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Article published In:
Pop culture in applied linguistics: International perspectives: Special issue of ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 173:2 (2022)
Edited by Valentin Werner
[ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 173:2] 2022
► pp. 197–227

“¿Triste estás? I don’t know nan molla”

Multilingual pop song fandubs by @miree_music

ORCID logo | Beijing Foreign Studies University
| University of Málaga

Fandubbing, or dubbing made by fans of any audiovisual product, is a linguistically and technologically sophisticated enterprise enacted by many devoted fans. This study presents the case of Miree, a 24-year-old fandubber with more than 1 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 300 multilingual fandubbed songs. Using a qualitative-interpretive approach, we conducted an in-depth interview with Miree and analyzed her top 30 videos by views to reveal how Miree performed fandubbing, how she expressed her fan identity through fandubbing, and which were some of the implications of fandubbing for language learning. Results show that Miree realized both interlinguistic genuine fandubbing and intralinguistic parodic fandubbing, strategically adopting translanguaging to orchestrate a multimodal performance, engage her fanbase, and activate several informal language learning opportunities and contexts afforded by fandubbing.

Keywords: fandub, dubbing, fan translation, informal language learning, translanguaging, identity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Conceptual framework and literature review
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Miree, the fandubber
    • 3.2Data collection and corpus
      • 3.2.1Miree’s top 30 videos by views
      • 3.2.2Semi-structured interview
    • 3.3Data analysis
    • 3.4Ethical statement
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1A fandubber of songs
    • 4.2Translanguaging, multimodality, and collective identity in Miree’s fandubbing
      • 4.2.1Interlinguistic genuine fandubbing and translanguaging
      • 4.2.2Intralinguistic parodic fandubbing and multimodality
    • 4.3Informal language learning opportunities in fandubbing
  • 5.Discussion and concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 10 May 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.21007.zha
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