TRADILEX project

AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION AS A DIDACTIC RESOURCE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

The academic and pedagogical interest for Audiovisual Translation (AVT) as a didactic tool in foreign language (L2) learning has experienced significant growth in the last few years. There are promising results derived from studies which call for more extensive projects in order to validate the didactic benefits of this practice, so they can be transferred to the corresponding teaching levels and contexts. AVT, understood as an active learning tool (where students make use of technological tools in order to subtitle, dub or audiodescribe audiovisual content), helps to develop L2 communicative skills in an integrated manner, as most researchers involved in this project have proven in their publications within the last decade.

The main goal of TRADILEX is to determine the degree of improvement in the L2 learning process after including the pedagogical use of AVT as a didactic tool. To this end, a thorough methodological proposal will be articulated including complete tasks which make use of diverse AVT modes (such as subtitling, dubbing or audiodescription) in order to enhance communicative competence in an integrated and differentiated manner. This methodology will be piloted with adult students in non-formal educational contexts, especially in language schools of the universities involved. In this regard, the researchers in TRADILEX will elaborate the necessary materials to conduct quasi-experimental research which aims to bring to the fore a representative indication which supports the potential benefits of this type of methodology. Ultimately, from the results obtained, an online platform will be created with the aim of disseminating the use of this didactic resource, making some of the tasks created within the project available to be undertaken with the help of a subtitle editor and a voice recorder integrated in the web. It is expected that the benefits will then be shared among the population at large, thereby somehow promoting the development of multilingualism among citizens that more and more live their lives (and develop their lifelong learning) in a technological and online context.  The main L2 in the project will be English, given the current importance of this language in our globalised world, coupled with the necessity to make more frequent use of it. Nevertheless, Spanish and Italian will also be used as secondary languages, in such a way that the results can be compared, and a link between the benefit of this methodological approach and a deeper understanding of language learning can be established.

This proposal is very likely to be disseminated. TRADILEX will be supported by a network of collaborating teachers in several university schools of languages at a national level, who will be given training on the use of AVT as a pedagogical tool. The expectation is that the results of this project will contribute to the larger body of work on the subject and make possible future plans for teacher training.  The benefits from the conclusions drawn are expected to be numerous. In addition to the research results, which will be published in scientific journals, we hope this subject will be utilised in future PhD theses and discussed in national and international academic fora. Likewise, based on the conclusions, we will be able to observe and analyse the possibilities of extending the use of this model to other educational contexts (see formal university education and/or Primary and Secondary Education bilingual education).

REFERENCE: PID2019-107362GA-I00