Chapter 22 | Eye Tracking in Audiovisual Translation Research

 

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Publication date: 13 September 2018
Copyright date 2019
Hardback ISBN: 9781138859524
E-book ISBN 9781315717166
You can order this volume on the Routledge website

 

 

 

 

 

Eye tracking has become an indispensable tool in experimental research on AVT. As an objective instrument for measuring visual attention distribution when viewers process the various visual signs contained in an audiovisual text, eye tracking can yield valuable information on how text and image are processed. It can help researchers determine how text-specific qualities such as subtitle style, presentation speed, line division impact on the effective processing of subtitles. It can also help us to understand how viewer-specific qualities such as language proficiency and hearing impact on subtitle processing. Also in the case of AD, eye tracking holds tremendous potential for helping us understand how sighted viewers process different visual codes, which could be used in decisions on which parts of the visual code are more important for AD. In this chapter an overview is given of the most prominent studies in the field of AVT that have used eye tracking to look at attention distribution, language and translation of subtitles, the language of the audience, the presentation speed and other rules and conventions in subtitling, non-standard subtitles that break with conventions, and also AD. From these studies it becomes clear that eye tracking research is becoming much more rigorous and provides a scientific tool that has become almost indispensable to AVT researchers. The chapter concludes with a summary of the most important eye tracking measurements that are used in AVT research before sketching a few future trajectories in this approach.

 

 

Jan-Louis Kruger is Associate Professor and Head of Department in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University. He also holds an extraordinary professorship in the School of Languages at North-West University in South Africa. His current research focuses on the cognitive processing of subtitles, including aspects such as psychological immersion and cognitive effort.

 

 

The Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation Studies provides an authoritative and straightforward overview of the field through thirty-two specially commissioned chapters written by leading scholars in the field.

This state-of-the-art reference work is divided in four sections. The first part focuses on established and emerging audiovisual translation modalities, explores the changing contexts in which they have been and continue to be used, and examine how cultural and technological changes are directing their future trajectories. The second part explores the interface between audiovisual translation and a range of theoretical models that have proved particularly productive in steering research in audiovisual translation studies. Some of these models are associated with disciplines that have long intersected with audiovisual translation, while others are drawn from areas of knowledge that are only now beginning to make their presence felt in the audiovisual translation literature. The third part surveys a range of methodological approaches supporting traditional and innovative ways of interrogating audiovisual translation data. The final part addresses a range of themes pertaining to the place of audiovisual translation in society: these include the institutionalization, academization and technologization of audiovisual translation, as well as its role as a force for social change, both within and outside the industry. This Handbook gives audiovisual translation studies the voice it needs to make its presence felt within the Humanities research landscape.

 

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