AAVV - New perspectives in Audiovisual Translation

It can be ascertained that AVT education, not to mention higher education on the whole, is changing with the times; in fact, online classrooms and cloud-based workbenches have a bright future at universities that have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and have had to enhance their remote-education provision. Cloud-based platforms pose challenges, particularly in higher education, where AVT trainers have recently been expected to rapidly adapt their teaching to increasingly online working environments in the midst of great uncertainty.

The use of cloud-based systems is, however, still somewhat limited in AVT training despite their untapped pedagogical potential, for which reason it seems their classroom presence, virtual or otherwise, can only be expected to grow. If appropriately adapted to a classroom setting, as some companies have recently done, the functionalities offered by these tools could be highly valuable to hone the professional skills of translators-to-be. Scarce attempts have been made to date to develop online tools for the teaching of languages and translation; more work is needed to align said tools with the requirements of higher education today, with a particular emphasis on AVT competency (Cerezo-Merchán 2018).

As a rule of thumb, cloud technologies can be perceived as more agile and flexible than other solutions; as a matter of fact, new browser-based tools often release new features, patches and updates at a notably faster pace than desktop-based solutions. Cloud-based tools also tend to require less coding as they have pre-prepared platforms and solutions, and developers, avid to cater for translators’ needs, are open to receiving users’ feedback to improve their tools. The fine-tuning and tailoring of cloud-based platforms, so that they might become salient in both educational and professional environments, constitutes a valuable area of research and development.

In terms of future research, what the collaboration between trainers, students, and industry partners can yield in our field remains to be further explored. In particular, the application of empirical research methods to the study of usability seems to be a promising avenue along which to embark upon further research on AVT education. This chapter is ultimately conceived as a steppingstone for future research that develops pedagogically sound cloud-based educational tools for the learning and teaching of AVT.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my dear CenTraS colleague Lydia Hayes for her invaluable insights and help, and for kindly agreeing to proofread this chapter too.

REFERENCES

Abdallah, Kristiina (2011). «Quality problems in AVT production networks: reconstructing an actor-network in the subtitling industry». In Adriana Şerban, Anna Matamala-Ripoll and Jean-Marc Lavaur (eds). Audiovisual Translation in Close-up: Practical and theoretical Approaches . Bern: Peter Lang, 173-186. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0351-0209-3

Armbrust, Michael, Armando Fox, Rean Griffith, Anthony D. Joseph, Randy Katz, Andy Konwinski, Gunho Lee, David Patterson, Ariel Rabkin, Ion Stoica and Matei Zaharia, M. (2010). «A view of cloud computing». Communications of the ACM 53(4), 50-58.

Baños, Rocío and Jorge Díaz-Cintas (2015). Audiovisual Translation in a Global Context: Mapping an Ever-changing Landscape . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137552891.

Bolaños-García-Escribano, Alejandro (2018). «The pedagogical potential of cloud-based platforms: a study on the didactics of subtitling in online translator training environments». In John D. Sanderson and Carla Botella-Tejera (eds). Focusing on Audiovisual Translation Research . Valencia: Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 63-94.

Bolaños-García-Escribano, Alejandro (2016). The pedagogical potential of cloud-based platforms: towards an integrated model for the didactics of subtitling in translator training environments . Master’s dissertation. University College London.

Bolaños García-Escribano, Alejandro and Jorge Díaz-Cintas (2020). «Cloud-based systems». In Łukasz Bogucki and Mikołaj Deckert (eds). Handbook of Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility. London: Routledge, 519-544, doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-42105-2.

Bolaños García-Escribano, Alejandro and Jorge Díaz-Cintas (2019). «Audiovisual translation: revoicing and subtitling». In Maria González-Davies and Sara Laviosa (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Education . London: Routledge, 207-225. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367854850-14.

Cerezo-Merchán, Beatriz (2018). «Audiovisual translator training». In Luis Pérez-González (ed.). Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation . London: Routledge, 468-482. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315717166.

Chaume, Frederic (2018). «Is audiovisual translation putting the concept of translation up against the ropes?». Journal of Specialised Translation , 30, 84-104.

Croce, Laura and Christian Grece (2015). Trends in Video-on-Demand Revenues . Strasbourg: Council of Europe – European Audiovisual Observatory. < https://rm.coe.int/16807835c9> (Accessed 22 May 2020).

Delabastita, Dirk (1989). «Translation and mass-communication: film and TV translation as evidence of cultural dynamics». Babel 35(4), 193-218.

https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.35.4.02del.

Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2019). «Audiovisual translation in mercurial mediascapes». In Meng Ji and Michael Oakes (eds). Advances in Empirical Translation Studies . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 177-197.

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108525695.010.

Díaz-Cintas, Jorge. (2015). «Technological strides in subtitling». In Sin-Wai Chan (ed.). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Technology , 632-643.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315749129.ch39.

Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2012). «Clearing the smoke to see the screen: ideological manipulation in audiovisual translation». Meta . 57(2), 279-293.

https://doi.org/10.7202/1013945ar.

Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2009). «Introduction – Audiovisual translation: an overview of its potential». In Jorge Díaz-Cintas (ed.). New Trends in Audiovisual Translation . Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 1-18.

Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (ed.) (2008). The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation . Amsterdam: John Benjamin. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.77.

Díaz-Cintas, Jorge and Serenella Massidda (2019). «Technological advances in audiovisual translation». In Minako O’Hagan (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology . London: Routledge, 255-270. https://doi.org/: 10.4324/9781315311258-15.

Estopace, Eden (2017). «Audiovisual translation hits a sweet spot as subscription video-on-demand skyrockets». Slator, Language Industry Intelligence . 23 November. < https://slator.com/features/audiovisual-translation-hits-sweet-spot-subscription-video-on-demand-skyrockets> (Accessed 15 April 2019).

European Commission (2009). The Size of the Language Industry in the EU . Brussels: European Commission – Directorate-General for Translation and Language Technology Centre.

Fernández-Moriano, Pablo (2019). «ATA 60: Recap session». Deep Focus, 5, 8-12.

Forte, Antonio (2020). «IAB UK video on demand trends: Audience insights during the coronavirus pandemic». IAB UK Opinions . < https://www.iabuk.com/opinions/iab-uk-video-demand-trends-audience-insights-during-coronavirus-pandemic> (Accessed 22 May 2020).

Gambier, Yves (2013). «The position of audiovisual translation studies». In Carmen Millán and Francisca Bartrina (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies . London: Routledge, 45-59, doi: 10.4324/9780203102893.ch3.