Guest Editor's Foreword

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Spilling the Beans on Understanding English Idioms Using Multimodality: An Idiom Acquisition Technique for Iranian Language Learners

Idioms are ubiquitous in English language. Despite their ubiquity, learning idioms is a thorny issue for second language learners. Multiple researchers have scrutinized different aspects of idiom learning by second language learners: important factors in processing idioms in L2 (Cieślicka, 2015); the incorporation of technology in idiom learning (Khoshnevisan, 2018b); idiom assessment (Khoshnevisan, 2018a). A number of studies have been conducted concerning the application of the Idiom Diffusion Model—an L2 idiom processing model—to develop the idiomatic competence of learners, however, the pertinent literature is sparse: Greek, German, and French (Liontas, 1997); Greek (Katsarou, 2013); Korean (Türker, 2016). It turns out that the application of the model to Persian language learners is missing. To address the gap, the author conducted a qualitative study to explore the perceptions of Iranian language learners about using a website to learn idioms. The researcher employed an online questionnaire to delve into the learners’ perceptions. The findings imply that the majority of the participants used video and picture modules to arrive at the figurative meaning of the idiomatic phrases. However, in terms of semi and post-lexical idioms, most learners benefited from translations to decode the meanings. The findings corroborate the theory that translation facilitates learning idioms.

The Small Words of Film Spoken Language for Second Language Learning

Although being scripted, film dialogues are claimed to mirror natural spoken language. Exposing second language (L2) learners to instances of authentic language is reported to be stimulating and enjoyable. Amongst others, natural spoken discourse is hallmarked by discourse markers, which are small words, or prefabricated units, which constitute the bulk of native-like conversation. Helping students become acquainted with the small words of natural language can increase their perceived proficiency. In light of these argumentations, this paper is aimed at presenting a trial lesson with sixteen young adults who participated in a 2-hour class. During the class, they became acquainted with discourse markers, which were sourced from film dialogues. Students had firstly to infer their meanings and propose coherent translation candidates by recurring to their interlanguage. Then, they were prompted to search for translations in online language platforms. The paper findings highlight that the trial lesson was not only enjoyable and stimulating, but students felt that their L2 knowledge increased. Furthermore, they were stimulated by the inferring tasks and appreciated the word search. In some instances, students' inferences outperformed dictionary results and online suggestions.

Intercultural Mediation and Accessibility in Heritage

This article aims to propose a strategy taking in consideration the accessibility of each European citizen to information in all its forms especially audio-visual Media and Heritage. It is known that interlingual mediators are playing a huge part in the world of Information and Communication with the involving difficulties of common core theory and training. Moreover, technology can be the ideal tool to enhance accessibility. Thus, mobile phone applications can offer sometimes both audio and visual content to Museum visitors as well as sign language and text. This part of our work clarifies the needs and the values of an adapted methodology for training.In addition, this project gives to inter-cultural mediators the opportunity to work and to research on different applications and software programs in screen-titling, dubbing, re-speaking and screen-titling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, audio description and to obtain a training at professional agencies as well as to present a final assistance of quality.

Exploring the Combination of Subtitling and Revoicing Tasks: A Proposal for Maximising Learning Opportunities in the Italian Language Classroom

Research has proven that audiovisual translation as an instructional tool is certainly beneficial to the enhancement of language skills, mainly listening, reading and writing. The relationship between the pragmatics of audiovisual (AV) material and the way they are learned, is still a topic that requires more investigation. In this study, clips form an Italian TV series are exploited as context-rich scaffolding on which students can build up vocabulary and develop an awareness of L2 pragmatics. This article presents an innovative didactic methodology that capitalised on the linguistic richness of audiovisual texts and sees in subtitling and revoicing tasks a great didactic potential that provides students with numerous opportunities for learning vocabulary and L2 pragmatic. In the course proposed, exposure to AV input is integrated with subtitling and revoicing tasks as well as with multimodal analysis of the video clips in order to maximise learning opportunities in the FL classroom.

Teaching Vocabulary to Deaf Students Through Enriched Subtitling: A Case Study in Qatar

This interdisciplinary study examines the impact of using enriched subtitling (ES), within a total communication (TC) holistic approach to language learning, on the acquisition of vocabulary by deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students.The performance of the students in an experimental class, using an ES-based lesson, was compared to two classes using traditional educational methods, focusing on text reading and sign language. The classes were followed by three tests, one immediately after the class, and two other delayed tests, a day and a week later. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected and triangulated through class observations, student feedback, test results, focus group discussions, and interviews. Test results showed that the experimental class achieved the best results, supporting the research hypothesis that, when integrated in carefully planned lessons, ES can be a valuable tool to enhance vocabulary acquisition by deaf students.

