Exploring Audiovisual translation as a didactic tool in the Secondary school foreign language classroom

Abstract

The aim of this research is to showcase the versatility of Audiovisual Translation (AVT) as a resource in the language classroom. Didactic AVT helps students improve their communicative competence and linguistic skills in the foreign language (L2). Students also develop their digital competence by working with online resources and AVT editing software, and their intercultural competence by being exposed to authentic material in their L2. Mediation skills, as promoted by the CEFR (2001), are also developed with the implementation of didactic AVT. The literary review first introduces general concepts of didactic AVT, and later breaks down different AVT modes to focus on the benefits and potential downsides as classroom resources inherent to each one: subtitling, dubbing, subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) audio description (AD), and creative AVT.  With the intention of exemplifying some practical applications of AVT modes as central tasks in Secondary school EFL classrooms, this paper presents four learning sequences which are based on the theoretical principles reported in the reviewed literature. These learning sequences are not meant to be prescriptive, but rather an example of  potential ways to implement AVT in the classroom.