The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of Same-Language Subtitles (SLS) on the subject-specific comprehension and the academic literacy levels of EAL students on the Vaal Triangle Campus of North-West University (NWU). Essentially, the study aimed to determine whether exposing students studying through English as an Additional Language (EAL) to subtitled lectures (live or recorded lectures) would help improve their comprehension of the academic content as well as their receptive academic literacy skills, compared to students who were not exposed to subtitled lectures. This study stems from the identification of an academic performance-related issue on the Vaal Triangle Campus of NWU. Indeed, campus statistics show that the throughput rate of EAL students remains low, and that these students‟ academic literacy levels are inadequate. In other words, EAL students on this campus are underachieving and seem to have difficulties in mastering academic English. Based on various studies that showed SLS to be a valuable tool in terms of learning and academic literacy, this study proposed to introduce SLS (both live via respeaking and offline) in the university classroom as a learning aid, thus optimising the time students spend in lectures. Very little information was available in South Africa on the impact of SLS on the subject-specific comprehension of EAL students in a tertiary academic context. Furthermore, it had been anticipated that a certain number of technical constraints were likely to be encountered during the empirical investigation. These two factors made it difficult to predict what other factors could influence the outcome of the study. As a result, the study was based on the principle of Action Research, a research method characterised by the fact that the research is carried out in as many cycles as may be necessary in order to achieve the optimal conditions for a specific intervention. Three cycles were necessary to reach the optimal design of the present study so that a confident conclusion could be made regarding the impact of SLS on comprehension and academic literacy. For each cycle, the intervention was carried out over an academic semester. In the first cycle, a test group composed of EAL first-year Economics students was exposed to live SLS via respeaking during class, while a control group (also composed of EAL first-year Economics students) attended the same class at a different time, without SLS. In the second cycle, the live SLS via respeaking were replaced with offline SLS. The intervention was taken out of the regular classes and was carried out in the context of practical revision classes scheduled specifically for the purpose of the intervention. The test group viewed subtitled videos of lectures, while the control group viewed videos without subtitles. After each viewing, all participants were required to complete a short comprehension test. This cycle was also conducted in first-year Economics. The basic design of the third cycle was similar to that of the second cycle, but for the fact that the intervention took place in the context of a Psychology module, which, unlike the Economics module, was taught without the lecturer making use of slides. After these three research cycles were completed, it could be concluded that offline SLS indeed have a positive impact on the subject-specific comprehension and the receptive academic literacy skills of EAL students in a tertiary academic context. This conclusion was supported by the following findings: 1. The first research cycle pointed towards a slight, but statistically insignificant benefit in terms of both comprehension and academic literacy. However, at this stage of the empirical investigation, the technical constraints made it difficult to draw a precise conclusion in that respect. 2. In the second research cycle, the SLS seem to have had a significant impact on the receptive academic literacy skills of the test group, compared to the control group. However, no such impact could be noted in terms of subject-specific comprehension. This was attributed to the presence of a confounding variable, namely slides used during the lectures. This once more made it impossible to draw a confident conclusion regarding the impact of SLS on comprehension. 3. The third research cycle made a more confident conclusion regarding the impact of SLS on subject-specific comprehension possible. Indeed, the results of the statistical analyses show that the test group performed significantly better in their semester test (covering the work done in all the recorded lectures) than the control group, which was not exposed to any videos at all. On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that SLS in their offline form have a positive impact on the subject-specific comprehension and the receptive academic literacy skills of EAL students in a tertiary academic context, specifically if the students are given sufficient time to get used to the mode. This study seems to indicate that the benefits of SLS for comprehension can be recorded provided that students are exposed to the intervention over a longer period of time. However, there may be further scope for refinement as far as this study is concerned. It is therefore important that the topic be investigated further. / MA, Language Practice, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

The thesis is concerned with the little explored phenomenon of subtitling of live theatre broadcasts. Its aim is to describe the subtitling practice and the outer process of the translation, to determine the translation norms applied in this domain and to monitor reception of the final product. The descriptive thesis explores the translation practice of the NT Live series, which is one of a kind in the Czech Republic. Several case studies help to explore the reception and translation norms. The research makes use of both qualitative methods, such as semi- structured interview and comparative translation analysis, and quantitative methods, such as standardized questionnaire. The results are interpreted with regard to theoretical findings of translation studies in areas related to the subtitling of live theatre broadcasts. The thesis concludes that the client's requirements are minimal and the norms are gradually established by the subtitlers themselves, or adopted from television subtitling practice. Although the live cuing of the subtitles is an inseparable part of the translation process, there is little cooperation between the subtitlers and those who cue subtitles during the broadcast. Concerning reception, the audience is rather satisfied with the subtitles, but it could be advisable to revise...

