ABSTRACT Apart from traditional approaches such as retrospective interviews on interpreting outputs to assess students’ mastery of online strategies (i.e. strategies adopted during interpreting), a validated tool that can efficiently assess such expertise is at least a helpful supplement. Following psychometric principles and informed by a focus group, an expert panel, and data from more than 200 Chinese-English interpreting students in pilot and formal tests, this study developed and validated a self-rating expertise scale for typical online strategies used during consecutive interpreting (CI). The final 20-item scale (phrased in Chinese) evaluates such expertise respectively for the CI comprehension and production phases. For comprehension, exploratory factor analysis revealed two dimensions: utilizing global context and utilizing local context. For production, three dimensions emerged: (1) utilizing what is available so as to reformulate efficiently, (2) prioritizing, and sacrificing what is less important, and (3) elaborating when necessary. The scale has sufficient internal consistency (ordinal α = 0.89), test-retest reliability (r = 0.80), content validity (established by rigorous development and confirmed by expert rating), and criterion-related validity (with scale scores significantly correlating with interpreting performance measures, Spearman’s ρ = 0.52 and 0.61). The dimensions that emerged have implications for understanding expertise in CI online strategies.

ABSTRACT As the sense of touch plays an increasingly important role in engaging with art, it has been successfully utilized to improve access to museums and galleries for people with visual impairments. Tactile support can significantly help to convey the beauty of an object, influence the aesthetic experience of an artwork and make the art experience more direct, immersive and durable. In some contexts, touch can also be exploited as a habilitative tool. The effectiveness of tactile experiences, however, depends crucially on the type and quality of the directional information provided verbally to the user. This research qualitatively analyzes linguistic expressions used to refer to general and fine-grained hand movements necessary for efficient haptic exploration of artworks, focusing on hand movement verbs and on a selection of linguistic strategies used by professional Italian guides in live touch tours. Their AI(ChatGPT)-generated English translation are evaluated for adequacy and accuracy. As a co-product of this analysis, tentative bilingual recommendations are provided that can be exploited in both live and recorded museum touch tours in Italian and in English.

ABSTRACT Using Act-Network Theory (ANT), this study of Mei Lan-fang’s 1930 American tour examines how his translators formed networks to work collectively toward the shared goal of making his art of female impersonation culturally accessible to American audiences. It argues that this shared goal functioned as an obligatory passage point (OPP), and that the power dynamics underlying the translation network were closely tied to translators’ differing capacities to achieve this goal. It analyzes translators’ collaborations and competitions, as well as their negotiations with American audiences, through Callon’s four moments of translation. Mei’s translators took flexible strategies to negotiate with American audiences over the aesthetics of Mei’s performances and their gender representations across cultural differences, as demonstrated through three case studies: George Kin Leung, in translating the promotional materials, employed Western theories of realism and symbolism to reconceptualize the Chinese notions of dan and nandan. P. C. Chang adjusted Mei’s performance program to present more accessible female images. Soo Yong’s embodied translation created gender tension with Mei’s impersonated female roles, which enriched the audience’s understanding of the gender politics underlying Mei’s performances. Through the process, the translators and audiences had their identities and roles displaced and transformed.

ABSTRACT This article reports on a pilot study examining the role of emotionally expressive subtitles in improving the accessibility and inclusivity of audiovisual (AV) content for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing audiences. Standard subtitling practices, although widely used, prioritize linguistic accuracy at the expense of conveying affective information crucial for narrative understanding. The study described here investigates alternative subtitling strategies that integrate visual design elements – such as dynamic typography, color, and motion – to reflect the emotional atmosphere of AV material. Drawing on multimodal theory and concepts from embodied cognition, the research explores how such subtitles may enrich a viewer’s experience by enhancing both comprehension and emotional engagement, particularly among audiences who rely on visual rather than auditory cues. Data were collected using an eye tracker and post-viewing questionnaires, which assessed participants’ perceptions of accessibility, narrative clarity, and affective resonance. While analysis of biometric measures remains ongoing, preliminary findings indicate that visually enriched subtitles may offer added value beyond conventional captioning methods. The study adds to growing interdisciplinary discourse on media accessibility, suggesting that emotionally attuned subtitling holds promise as a multimodal enhancement to traditional approaches, with implications for both practice and further research.

ABSTRACT In both translation studies and journalism research, there is growing recognition that inter-lingual quotations of political speeches, though often presented as faithful renditions, frequently involve mediation in translation and recontextualization. However, little attention has been paid to how stance mediation operates when news media translate and recontextualize foreign leaders’ metaphors. Drawing on Appraisal Theory (Martin & White, 2005) and Critical Metaphor Analysis (Charteris-Black, 2014), this study investigates how metaphors from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speeches at international conferences have been translated and recontextualized in U.S. media, specifically The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. The findings reveal that these outlets systematically mediate Xi’s attitude and stance on contentious issues by (1) foregrounding negative source-domain imagery, (2) distorting or omitting key conceptual mappings from the original metaphors, and (3) embedding quotations of metaphorical expressions within narratives that invite judgment or misinterpretation. The study further explores the underlying factors driving such mediation. By illuminating these discursive strategies, the research contributes to understanding the ideological reframing of political discourse in cross-linguistic media representation.

