LilianNekipelov wrote:
Simply, Dutch and Scandinavian languages, except Icelandic, are structurally closer to English than Slavic languages, let's say. Yes, it can definitely be good for learning English to watch movies in English—no doubt about it, but the title says that dubbing may be detrimental to language acquisition. Which language? Even Icelandic is relatively close. That may be the reason why many Scandinavian people speak English well, plus exposure, of course.
[Edited at 2016-06-18 14:22 GMT]
In Finland we have subtitles too and the Finnish language is in no way related to germanic languages, but our people speak English better than Germans, who never hear a word of English in their tv. Even when Obama speaks in the news after a few words the German speaker takes over.
I even read the Finnish (and sometimes Swedish) subtitles when watching my native German movies or tv serials. It is a habit. Now I daily watch half an hour of Cuentame with Spanish subtitles (they are arranged separately on the right side of the screen) just to get used to spoken Spanish. It definitely works.