End of voice-over on foreign films in Poland?

Polish TV to say goodbye to the famed lektor?
http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/news/artykul89661_Polish_TV_to_say_goodbye_to_the_famed_lektor.html
The Ministries of National Education, Culture, and Science and Higher Education want to introduce subtitling on Polish television instead of the famed lektor: an actor who voices scripts over the top of an original soundtrack.
During a debate at the “Dziennik” daily headquarters, Ministers Barbara Kudrycka and Katarzyna Hall said that subtitling, especially of English programming aired in Poland, would increase English proficiency in the country.
Merely one third of Poles have a knowledge of English, making Poland linguistically inferior in comparison to other countries in the European Union. Minister Kudrycka hastened to add that knowledge of English is highest in countries which employ subtitling of English-language films in their respective television broadcasts.
Kudrycka and Hall both agree that subtitling should be introduced to public television, which should play a greater role in youth education. Fall 2008 will see the first ever series of English shows being broadcast with Polish subtitles on TVP 2. Childrens’ and youth programming, including cartoons, as well as nature shows will also begin to be aired without the ominous lektor’s voice on Saturday afternoons.
Film directors are also pleased with the move. Renowned Polish cinematographer Krzysztof Zanussi has said that watching films in their original language versions are a chance for Poles to become more civilised. He is not alone: many Poles in the branch are for the introduction of subtitles. Yet many stations, most of them commercial, are going to be sticking with the lektor for some time to come, stating that most Poles prefer films with a voice over .
According to a poll by TNS OBOP almost one third of Poles under the age of 29 would prefer subtitles, with only 19% of all Poles preferring subtitles over the lektor.
Poland is one of the only countries in the world to employ a lektor in television programming: the somewhat emotionless and monotonous drone may also be heard in Russia.

End of voice-over on foreign films in Poland?
http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/human-interest/?id=87948
The English language, Ministers of Education and Science want voice-overs on foreign films shown by Polish TV channels replaced by subtitles.

The Education Minister Katarzyna Hall and Minister of Science, Professor Barbara Kudrycka are in favour of subtitling foreign films shown to Polish TV viewers, because such practice would “quickly and naturally lead into an improvement in the knowledge of foreign languages, particularly English,” among the Polish audience, writes Dziennik daily.

The experience of many European states clearly shows that the level of knowledge of English is the highest in those where films are shown with the original soundtrack and subtitled.

Dziennik quotes an American methodologist Renae Swain Curtis, who claims that subtitling films and television programmes - so-called total immersion - has the effect similar to that of living abroad and is one of the best methods to learn languages. For that very reason, in Curtis’ opinion, the number of people who can speak English in Slovenia and Croatia is much higher than in the Czech Republic or Slovakia.

Representatives of Polish TV channels are much less enthusiastic about a possible switch from the current practice of using voice-over to subtitling foreign broadcasts offered to the Polish TV audience due to the viewers preferences.

Polish TV viewers simply cannot be bothered to read the small print at the bottom of the screen and instead, they prefer to follow the action and listen to a speaker in the background.

“The Jan Suzin [the most popular voice-over speaker in Poland] syndrome is too strong and the Polish television market too unforgiving for us to begin experimenting”, Edward Miszczak from the private TVN channel has said as reported by Dziennik.

Last week the government was criticised for its plans to make English language classes uncompusory for seven year olds in the new syllabus starting in September.