How are audiovisual translations made and received? This is just one of the questions this book offers answers to. Bringing together research on various forms of audiovisual translation, the range of issues treated is wide: How are discourse features translated in dubbed and subtitled programmes? Does subtitling enhance foreign language learning? Can the quality of audiovisual translation be assessed in a relevant way? What should we know about the audience? How should we audio describe? Audiovisual Translation in Close-up addresses these issues from a variety of perspectives: from discourse analysis and pragmatics to cognitive science, second language acquisition, actor-network theory and speech recognition, amongst others. Most contributions to this volume originate from the international bilingual conference "Audiovisual Translation: Multidisciplinary Approaches/La traduction audiovisuelle : Approches pluridisciplinaires" held in Montpellier, France, in 2008.

Audio description is one of the many services available to guarantee accessibility to audiovisual media. It describes and narrates images and sounds and resulting audio is then mixed with the original soundtrack. Audio description is a complex process that touches production, distribution and reception. Researching Audio Description: New Approachesgathers academic information and data from the many existing research projects, practices, and training across the world. The book has a telescopic approach, from two introductory chapters where accessibility in general is contextualised as a human right, and the basic concepts of disability and impairment are explored. Research on specific features for audio description script drafting are focused in the second part of the book, with a view to revising existing funded projects and their outcomes. The book offers a wealth of information on both the practical and philosophical, from different approaches in perception and cognition, and different research methodologies. Project information contained in the contributions identifies trends in current research-funded studies which will be valuable as a pointer towards future proposals. The book shows the dynamic state of audio description practice, training and research, while contributing towards the growing critical mass needed in building the field of accessibility studies.

This volume aims to take the pulse of the changes taking place in the thriving field of Audiovisual Translation and to offer new insights into both theoretical and practical issues. Academics and practitioners of proven international reputation are given voice in three distinctive sections pivoting around the main areas of subtitling and dubbing, media accessibility (subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing and audio description), and didactic applications of AVT. Many countries, languages, transfer modes, audiences and genres are considered in order to provide the reader with a wide overview of the current state of the art in the field. This volume will be of interest not only for researchers, teachers and students in linguistics, translation and film studies, but also to translators and language professionals who want to expand their sphere of activity.