills.

We analyze the historical circumstances under which countries opted for one of the translation modes and use it to account for the possible endogeneity of the subtitling indicator. We disaggregate the results by type of skills and find that television works especially well for listening comprehension.

Our paper suggests that governments could promote subtitling as a means to improve foreign language proficiency.

…3. Data: We use data combining measures of English skills, translation mode, and demographic and educational variables for the period 2008^–₇2015, as well as historical data of the time of sound cinema diffusion. Our data set includes all the 135 countries worldwide for which: (1) there is information on our measure of English proficiency, the internet TOEFL score, plus the television translation mode, and (2) English is not the official language. Table A.1 in the Appendix shows the country list used in our regressions, separated by the main television translation mode, together with the official language and average measurements of English skills. 19

…We first tried the percentage of people in each country who declare themselves able to hold a conversation in English in the 3 Eurobarometer surveys (eg. European Commission2012). On average, 58% of people state they are able to use English in subtitling countries compared to 32% in dubbing countries. The correlation between this “Eurobarometer measure” and our overall TOEFL measures is substantial, 0.44 for the paper-based and 0.56 for the internet-based versions of the test (statistically-significantly different from zero with a p-value < 0.01). Consistent with the nature of the question in the Eurobarometer, the highest correlation is with the score of the speaking part (0.65), followed by those with the writing, listening, and reading tests (0.58, 0.54, and 26, respectively). Unfortunately, the Eurobarometer measure is available for a limited number of (European) countries and the regression results were not statistically-significant.

…According to the standard historical account, the use of subtitles was not due to a higher ability to understand the English language, nor to the idea that it would be beneficial for people to hear actors speak foreign languages (Crystal1997). Rather, limited box office receipts and a large number of imported films induced small countries or, more precisely, countries with “small languages”, to favor the low-cost subtitling option. Second, authoritarian regimes would have promoted dubbing in the local language to strengthen national identity. In any case, national media markets coordinated around one of the translation technologies at that time (Gottlieb1997), and have not deviated since. Using historical data, we provide evidence that, indeed, subtitling tended to be adopted in countries whose national languages were less widely used internationally. But, in our estimations, dictatorial regimes did not adopt dubbing statistically-significantly more often than more democratic countries.

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