The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation in the Age of Cloud Technologies

A growing expansion of cloud-based tools has been witnessed in recent years in the audiovisual translation (AVT) industry, leading many stakeholders to embrace and incorporate them into their localisation workflows. Cloud solutions utilise web-based resources and off-site storage to operate, thus enhancing the mobility and flexibility of the workforce among many other benefits. Large media producers distribute localisation work among preferred vendors using cloud-based ecosystems, and so do translation service providers for outsourcing work to their linguists. Higher-education (HE) institutions, however, often lag behind technological advancements and few have incorporated cloud solutions. In the age of agile cloud technologies, software developers are establishing ever-closer collaborations with both end users and academic institutions in their quest for feedback on user experience. Drawing on this approach, as well as on action research (AR) and descriptive-empirical methods, this thesis proposes user-informed changes to the teaching of AVT, particularly subtitling, with cloud translation technologies. The main aim of this thesis is to take stock of the far-reaching implications of cloud technologies in the industry and to investigate their potential in the classroom. The ultimate goal is to find ways to exploit them, from a pedagogical perspective, in the teaching and learning of AVT. For this purpose, a series of surveys and experimental sessions were conducted between 2016 and 2019, involving over 300 respondents from a vast array of countries and educational backgrounds. The participants’ responses shed light on the didactic uses and applications of cloud-based AVT tools and suggest possible changes to better cater for the student experience. Finally, this thesis suggests ways in which cloud solutions can be incorporated into the translator training curriculum and proposes a novel model of AVT education that takes into account the cloud and technology turn and is adapted to the needs of the 21st-century translation industry.