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Article published In:
Audiovisual translation and media accessibility in language learning contexts: Multiple modes, innovative practices and further explorations
Edited by Marina Manfredi, Catia Nannoni and Rosa Pugliese
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 9:2] 2023
► pp. 239–260

The use of subtitles in foreign language teaching

Exploring some sociolinguistic, cultural and translation features

| Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro”
The aim of this contribution is to assert the role of didactic audiovisual translation as a helpful tool for enhancing metalinguistic skills in a foreign language classroom in Italy; more precisely, the paper will offer an analysis of how foreign language teachers can introduce their students to the idea of sociolinguistic variation, by observing how lexical and morphosyntactic changes can occur in the translation process from an Italian source text into an English target text and/or vice versa. The following sociolinguistic variables will be examined through the lens of audiovisual translation, applied to a range of text types including films and an opera libretto turned into surtitles in English: (1) diamesic variation, making students reflect on such aspects as coarse expressions and taboo words, in relation to the Australian film Ned Kelly; (2) diachronic variation, exploring the multidisciplinary possibilities offered by opera surtitling with a focus on the opera Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi; (3) diatopic, diastratic and diaphasic variations, commenting upon some examples from the Italian films Mio cognato (My Brother-In-Law) and L’uomo che comprò la luna (The Man Who Bought the Moon).
Keywords: didactic audiovisual translation, metalinguistic skills, sociolinguistic variation, subtitling, surtitling
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Subtitling and sociolinguistic variation
    • 2.1Diamesic variation
    • 2.2Diachronic variation
    • 2.3Diatopic, diastratic and diaphasic variations
  • 3.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
  • Internet sites
  • Filmography
Published online: 14 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00110.pet
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

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2023. Video Games in Teaching Audiovisual Translation to University Students. In The World of Games: Technologies for Experimenting, Thinking, Learning [Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, 829], ► pp. 57 ff. DOI logo

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