Devising a systematic approach to examination marking criteria for audiovisual translation: a case study from Poland

Abstract

Until recently, audiovisual translation in Europe ‘was learned in situ, away from educational establishments’. Despite a number of publications devoted to different aspects of this dynamically evolving discipline, the teaching and assessment of the different types of audiovisual translation have received limited attention. One case of this is Poland, where audiovisual translation has been introduced at universities relatively recently, and where there is a need to develop a systematic and objective approach to the assessment of different types of audiovisual translation which could be followed in final examinations. This article focuses on the issue of evaluating audiovisual translations in the higher education context. Based on the market standards reported in the literature, we identify challenges specific to voice-over, subtitling and audio description, and argue that the different types of audiovisual translation require different assessment categories. We then develop sets of detailed voice-over, subtitling and audio-description specific evaluation criteria which were applied to assess student translations in a master’s and postgraduate programme at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. The criteria cover information transfer and language, together with a range of technical aspects. The discussion centres on our approach to ranking and grading the evaluation criteria, followed by a reflection on how those criteria worked in practice in final exams.

Keywords:

• audiovisual translation didactics
• audiovisual translation assessment
• audiovisual translation evaluation criteria
• voice-over
• audio description
• subtitling

Notes

1. This need is particularly relevant in the Polish context, where the development of the AVT market started gaining momentum in the 1990s (Jankowska 2014, 75) and where AVT was only recently introduced at universities.

2. Postgraduate AVT training programmes are also offered in other major academic centres in Poland: Warsaw, Poznań, Kraków and recently also in Łódź. In most of these centres, AVT can also be found in master’s and/or bachelor’s translation programmes.

3. Dubbing is not assessed in the final exams as this type of AVT is impossible to prepare as an individual project. It needs excellent editing and synchronisation skills and is more time-consuming compared to VO, AD or SUB (e.g. it requires different voices for different characters). In addition to the technical reasons, it is relatively rare in Poland (used mostly in films for children and teenagers).

4. We start by discussing VO because it is the most popular type of AVT in Poland. This is followed by AD because both VO and AD involve voice talents and are based on scripts, which makes them share some technical aspects. We then discuss SUB (the second most popular type of AVT in Poland) because it is governed by different technical constraints.

5. In some cases scripts are not provided (e.g. in interviews), which means that the translator faces the additional challenge of comprehending spoken discourse (cf. Matamala 2008).

6. According to the Regulation of the Polish National Broadcasting Council of June 2005, programmes which ‘can affect negatively the physical, mental and moral development of minors’ may only be aired between 11 pm and 6 am.

7. It must be stressed that students are not trained to be professional voice talents and they read both VO and AD scripts only to check if they match the audiovisual material.