Learning English with Audiovisual Language Techniques

There are three types of subtitling: Interlingual, intralingual and live. Interlingual means that you translate the spoken text into another language. Intralingual subtitles are subtitles in the same language as the spoken text. These are usually meant for the deaf or hard of hearing. Live subtitling can either be to another language or not and is used during live events or shows. The main goal of subtitling consists in making sure that the viewer understands the meaning of what can be heard. 

Subtitling is often subject to criticism. People usually say that subtitles do not convey the entire meaning or leave certain parts out. These types of criticism come from the restrictions posed by the combination of text, sound and image. 

Advantages and disadvantages of subtitling

• One main advantage of subtitling is the fact that the original can still be heard. This mainly affects the foreign language level of viewers. Listening to a foreign language, helps to improve your listening and understanding skills and makes you more acquainted with expressions and idioms. 
• Another advantage was mentioned before, subtitling is a cheap practice, since only one person can do the job.
• A disadvantage is that the text can draw the viewer's attention away from things that are happening on the screen. Especially if you have no knowledge of the source language and need to focus on the translation, this might influence the viewer's experience. 
• A second disadvantage is that it is easier for viewers to detect mistakes, either in translation or in terms of language use. When viewers understand both the source and target language, they will notice if something has not been translated right. However, usually viewers do not know the restrictions on subtitling, which influence the translation and will be covered in the next chapter.

Restrictions and guidelines

Length

One of the first things you need to keep in mind while subtitling, is that a subtitle cannot be too long. It cannot remain on screen much longer than you can actually hear someone speak. Moreover, if it is too long, there is a chance that the viewer might not be able to read the entire subtitle before it disappears again.  The ratio between spatial and temporal length of the subtitles is based on the average reading speed.  

Luckily, there are some conventions that make it easier for you to know more or less what to do. First of all, a subtitle should not appear for less than 1:12 seconds and more than 6 seconds. The time will depend on the spoken text. A subtitle cannot appear before someone starts speaking and should not remain on screen longer than you can hear someone speak. This synchronisation is very important. A subtitle can conists of two lines maximum, each line containing a maximum of 37 characters.

Language

The second element you need to keep in mind is the type of language you use. Subtitles are supposed to represent spoken language so the language you use can be coloquial, as long as it does not become dialect. The register will obviously also depend on the relationship between the speakers, but there is no need to use words as 'therefore, since, for,...' when you can simply say "because". Obviously, you will be translating to your own mother tongue, but register is important in every language and the language used when speaking will always be different from when you are writing a paper or text, so keep this in mind. 
The space you can use is very limited, so this will also influence your choice of words. You will need to be creative and look for synonyms to make your subtitle fit the given time. However, it is important that your subtitles remain idiomatic. You cannot compromise the quality of your language because it needs to fit. And of course, make sure you do not make any mistakes in your subtitles. 

Sometimes you will find the right words immediately, other times it might take you longer. Especially long names or cultural references will cause issues and sometimes your mother tongue might not have a shorter word to use, which means that you will have to change the structure of your sentence, leave out information or split your subtitle differently.

Information

Because of the time and space restrictions,it might not always be possible to include all of the information in your subtitle. Therefore, you will need to consider what is more important for the viewer in the specific context. If there are bits of information that return later in the video, you should probably mention them in your subtitles. If it is something minor that will not influence the viewer's understanding of the complete video, you can consider leaving it out whenever you lack space.

Names should appear in your subtitles at least once. When a person or character is addressed for the first time, it is important to include the name to make sure the viewer becomes acquainted with the characters or people. However, when someone is addressed multiple times, there is no need to include the name every time, especially if you don't have the room for it. 

When you subtitle into another language than the source language, you only need to translate words that are spoken. Other audible things such as laughing, sneezing,... should not be translated since it can be assumed that the viewer can hear. When making interlingual subtitles, however, these things can be important for the viewer, especially when the noise is for example a knock on the door or sobbing from a distance. However, some descriptions are a bit silly and the internet absolutely loves them. Here is an example of what is called desriptive noise subtitles.

Funny example of a descriptive noise subtitle

Other funny examples can be found here here!

Finally, it is very important that you do not limit yourself to spoken text. Anything written on screen can be vital information for the viewer and should be translated as well. This can go from a written note to a sign next to the road to the headline of a newspaper article. 

Layout

As mentioned before, your subtitles can only contain two lines maximum. When a subtitle remains on screen during three seconds or less, it is advisable to use only one line. Whenever you use two lines, you cannot split one word over two lines, because that is too difficult to process for the viewer. Moreover, you should try to keep semantic and syntactic units together. Never split up an article and a noun or a preposition and a noun. 

Something else that is very important is that you should never end your subtitle with an exclamation mark. They do not look good at the end of a sentence and since you are considered to translate for people who can actually hear what is being said, the viewer should be able to hear when something is screamed out.

Other layout conventions such as dashes at the beginnen of lines, dots at the end of a line and spaces might differ for your specific mother tongue. In fact, within each language they might even differ per broadcasting station/.... It might be advisable to look into more information about your local conventions. 

Additions of subtitling to foreign language learning

Obviously it is not a good idea to start subtitling when your understanding of English is very basic. However, when you have a pretty advanced level, subtitling might help you improve your understanding skills. You are forced to listen to what is said, even if you have a written version of the text. Once you understand the original, you need to translate this into your mother tongue. Translating by itself already poses plenty of challenges and subtitling is even more challenging. However, it also allows you to expand your vocabulary list. You need to look up words you do not know or you might even find other meanings to certain words. Either way, actively doing something with a foreign language can only help improve your level and subtitling allows you to do that in a more fun and creative way.

Practising subtitling

There are various ways you can practice subtitling. First of all there are always TED talks waiting to be subtitled. You can easily look for a video on a topic that you like or have plenty of knowledge of and go ahead and subtitle it. That way, you contribute to a wonderful website and help spread information in your own mother tongue. 
You can get started here and read through their guidelines here. You can also watch tutorial videos here. There also is a tutorial on how to find videos that still need to be subtitled. Moreover, your subtitles will always be reviewed before they are published.

If you want to practise subtitling for YouTube videos, this can be done really easily on Amara.org. It is a free platform with an easy to use interface that warns you when your subtitles are too long. When you just get started, you will see a screen that shows you the basics of the interface so you can get started.

A screenshot from the Amara interface.

Another Amara printscreen that shows what happens when you exceed the character limit.

After you translated the text, you have to synchronize the subtitles to the video. This is also very easy to do, all you need are a couple of keys on your keyboard. However, it is very important to keep the guidelines mentioned before in mind here. 

You can also find a TV show you like and provide subtitles for that. Or maybe even make your own videos on YouTube and get started with subtitles in your mother tongue (intralingual) just to get the hang of it. Or maybe there are people online who are looking for subtitles in your language. There are definitely plenty of options for you to practise!

Feel free to share any of your subtitled videos in this Google Docs folder, where you can make a new document and paste the links to any videos!