Promoting self-learning in the EHEA: A new multimedia mining workstation for AVT
Traning in audiovisual translation (AVT) is gaining momentum with multiple courses in the European arena. However, the process of adaptation to the new European Higher Education Area (EHEA) derived from the Bologna Process requires a series of reforms which affect methodological issues, among others. In the new scenario students are expected not only to attend regular lectures and tutorials, but also to devote a pre-established amount of time to autonomous learning. Bearing this in mind, a group of researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have started a project which aims to offer students a new tool which promotes self-learning in the field of AVT.
This new tool is an online workstation which allows students to practice different types of AVT modalities (dubbing, voice-over, subtitling), including those related to media accessibility (audio description, subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing), by means of a data mining system. When students access the online interface, they are asked to define a series of parameters such as: language combination, AVT modality, difficulty (humour, register, dialects, cultural elements, songs, etc.), level, and material available (script/no script). Based on these criteria, the tool retrieves a selection of clips from which students can select one to work on autonomously. Once finished, the system allows students to check the broadcast version of the clip and a file containing additional proposals and some pedagogical feedback.
Apart from promoting self-learning, this tool also benefits lecturers in organising their materials. Clips can be uploaded in the system, can be easily retrieved and can be made visible or non-visible to students.
The project, which started in July 2008 and will last until July 2010, is financed by the Catalan Government (2008MQD000014) and is developed by five researchers from two different departments (Translation and Engineering). The results of the first stage of the project (2008-2009) as well as future prospects will be presented at the Antwerp conference.
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Pilar ORERO
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
pilar.orero@uab.cat
Anna MATAMALA
Bartolomé MESA
Marta ARUMÍ RIBAS
Javier SERRANO
Pilar ORERO holds an MA in Translation by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain, and a PhD in Translation by UMIST, UK. She lectures at UAB where she also coordinates the Online Master in Audiovisual Translation (http://www.fti.uab.es/onptav/). She is the co-editor of The Translator's Dialogue (1997) and the editor of Topics in Audiovisual Translation (2004) both published by John Benjamins. She is co-writer of a forthcoming book on Voice-over.
Anna MATAMALA is a full-time lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where she coordinates the MA in Audiovisual Translation (www.fti.uab.es/audiovisual) and teaches audiovisual translation. She has been working as an audiovisual translator for more than ten years for the Catalan television TVC and holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Her main interests are audiovisual translation, media accessibility and applied linguistics. She has published in international journals such as Cadernos de Traduçao, Translation Watch Quarterly, Catalan Journal of Linguistics, and has forthcoming articles to be published in The Translator, Meta and Perspectives, among others.
Bartolomé MESA is a freelance translator and a lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where he also coordinates a Master’s Degree in Translation Technologies. He graduated in Translation (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and General Linguistics (Universitat de Barcelona), and holds an MA in Multimedia Resources for the Internet (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). His current research interests include Computer-Aided Translation, Terminology Management and Electronic Tools for Translators.
Marta ARUMÍ RIBAS holds a degree in Translation by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), a PhD in Interpreting by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), a Master´s Degree in Conference Interpreting by the Universidad de La Laguna (ULL) and a Master´s Degree in Teaching Conference Interpreting by the École de Traduction et Interprétation of the Université de Genève. She lectures at the UAB, where she coordinates a Master Degree in Conference Interpreting. Her main lines of research are the teaching of consecutive interpreting, self-regulation processes in the classroom and community interpreting. She participates in various funded research projects and groups. She has been working as free-lance conference interpreter for more than ten years.
Javier SERRANO graduated in Computer Science in 1988, and received Ph.D. (1994) degree in
Automatic Control (Computer Science Program), at the University Autonoma of Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Spain. Since 1991, he has been Associate Professor at the Computer Science Department of the University Autonoma of Barcelona. In 2000 he joined the new Communications and System Engineering Department. In 2006 he joined the research group Embedded Computation in HW/SW Platforms and Systems Laboratory (CEPHIS), a technology transfer node from the Catalan IT network, as R & D coordinator. Main interests are Speech Recognition and Understanding facing meta-data extraction from multimedia streams.
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