This practice based PhD project investigates the language ideologies which surround the specific multilingual context of rural primary education in Zambia. The project comprises of a creative documentary film and a complementary written submission. The fieldwork and filming of the project took place over 12 months between September 2011 and August 2012 in the community of Lwimba, in Chongwe District, Zambia. The project focuses on the experiences of a single grade one class, their teacher, and the surrounding community of Lwimba. The majority of the school children speak the community language of Soli. The regional lingua franca, and language of the teacher, however, is Nyanja, and the students must also learn Zambia’s only official language, English. At the centre of the project is a research inquiry focusing on the language ideologies which surround each of these languages, both within the classroom and the wider rural community. The project also simultaneously aims to investigate and reflect on the capacity of creative documentary film to engage with linguistic anthropological research. The film at the centre of the project presents a portrait of Annie, a young, urban teacher of the community’s grade one class, as well as three students and their families. Through the narrativised experiences of the teacher and children, it aims to highlight the linguistic ideologies present within the language events and practices in and around the classroom, as well as calling attention to their intersection with themes of linguistic modernity, multilingualism, and language capital. The project’s written submission is separated into three major chapters separated into the themes of narrative, value and text respectively. Each chapter will focus on subjects related to both the research inquiry and the project’s documentary film methodology. Chapter one outlines the intersection of political-historical narratives of nationhood and language that surround the project, and reflects on the practice of internal narrative construction within documentary film. Chapter two firstly focuses on the language valuations within the institutional setting of the classroom and the wider community, and secondly proposes a two-phase perspective of evaluation and value creation as a means to examine the practice of editing within documentary film making. Chapter three addresses the theme of text through discussing the role of literacy acquisition and use in the classroom and community, as well as analysing and reflecting on the practice of translation and subtitle creation within the project.

Sammandrag De flesta andraspråksinlärare som kommer till Sverige i vuxen ålder har som mål att lära sig det svenska språket så fort som möjligt för att kunna bli en del av samhället, vilket i sin tur innebär att man ska tillägna sig ett stort antal nya ord på kort tid. Frågan är hur man ska gå till väga för att maximera effekten av ordinlärning i undervisning av vuxna andraspråksinlärare. Syftet med denna interventionsstudie var att undersöka vilket sätt att tillägna sig nya ord på, ett visuellt, ett auditivt eller en kombination av dessa två som var mest effektivt när det gäller tillägnandet av nya ord. Tre grupper av vuxna andraspråksinlärare, som studerade svenska som andraspråk på grundläggande nivå på Komvux deltog i undersökningen. I experimentet genomfördes först ett pretest på ord som följdes av interventionen, då den ena deltagargruppen såg en video med undertext, den andra gruppen såg samma video utan undertext och den tredje läste en text med samma innehåll som videon. Därefter genomfördes det ett posttest, som var samma som pretestet. Studiens resultat visade att en kombination av det visuella och auditiva sättet att presentera nya ord på gynnade ordinlärningen bäst.

Este artículo aborda la subtitulación en castellano del programa de televisión de realidad RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR) mediante un análi-sis porcentual de la presencia de rasgos microtextuales relativos al camp y la manera en que estos fueron traducidos en las versiones publicadas en Netflix y en el grupo de Facebook RPDR Venezuela. El artículo inicia con una elaboración sobre el camp (una sensibilidad estética comúnmente asociada con la identidad gay y difundida en espacios anglófonos) y el camp talk como categorías de estudio para la traductología. Más adelante se presentan los resultados del análisis de los subtítulos de dos episodios del programa de televisión. Finalmente, la discusión sobre los resultados alcances sobre el papel de la traducción en los procesos de aculturación relacionados al camp, así como sobre las nuevas funciones sociales de la subtitulación. / This article addresses Spanish subtitling for the reality television show RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR), which has been aired in the United States since 2009, analyzing the presence of specific microtextual features of camp (an aesthetic sensibility present in English-speaking spaces that is generally associated with homosexual identity) and of the manner in which these features have been translated into the Spanish subtitled versions found on Netflix and produced by the Facebook group RuPaul’s Drag Race Venezuela. The article begins with a description of the importance of researching camp talk in the context of Translation Studies and continues with an analysis of subtitles from two of the show’s episodes. Finally, results are discussed concerning the scope of translation’s role in camp-related acculturation processes, and new social functions for subtitling are considered. / Revisión pór pares

