Using media accessibility as a stimulus for teaching audio-visual translation: a Singapore case study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite attempts to integrate media accessibility components into audio-visual translation courses, consensus is lacking on the content, aims and orientation of the paradigmatic implementation of the curriculum, with inadequate attention given to the empirical assessment of pedagogical effectiveness. This article describes an exploratory endeavour in curriculum design that aimed to enhance beginner students’ awareness of accessibility by using technology-enabled multimodal translation as teaching materials (i.e. subtitling, dubbing, audio description, live subtitling and social media and website translation). We adopted a tripartite model to evaluate pedagogical efficacy, conducting a pre-course psychosocial assessment of learner-specific affective variables and personal propensities, evaluating process data based on the trainees’ progressive and summarised assessments and triangulating the results with students’ post-course feedback from questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. This article advocates for teaching audio-visual translation with a strong accessibility-centred and technology-driven learning orientation, which is challenging but viable in general translator training.