STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES IN LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY THROUGH SHORT-ANIMATED FILMS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY USING PARTLY CLOUDY

Abstract

This study explores the experiences and perceptions of twelfth-grade EFL students in learning English vocabulary through the short-animated film Partly Cloudy at MA Raudlatul Ulum Putra, Indonesia. Motivated by the dominance of quantitative approaches in the existing literature and the underexplored role of dialogue-minimal animated films in EFL vocabulary instruction, this study addresses one central research question: How do twelfth-grade EFL students experience and perceive learning English vocabulary through the short-animated film Partly Cloudy? Employing a descriptive qualitative design, data were collected from twelve male students via an open-ended questionnaire distributed through Google Forms immediately after the film screening. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022). Three overarching themes emerged from the data. First, students demonstrated a clear capacity to interpret and understand vocabulary from visual cues alone — including character expressions, physical actions, and situational context — in the absence of verbal dialogue, indicating that visual information channels can support incidental vocabulary acquisition without spoken or written input. Second, the film generated diverse emotional responses that functioned as affective anchors, deepening vocabulary encoding and recall. Third, students expressed a strong preference for film-based vocabulary learning over conventional rote memorization, reporting heightened motivation to continue learning through similar media. These findings extend Mayer's (2021) multimedia learning theory into a dialogue-minimal context and provide qualitative evidence of learner-centered meaning-making that quantitative studies have yet to capture. This study contributes to the growing body of EFL vocabulary literature by offering rich qualitative evidence of learner-centered meaning-making in a visually dominant, emotionally driven, and dialogue-minimal instructional context.