Audio description (AD) is a type of audiovisual translation (AVT) used for making video content accessible to the blind and visually impaired. Over the last decade, the pedagogic potential of AVT in foreign language learning (FLL) has gained increasing recognition by experts. However, AD as a didactic tool in FLL is an innovative area that has received very little attention so far, despite its significant potential for language learners. In addition, many experts in Applied Linguistics have shown a growing interest in the study of fluency, pronunciation and intonation.With these ideas in mind the author of the present article has carried out a small scale preliminary experiment with university students of Spanish as a foreign language. This article presents the methodological framework of the experiment which includes the instruments for data gathering. Although only six students completed the experiment, their responses were positive and encouraging as they found active AD tasks useful for language learning. It is hoped that the lessons learnt will inform the methodological framework for larger scale studies.

Audio description (AD) is a type of audiovisual translation (AVT) used for making video content accessible to the blind and visually impaired. Over the last decade, the pedagogic potential of AVT in foreign language learning (FLL) has gained increasing recognition by experts. However, AD as a didactic tool in FLL is an innovative area that has received very little attention so far, despite its significant potential for language learners. In addition, many experts in Applied Linguistics have shown a growing interest in the study of fluency, pronunciation and intonation. With these ideas in mind the author of the present article has carried out a small scale preliminary experiment with university students of Spanish as a Foreign Language. This article presents the methodological framework of the experiment which includes the instruments for data gathering. Although only six students completed the experiment, their responses were positive and encouraging as they found active AD tasks useful for language learning. It is hoped that the lessons learnt will inform the methodological framework for larger scale studies.

This article discusses the action-oriented foundations of TRADILEX (Audiovisual Translation as a Didactic Resource in Foreign Language Education), a project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, which involves researchers from twelve universities across Europe and the UK. This project focuses on the improvement in the linguistic skills perceived through audiovisual translation (AVT) practices such as the use of captioning (i.e., interlingual and intralingual subtitling) and revoicing (i.e., dubbing, voice-over, and audio description) through an action-oriented approach (AoA). The ultimate objective is the study of AVT as a means to enhance learners’ communicative competence and reception, production, and mediation skills in an integrated manner. Following the design of a methodological proposal for a didactic sequence of AVT tasks, proposals are currently being piloted with B1 and B2 adult learners of English as a foreign language utilising – and adapting – the recent illustrative descriptors (Council of Europe, 2018) for AVT instruction. The potential benefits of action-oriented AVT tasks in foreign language education (FLE), in which foreign-language learners become active producers of AVT work, are put to the test employing empirical inquiry and thereafter advocating for more comprehensive integration of AVT in the FLE curriculum overall.

Este artículo expone los principios fundamentales del enfoque orientado a la acción del proyecto TRADILEX (Traducción Audiovisual en el Aprendizaje de Lenguas Extranjeras) que financia el Ministerio de Educación, Ciencia e Innovación de España y que reúne a investigadores de doce universidades europeas y británicas. El objetivo de TRADILEX es el de reunir los datos necesarios para estudiar la mejora de las habilidades lingüísticas con el uso de subtitulado (tanto inter como intralingüístico) y doblaje (así como las voces superpuestas y la audiodescripción) con un enfoque orientado a la acción. La propuesta metodológica, compuesta de tareas de traducción audiovisual (TAV) que se presenta busca que el estudiante pueda progresar en el desarrollo de sus competencias comunicativas, así como en sus destrezas de recepción, producción y mediación lingüísticas, de una manera integrada. Dicha metodología se encuentra actualmente en fase de pilotaje con estudiantes adultos de niveles B1 y B2 de inglés como lengua extrajera y ajusta a los descriptores publicados recientemente por el Consejo de Europea (2008) a la enseñanza de la TAV. Con este artículo, se examinan las posibles ventajas de la enseñanza de la TAV desde un enfoque orientado a la acción en el marco de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. El proyecto persigue, en última instancia, una mayor integración de la TAV en los programas de lenguas extranjeras para el desarrollo de destrezas de mediación y habilidades relacionadas con lo audiovisual a la vez que se promueven las tareas de TAV activas y el uso de tecnologías en el aula.