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Subtitling in Theory and Practice

Vak
2024-2025

Admission requirements

This course is open only to students registered for the Translation specialization.

Description

This course centers on the subtitling of both fictional and non-fictional health content from English to Dutch and vice versa. Its primary objective is to equip students with the essential skills required to produce and revise high-quality subtitles. While the course is hands-on and practice-oriented, it also examines subtitling from a research perspective. This dual approach enables students not only to create effective subtitles but also to use research to explain their translation options and stay updated with emerging trends and new job opportunities in the field.

Throughout the course, students will explore the professional requirements of subtitling, encompassing linguistic, semiotic and multimodal aspects as well as technical considerations. In addition, students will acquire and practice strategies to tackle specific subtitling challenges related to health content, such as cultural references, metaphors, wordplays, and expert-to-lay communication. Hands-on practice will involve working with a diverse range of audiovisual texts, adhering to relevant norms or style guides.

In the final phase of the course, students will undertake a project encompassing translation, subtitling, and revision tasks using a pivot template. This project aims to provide students with a hands-on experience of the entire subtitling workflow. Furthermore, students will collaborate in multicultural and multilingual teams, using appropriate communication technologies to enhance their teamwork skills and adaptability in a global context.

Course objectives

Concise description of the course objectives formulated in terms of knowledge, insight and skills students will have acquired at the end of the course. The relationship between these objectives and achievement levels for the programme should be evident.
Please note, this must correspond the skills mentioned above.
By the end of the course, students will be able to

  • understand key issues and current debates in subtitling & medical translation research. -> Researching, Generating Solutions

  • recognise a range of document types from a variety of professional contexts, and their function, structure and form -> Digital skills, Generating Solutions

  • solve problems common to medical translation and intercultural communication in healthcare settings -> Societal awareness, Project-based working, Generating Solutions

  • use and apply research-based thematic and domain-specific knowledge relevant to translation needs, using the most appropriate digital tools (e.g., search engines, corpus-based tools, text analysis tools) -> Digital skills, Researching

  • draw appropriate strategies from translation-specific resources (e.g., instructions, style guides, or conventions) -> Digital skills

  • subtitle, translate and revise medical content from English into Dutch, and from Dutch into English, applying professional standards -> Societal awareness, Project-based working

  • subtitle, translate and post-edit different types of audio-visual texts for different kinds of outputs, target audiences and media (films, documentaries, public health clips, etc. ), using the most relevant translation technologies -> Writting communication, Colaborating, Digital skills, Project-based working

  • explain the translation and adaptation options applicable to medical and biomedical texts with different levels of specialisation and complexity aimed at different audiences -> Reflecting, Writting communication, Colaborating, Project-based working

  • revise own work and that of words following industry quality standards -> Reflecting, Writting communication, Colaborating

  • during the translation process, adequately apply an advanced degree of contrastive linguistic expertise of Dutch and English -> Writting communication

  • plan and manage time efficiently, adhering to deadlines and effectively managing workload -> Project-based working, Resilience

  • work both independently and in multicultural and multilingual teams, using appropriate communication technologies -> Project-based working, Colaborating, Digital skills

  • monitor and adapt to new societal demands, market requirements and emerging job profiles. -> Societal awareness, Reflecting

  • critically assess the relevance and impact of translation technologies on professional practices. -> Digital skills, Societal awareness, Reflecting

  • pre-process, process and manage files and other media/sources as part of the translation workflow, e.g., web and multimedia files -> Digital skills

  • independently collect, interpret and critically reflect on relevant literature, identifying new trends and diverse methodologies. -> Researching, Generating Solutions, Digital skills, Independent learning, Writting communication

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

  • Seminar

  • Lecture

  • Independent work on the Translation Lab

Assessment method

Assessment

  • Subtitling assignment E-D (60%)

  • Analysis / research assignment (40%)

Weighing

  • Subtitling assignment E-D (60%)

  • Analysis / research assignment (40%)
    All components have to be at least 6.0.

Resit

There will be a resit opportunity for each of the course components. Students can resit a course component if the mark for the component is a fail.

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Reading list

  • Course book [most recent version]: Díaz-Cintas, J. & Remael, A. (2020). Subtitling: Concepts and Practices. London & New York: Routledge.

  • A list of additional reading materials will be made available via Brightspace; these materials can be accessed via the library.

Registration

General information about registering for courses and exams can be found [here] (https://www.student.universiteitleiden.nl/en/your-study-programme/courses-and-exams/enrolment/humanities/dutch-linguistics-ma?cf=humanities&cd=dutch-linguistics-ma#tab-1)

Contact

For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar

For questions related to the content of the course, please contact the lecturer, you can find their contact information by clicking on their name in the sidebar.

For questions regarding enrollment please contact the Education Administration Office Reuvensplaats

For questions regarding your studyprogress contact the Coordinator of Studies

Remarks