Audio description and intercultural competence in French as a foreign language class. A teaching experience

Abstract

Audio description, an accessibility modality that guarantees access to audiovisual cultural products for people with sensory functional diversity, has been used as a didactic resource of undeniable value in foreign language classrooms for at least a decade (Rodrigues Barbosa, 2013; Ibáñez and Vermeulen, 2013, 2014, 2017; Calduch and Talaván, 2017; Navarrete, 2018). Audio description allows the development of communicative competence and is a very motivating tool for students. However, its exploitation is not yet widespread in the French language classroom, something that we intend to address in this project. We started with the elaboration of a classroom intervention device (a didactic sequence), whose final product was the writing of an audio description script, and its subsequent application in B2 level classes of an official language school in Valencia. Our main objective was to develop intercultural competence in French classes, not only by comparing audio description scripts in two different languages, but also through the creation of scripts in French. Over four 100-minute sessions, activities designed around this didactic resource were implemented. An initial and final questionnaire, the AD scripts of two scenes created by the participants and their observations in a discussion forum were analyzed. The students improved in the recognition of the French-speaking cultural references presented throughout the sequence, which they included more frequently in the final audio description scripts. In addition, the comparison of scripts in different languages promoted intercultural reflection and the consideration of the describer as a cultural mediator.