Intercultural learning through subtitling: The cultural studies approach

Interlingual subtitling can be used in foreign language learning not only to promote the acquisition of the foreign language itself but also students' cultural and intercultural awareness. This article examines the largely unexplored topic of audiovisual translation's (AVT) educational value when used with intercultural aims inside the foreign language classroom. If simple translation is a cultural transfer (see Katan, 1999; Snell-Hornby et al. 1997), audiovisual translation is only possible through a complex process of reflection and calcuation which, when considered within the framework of Cultural Studies and Intercultural Foreign Language Education, is in itself intercultural. What is more, in the same manner as the translator, students must: identify the cultural data present in the source text (SC); comprehend meaning and function within both the co-text of the film and the cultural environment of which they are expression and product; reflect on the cultural context of reception that the target-text (TC) is addressing; and finally, choose if and how to render cultural data on a linguistic level using the traslation strategies available to them. Like the audiovisual translator, the foreign language student must also make these choices keeping in mind information transmitted through semiotic systems (via sound effects, music, non-verbal communication, camera movements, etc.) reaching beyond mere verbal communication, while accounting for the time and space restrictions imposed by subtitling. The article explores this complex critical-interpretative process in order to offer an inital interpretation of how audiovisual translation can be effectively used in the foreign language classroom to stimulate students' intercultural awareness.