ABSTRACT This study explores the Korean translation of culture-specific items (CSIs) in licensed musicals by analyzing audience responses to different translation strategies. Musicals such as Les Misérables, Urinetown, Little Women, Rent, Blood Brothers, and The Spitfire Grill were examined. Foreignized and domesticated translations of units of measurement, idioms, proper nouns, and customs were performed consecutively, followed by audience surveys to assess comprehension and preferences. Results show that audiences generally find foreignized translations less understandable, though preferences vary by CSI. Audiences are receptive to content adaptation and free translation, but they react negatively to the domestication of currency units and proper names. In contrast, there is a strong preference for the domestication of social and legal culture, customs, and humor. This study, using live performances to gather real-time audience responses, provides valuable insights for translators. However, it acknowledges limitations due to the time constraints of live performances, which restricted the depth of analysis.

ABSTRACT This article proposes a framework for comparing multimodal impoliteness in the source text (ST) and its rendition in the target text (TT). It begins by outlining the importance of examining the subtitling of multimodal impoliteness and discussing related research. It then formulates the framework by integrating a social semiotic approach to translation with (im)politeness models, while taking into account both immediate and broader prior contexts, as well as the perspectives of conversational partners. The framework considers the rendition of three interconnected dimensions: impoliteness-related forms (modes and their intermodal relations), meanings (e.g. face, sociality rights, identity, and emotion involving self and other), and functions (e.g. humor). The methodology followed provides procedures for identifying multimodal impoliteness in the ST, analyzing subtitles, and examining impoliteness rendition across the three dimensions. A subsequent framework-driven qualitative analysis of two sequences from the Chinese fansubbed version of the American sitcom Modern Family (2009–2020) shows how relations between the subtitle and other modes, along with translation techniques, influence the rendition of impoliteness-related forms, meanings, and functions. The analysis also demonstrates insights can be obtained through considering contexts alongside the addresser’s and recipient’s stances. The article concludes by highlighting the framework’s contributions to translation research and practice.

ABSTRACT The contradictory results of previous studies investigating whether interpreting training improves working memory (WM) might be partially due to a lack of systematic task load manipulation. The present study directly addresses this gap by manipulating task load when examining the effects of early-stage interpreting training on WM. We compared the behavioral performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) of an interpreting training group with those of an interpreting control group, using a modified Sternberg task under different load conditions. In addition, we compared a translation training group and a translation control group matched for confounding factors. The results revealed that one year of translation training did not enhance WM at either the behavioral or neural levels, whereas one year of interpreting training enhanced WM at the neural level. This enhancement was evidenced by a less-negative N2, suggesting that interpreting training is associated with the automatization of memory scanning. Moreover, the interpreting training group exhibited a more-positive P3, indicating that they had greater cognitive resources available in WM during the decision-making stage. Notably, the significant interpreting training effect of N2 in the right hemisphere under high load conditions underscores the crucial role of task load in the underlying mechanisms of interpreting training.

ABSTRACT While extensive research has focused on the dissemination of the Yijing in the German and English-speaking worlds, its translation and reception in Spain remains underexplored. This study examines the textual and non-textual paratexts of 21 Spanish translations of the Yijing published between 1971 and 2023 to investigate their reception in Spain. The findings indicate that the Yijing has been predominantly accepted through divinatory practices framed within popular cultural paradigms, while its multidimensional scholarly and theoretical value as a Chinese classical text remained relatively neglected. Furthermore, the study has observed a dynamic evolution during its reception history. Since the twenty-first century, the Orientalist perspective once presented has increasingly been complemented by interpretations that respect the intellectual, cultural, historical, and philosophical dimensions of the original text. This paper not only demonstrates how these characteristics are intrinsically linked to the prevailing indirectness in Yijing translations in Spain, but also sheds light on the socio-historical rationale behind this indirectness. More importantly, from a Spanish perspective on the global dissemination of the Yijing, this study illustrates how indirect translation practices, paratextual strategies, and socio-historical contexts shape its cross-cultural circulation and interpretative framing of Chinese classical texts.

ABSTRACT The article reports on a study aimed at assessing the benefits of experimental AD for sighted persons. The study involved sighted participants in two experimental groups, the AD and the control one, who were asked to watch a movie clip with or without experimental audio description (AD) and fill in a questionnaire concerning the cognitive (e.g. memory retention) and experiential (e.g. emotional engagement) assessment. In addition, the AD group was asked to provide the overall evaluation of the quality of the AD. The results show statistically significant differences between the AD participants and the control group in both the cognitive and the experiential assessment, indicating that experimental AD enhanced the cinematic experience of sighted viewers. Moreover, the AD participants expressed their overall positive opinion of this type of AD. It is therefore suggested, in line with the functionalist approach to AD, that alternative AD styles may ensure not just accessibility, but also greater social inclusion of persons with sight loss by making AD more enjoyable and beneficial for sighted persons. The study also opens up a discussion on more creative types of AD, in which the human input may outweigh the possibilities offered by generative artificial intelligence.