The Language of Interlingual Subtitles: Studying the f Word in Skins

The language of interlingual subtitles and the effect it has on viewers is a concern for viewers of subtitled audiovisual content, subtitlers, and SVOD1 services such as Netflix2, as well as other cable, national and commercial broadcasters that show subtitled content. Subtitles are a popular form of audiovisual translation and their usage is growing worldwide. Conveying conversational dialogues from one language via subtitles to another may not come without obstacles as subtitles are a reduced, written, form of text, where many features of conversational, spoken language may be lost. Skins, a British teenage series, containing fast-paced dialogues and slang, as well as an abundance of expletives, will be used as an illustration of this topic. The subtitling of only one expletive will be compared across all seven seasons of this television series, by analysing the opening episode of each season, against different circumstances in which particular seasons were subtitled. The study of the corpus of Croatian subtitles of this TV series, based on the analysis of the opening episode of each season of this TV series has been conducted. The article aims to show that the way subtitles are depends on how they were created, under what set of circumstances.

Accessibility Mainstreaming and Beyond – Senior Citizens as Secondary Users of Audio Subtitles in Cinemas

Audiovisual accessibility is traditionally seen as a means of providing access for people with sensory impairments, be it sight or hearing loss (Orero, 2004). Recently, a much broader perspective opened as some also see it as a way of providing linguistic accessibility (Díaz Cintas, 2005; Orero & Matamala, 2007) or even as services that cater for the specific needs of people who "cannot, or cannot properly, access the audiovisual content in its original form" (Greco, 2016: 23). This article fits squarely into this trend as it reports on a survey-based study set out to find out preferences regarding linguistic accessibility in the cinema among unimpaired senior citizens in Poland. On the whole, 40 people aged 60 or more took part in the study. Results show that senior citizens are more likely to choose voice-over and dubbing over subtitling. This could be because the majority of participants declared that they experience discomfort or difficulties when reading subtitles. As a result, they are willing to use a mobile app that would enable them to listen to audio subtitles in the cinemas.

Towards the Joint Study of Access Services and Universal Design for Learning

Access services have been studied from various perspectives as types of Audiovisual Translation, including their role as tools for education, and foreign language learning in particular, when audiovisual material is used for learning purposes. This paper aims to introduce a research path in audiovisual accessibility, from an Audiovisual Translation point of view, and accessible education by joining the dots between Access Services and Universal Design for Learning, with the aim to propose a holistic approach to accessible learning environments. Within this context, both access services and Universal Design for Learning are seen as both functional and pedagogical tools that can be used to achieve education which satisfies the needs of all learners. The current contribution takes Subtitling for the D/deaf and the hard-of-hearing as an example of access services whose educational value has been established and investigates its potential role in an educational environment that has been based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning.

Ηλικιακά στερεότυπα για την απόκτηση νέων δεξιοτήτων και οι αρνητικές επιπτώσεις τους στις εργασιακές προοπτικές των άνω των 55 ετών

Τα τελευταία χρόνια παρατηρείται το φαινόμενο της γήρανσης του πληθυσμού το οποίο εκδηλώνεται ως συνεχής διεύρυνση της ηλικιακής ομάδας των άνω των 55 ετών. Αυτό έχει οδηγήσει σε πολλές χώρες στην επιμήκυνση του εργασιακού βίου και σε παράταση των ορίων συνταξιοδότησης. Το παρόν άρθρο, λοιπόν, εξετάζει τις προκλήσεις που αντιμετωπίζουν οι εργαζόμενοι των άνω των 55 ετών λόγω των αρνητικών στερεοτύπων που τους θέλουν να διακατέχονται από μειωμένες σωματικές και γνωστικές ικανότητες καθώς και από αδυναμία απόκτησης νέων δεξιοτήτων. Το άρθρο αναδεικνύει την εσωτερίκευση των αρνητικών αυτών στερεοτύπων από τους ίδιους ως βασική διεργασία μέσω της οποίας οι εργασιακές προοπτικές των εργαζομένων των άνω των 55 ετών περιορίζονται σημαντικά και επισημαίνει την απώλεια της παραγωγικότητας και το μακροπρόθεσμο κόστος στη σωματική και ψυχική υγεία των εργαζομένων ως μερικές από τις αρνητικές επιπτώσεις των ηλικιακών στερεοτύπων. Η καλλιέργεια θετικών επαφών μεταξύ εργαζομένων όλων των ηλικιών προτείνεται ως τρόπος αντιμετώπισης των αρνητικών αυτών επιπτώσεων.