2014. “Innovative translation. Dubbing films in Italian with iMovie.” In C. Travis et al. (Eds), Practices and Policies: Current Research in Languages and Cultures Education. Sydney: Office for Learning and Teaching, pp.507-518 [with Josh Brown] (original) (raw)

With the introduction of a new degree structure in 2012 at the University of Western Australia (UWA), the typical characteristics of students choosing to study Italian has changed significantly, with students from the Faculty of Science now accounting for the highest proportion of first year enrolments. This paper discusses the introduction of a multimedia project involving translation and dubbing in the first year advanced stream unit, not only as an innovation aimed at increasing motivation amongst students, but also as a way of meeting the learning styles of students who may have a 'problem-solving' orientation. Students were divided into groups and each group was assigned a five-minute film sequence that they had to translate and then dub into Italian using the program iMovie. The project was an integral part of the coursework and the only take-home assignment for the semester. The evaluation of the project shows that the application of technology to a translation task was a successful learning experience even when, as in this case, students were not familiar with the iMovie application.