Поездки культур и культурные поездки: обучение техникам перевода созданием субтитров

The article analyses interlingual subtitling, through a specific software, within the context of a Russian-to-Italian translation course. The composition of video subtitles (with or without Russian transcripts, depending on level or course aim) offers several advantages to students regarding the development of linguistic competence (the basics for any translator or interpreter). This is because it stimulates the development of listening skills, phonetics, non-verbal communication as well as lexical enrichment. Concerning translation skills in the strictest sense, subtitling offers numerous advantages owing to its pragmatic and target-oriented approach. The use of authentic material, even at early stages of language proficiency, has been found to significantly motivate students. They are faced with a blend of cue-rich audio and visual messages, with which they are naturally more familiar. The visuals aid overall comprehension and help students to develop the ability to predict and speculate. The concrete, situated codes that are replete in audiovisual material, deftly echo that universal language of internal speech, from which any translation ought to begin. In other words, this approach helps counter-act a tendency towards the over-literal translation in favour of far more composite, contextualised set of translation strategies.