L’objectif de cette thèse consiste à cerner les enjeux, les contraintes et les normes qui régissent le sous-titrage cinématographique en tant qu’opération traduisante. Cette recherche se fonde sur un corpus constitué de films français, dont des comédies (romantiques) particulièrement, qui ont été tout récemment distribués dans les salles chinoises. Dans un premier temps, nous essayons de mettre en évidence, suivant l’évolution des échanges cinématographiques entre la Chine et d’autres pays, plus spécifiquement la France, les enjeux qu’un pays avec sa politique, son idéologie propre, son économie, sa société et son peuple pose à l’introduction des films étrangers ainsi qu’à leur transfert linguistique en général et à leur sous-titrage en particulier. Dans un second temps, nous tentons de démontrer, à la lumière de la théorie interprétative, qu’à l’instar de toute opération traduisante, le sous-titrage est soumis aux mêmes étapes, à savoir la compréhension du sens original, sa déverbalisation, sa réexpression dans la langue-cible, et l’analyse justificative de la solution retenue. En même temps, nous ne tardons pas à signaler les contraintes auxquelles devrait obéir le sous-titrage, qualifié de traduction contrainte ainsi que leur impact sur l’équivalence du sens. N’étant qu’une introduction à d’autres travaux de recherche sur le sous-titrage, qui reste jusque-là plutôt une activité empirique, cette étude vise à susciter plus d’intérêts de la part de la communauté scientifique, qui pourrait sortir de la marginalisation cet immense champ transdisciplinaire. / The purpose of this thesis is to identify the challenges, constraints and norms that govern film captioning as a translating operation. This research is based on a corpus of French films, including (romantic) comedies, which have recently been distributed in Chinese cinemas. At first, we try to highlight, following the evolution of the cinematographic exchanges between China and other countries, more specifically France, the challenges that a country with its politics, its own ideology, its economy, his society and his people, sets for the introduction of foreign films as well as their linguistic transfer in general and their subtitling in particular. Secondly, we try to demonstrate, in the light of the interpretative theory, that, like any translating operation, subtitling is subjected to the same stages, namely the understanding of the original meaning, its deverbalisation, its re-expression in the target language, and the justifying analysis of the chosen solution. Meanwhile, we will point out the constraints to which subtitling should be subjected, described as constrained translation, as well as their impact on the equivalence of meaning.As an introduction to other research on subtitling, which until now has been mostly an empirical activity, this study aims to generate more interest from the scientific community, which could change the marginal status of this immense transdisciplinary field.

<p>France has long had its foreign audiovisual material dubbed. If this is due to an attempt to conserve the French language, there should also be similar concern with foreign cultural references. This essay uses qualitative analyses of extralinguistic references to discover if a so-called domesticating practice is notable also in French subtitling. Sweden, however, is a smaller country, and may be considered more Americanized culturally. Swedish subtitling is used as the more globalized counterpart.</p><p>This research cites instances in which extralinguistic references are made and how they are subsequently dealt with in the translated subtitles. The instances are singled out and then individually analyzed. Using four categories of translation methods for Extralinguistic Cultural References (ECRs), this study investigates whether translation norms differ between Swedish and French subtitles.</p><p>This study‘s most important finding is that there do seem to be different norms for Swedish and French subtitles and that the francophone target audience is not required to move so far from its domestic reference frame as is the Swedish target audience.</p><p>Another important finding is that while there are both quantitative and qualitative differences, there are also striking similarities on the statistical level, indicating that there are global norms that govern translation in general, and specifically subtitling.</p><p>The results are interesting for the discussion around which ECRs are domesticated, but also for further sociolinguistic analyses of French domestication.</p>

<p>Syftet med denna studie var att utifrån olika kvalitetsnormer jämföra och analysera skillnader mellan professionella undertextares undertexter och amatörers undertexter. Dialogen från fyra filmer parades med motsvarande undertexter av professionella undertextare så väl som av amatörer, varpå skillnader registrerades, viktades samt analyserades. Resultaten visar att det föreligger signifikanta skillnader mellan undertexter av professionella undertextare och amatörer på ett flertal punkter, som till exempel struktur och semantik, reduktion och expansion, antal tecken, antal ord, exponeringstid samt antal undertextenheter. Genomgående så översätter amatörerna originaldialogen mer ord-för-ord än vad de professionella undertextarna gör, samtidigt som de professionella undertextarna stryker stora delar av dialogen, vilket innebär att tittare som använder amatörundertexter får betydligt mer text att läsa, vilket i sin tur innebär att mindre tid ägnas åt filmernas bildmässiga innehåll.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

<p>Syftet med denna studie var att utifrån olika kvalitetsnormer jämföra och analysera skillnader mellan professionella undertextares undertexter och amatörers undertexter. Dialogen från fyra filmer parades med motsvarande undertexter av professionella undertextare så väl som av amatörer, varpå skillnader registrerades, viktades samt analyserades. Resultaten visar att det föreligger signifikanta skillnader mellan undertexter av professionella undertextare och amatörer på ett flertal punkter, som till exempel struktur och semantik, reduktion och expansion, antal tecken, antal ord, exponeringstid samt antal undertextenheter. Genomgående så översätter amatörerna originaldialogen mer ord-för-ord än vad de professionella undertextarna gör, samtidigt som de professionella undertextarna stryker stora delar av dialogen, vilket innebär att tittare som använder amatörundertexter får betydligt mer text att läsa, vilket i sin tur innebär att mindre tid ägnas åt filmernas bildmässiga innehåll.</p>