Active audiodescription to promote speaking skills in online environments

Abstract

Research on the use of audiovisual translation in foreign language education has considerably increased over the last decade. However, it has mainly covered the use of subtitles as a support, and the use of active subtitling and dubbing as a task. This paper introduces the pedagogical use of another AVT mode: active audiodescription - the oral description of visual information for blind and visually impaired people-to enhance speaking skills in distance learning education. The quasi-experimental study, developed in an online setting, involved 30 Spanish students of English for Specific Purposes (level B1). Participants were required to write the audiodescription of two tourist advertisements collaboratively online and then record their voices using the web platform ClipFlair. Reasonably valid conclusions that shed some light on the pedagogical benefits of audiodescription were obtained and they invite further research on the possibilities of revoicing techniques in L2 contexts.