Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts - Volume 11, Issue 2, 2025

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study explored the role that translation-based previewing interventions might play in fostering incidental vocabulary learning through audiovisual input. We investigated the effects of viewing dual-subtitled videos on EFL learners’ immediate vocabulary gains and vocabulary retention under an output-input viewing condition and an input-only viewing condition. A total of 38 Chinese-speaking intermediate EFL learners, who were studying at university, participated in this study. A counterbalanced 2×2 experimental design was utilised to allow all participants to experience vocabulary learning in both viewing conditions. Between-group and within-group results indicated that viewing dual-subtitled videos under an output-input viewing condition may lead to a significantly stronger level of immediate vocabulary gains and vocabulary retention compared to an input-only viewing condition. The article ends with a discussion on how the incorporation of translation-based activities prior to viewing dual-subtitled videos may help students to foster incidental vocabulary learning. This study contributes to the literature on language learning through audiovisual materials by providing empirical evidence which suggests that previewing interventions with the use of translation activities may help mediate the effects of incidental vocabulary learning through dual-subtitled video viewing.

Abstract

Multimodality has both challenged traditional text analysis strategies and offered a new scenario for the study of emotions in texts. In accessible translation, emotions are presented in different modes and thus intersemiosis is key to the success of the accessible translated text. The aim of this article is to study emotions in the accessible subtitling and audio description of texts that include affective elements from the perspective of the seven standards of textuality proposed by Beaugrande and Dressler (1981).

Following a multimodal and intersemiotic approach, we first describe how emotions are represented in the multimodal lexical resource developed within the Lexemos project, and report a didactic experience carried out in an undergraduate Multimedia Translation module with 86 students. Second, we present how the standards of textuality are a solid foundation for decision making when translating emotionally-laden multimodal texts and adapting them to users with different needs and abilities. Third, we propose a workflow for the identification and analysis of emotions in multimodal materials that has been used for the teaching of audiovisual translation. The results show that the transmission of emotions and the transfer of meaning, functions and intentions are key to building a coherent text, improving user experience and allowing access to culture and knowledge in accessible translation practices

Abstract

Language learners’ motivations cannot be fully understood without studying a learner as a whole person with agency in social and cultural contexts (Ushioda 2009). Building on the concept of subjectivity, which is shaped through communicative interactions (Kramsch 2009), and the concept of translanguaging that extends to an individual’s subjectivity (Li 2023), we propose viewing language learners’ motivation as a constituent of their subjectivity, which ecologically emerges, develops, or changes through communicative interactions, enabled by translanguaging practices.

To illustrate our view, we quantitatively tracked the changes in motivation levels among 26 students of Japanese at a university in the United States during the 2022–2023 academic year and triangulated the results with the findings of semi-structured reflective interviews, students’ journal entries, discussion board contributions, and observations made by their instructor and program advisor.

Our study revealed the uniqueness of each language learner’s dynamic and complex trajectory of their motivations, which sensitively respond to their human interactions and their sociocultural environments filled with competing ideologies. The results of this study illuminate the importance of staying alert to learners’ evolving motivations and taking effective pedagogical strategies that embrace them.

Abstract

This article examines the role of self-translation as an artistic form of healing from a migration trauma in the current age of mobility. The concept of self-translation, understood as a means of constructing a multilingual self in migrant narratives, plays a key role in Solito, an autobiographical work by Salvadoran-American writer Javier Zamora (2022), who left El Salvador at the age of nine to travel to the United States and be reunited with his parents. The book presents his efforts to relive the thoughts, fears, and hopes he experienced during this perilous journey solito, without his family. Trapped in the borderland between cultures, languages, and traumas, the author mixes English, Spanish, and Salvadoran slang to translate his traumatic experiences, convey his ongoing sense of ‘in-betweenness’, and reveal his hybrid identity. In this article, using an interdisciplinary approach and drawing upon concepts such as migration, multilingualism, self-translation, and trauma, I analyze how Zamora translates the traumatic memories of his childhood. I suggest that linguistic code-switching is crucial for the writer. English allows Zamora to distance himself from the grief, while Spanish helps him to embrace it and reconcile his condition as a migrant.

This article reviews On Sublimation Mechanism in Complete Translation: Based on the Interactive Exploration of Qian Zhongshu’s Translation Thought and Art of “Sublimity”9787100205665

This article reviews Interpreting as Translanguaging: Theory, Research, and Practice9781009462631

This article reviews Multimodality in Translation Studies: Media, Models, and Trends in China978-1-03264-617-6