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Accents are often utilised in fictional audiovisual products to determine the creation of character identity. This is due to the set of cultural connotations typically associated with any given accent in any given language community. However, is there really one monolingual target audience anymore? In the age of streaming platforms, and at the rate the localisation industry is creating subtitles and revoiced versions, the target audience for many products has become multilingual. The English ‘dubbing revolution’, pioneered by streaming giant Netflix, perfectly depicts the broadening of target audiences in global distribution. The subject of this article is the popularly termed ‘foreignisation’ strategy, as it features in English dubs. The strategy is explored in relation to the novelty of (English) dubbing for most viewers as well as the ubiquity of foreign varieties of English in everyday life in the Anglosphere and, consequently, in English-language original fiction. Theoretical insights are also offered on the unique acceptance of English dubbing, in general, and of foreign accents as a dubbing strategy, in particular. The case of the Castilian-Spanish dubbing industry is also explored for contrastive purposes, elucidating the characteristics of (im)mature dubbing audiences: their habits, preferences, and (in)flexibility. The conclusions present a set of hypotheses drawn from the article’s discussion that provide plausible answers to the questions posed in the article’s title.

Streaming video-on-demand (SVoD) platforms have recently set out to produce an ever-increasing number of non-English-language films and tv series distributed worldwide. These, in turn, have become the perfect vehicle for disseminating cultural realities other than those from English-speaking countries. In this article, we endeavour to analyse the presence of stereotypes and cultural references in the English-dubbed version of the Spanish tv series Valeria (Benítez, 2020–present) and the way they travel through dubbing. To this end, we conducted a comparative study in which seven video excerpts from the English-dubbed version and their original Spanish version were shown to 57 native English-speaking participants from a British higher education institution, who shared a similar knowledge of Spanish as a foreign language. Specifically, we explored the participants’ overall perception of humorous passages, their identification of cultural references, their informed opinion on the translation techniques applied (and alternatives given), and their self-assessment of the metacognitive effort required. The findings show two aspects of learners: (a) overall, these learners were eager to maintain stereotypes and cultural references used for humorous purposes in audiovisual comedies, and (b) their understanding of these items often relies on audiovisual support. The findings offer an initial examination of English speakers’ cognitive and evaluative perception of Spanish comedies that have been dubbed in English and can be useful for translator training purposes.

This article depicts the current state of the art of English-language audiovisual translation (AVT) and sheds light on the recent changes impacting media localisation practices, viewing patterns, and viewer agency. The motivations that have catapulted practices like subtitling and dubbing into English on video-on-demand (VOD) platforms are considered, and special emphasis is placed on the move from English-language content to the production and distribution of originals created in a multitude of languages and showcased on streaming platforms with subs and dubs in English. Some of the latest technological advancements are discussed as they have influenced the viewing experience and audience selection of AVT modes, leading to a significant change in viewing patterns and preferences of anglophone viewers. Challenges posed to studying and training in English AVT are identified and the importance of inverting one’s gaze and perceiving English as the target language of translation, rather than the source language, is stressed in this new paradigm. Concrete suggestions are made for potential avenues of research in this flourishing field, which will hopefully contribute to painting a more detailed picture of English AVT.

Although dubbing has traditionally been associated with the so-called dubbing countries, the advent of digitalisation and streaming is nowadays encouraging the consumption of dubbed content across territories unaccustomed to watching foreign fiction with dubs, such as the Anglophone market. Despite the effort put into drawing in a wide and satisfied audience in these countries, an unfavourable response from some viewers has called into question the quality of English dubbed versions and the odds of forging a consolidated dubbing industry in such regions. The main aim of this article is to offer insights into how poor quality and the lack of a long professional tradition might compromise engagement and cinematic illusion and into how the lack of exposure to this mode might have a negative impact on the way the dubbed content is received and enjoyed by English users. The article also intends to discuss the many ways in which quality and habituation affect the dubbing experi­ence. This is done by exploring both the potential constraints that impair the final version and the factors that encourage an amenable attittude to this mode amongst the audience, de­spite their inexperience as dubbing consumers. The conclusions stress the need to enhance English dubbing quality at different levels and the importance of habituation to make dubbing work from a cognitive, linguistic, and prosodic standpoint.

The present paper is a response to the current problematic situation of oral English teaching at the tertiary level in China and the increasing popularity of web-based mobile oral English learning in oral English classes. Our paper focuses on the use of mobile-phone-based educational software known as “English Fun Dubbing” (EFD) and its advantages in terms of teaching and learning phonetics and oral English in the college classroom. The starting point was a needs analysis which revealed the lack of practice regarding English speaking. In this study, an action research method was adopted, involving 40 second-year students, who employed “classroom teaching + English Fun Dubbing” model as the intervention. Extensive examples from this model were used to build up a picture of the blended learning processes at work. Several imitation tasks, a conversational activity and a speech-delivering task were designed and implemented. Direct observation and the results of the questionnaire survey provided the evidence of the improvement in the students’ oral performance. It is our aim to develop the present project to incorporate oral proficiency. The main results of this action research were reflected in the adjustments in the pedagogical treatment, the changes in the role of the teacher and the student, and the shifts in the students’ attitudes towards their learning process.

Although standard Italian is taught from primary school and is widely prevalent in the media, dialects are still spoken in many households all over the country. This trend is captured by many popular video-on-demand providers such as Netflix and HBO, who are diversifying their offer by promoting their own non-English language productions via both subtitling and dubbing. This article analyses how language variation, particularly in the form of dialect and slang, is adapted for dubbing in the Italian Netflix series Baby (2018‒2020) and Suburra: Blood on Rome (2017–2020). Specifically, it examines the most common translational strategies that have been implemented in the dubbing of both series in English. In particular, dialectal elements are often translated directly or generalised, at times, with the addition of taboo words. Correspondingly, youth jargon is largely translated via direct translations or creative additions. Despite having two different age groups at the centre of the narration, similar translation strategies were used in the two series. The qualitative analysis demonstrates that dialect is used to define social disparity, since characters involved with criminality speak principally dialect whereas wealthy students, affluent characters, politicians, and churchmen draw on standard Italian primarily.

This study explores compensation strategies in dubbing nursery rhymes from English into Indonesian to maintain their rhyming, rhythmic, and mnemonic functions. Despite the growing prevalence of dubbed children's songs on platforms such as YouTube, there has been a limited scholarly attention to how rhyme is preserved in translation. Analyzing English nursery rhymes and their Indonesian dubbed versions from popular YouTube channels such as Cocomelon, Pinkfong, BabyBus, and Little Baby Bum, the study proposes a typology of compensation strategies comprising four types: Rectification, Recompense, Restitution, and Repositioning. These strategies were identified using a qualitative methodology incorporating Spradley's ethnographic analysis and were informed by theories of singability, proairesis, and compensation in song translation. The findings reveal that these strategies play a crucial role in preserving the musicality and the pedagogical effectiveness of nursery rhymes for young audiences. The research contributes to translation theory and practice by offering a systematic framework for handling the complex interplay between form and function in dubbing children's songs.  

A case study of a Japanese anime opening, the following article analyses the choices made by the translator of the English dub. In order to assess the quality of the target product, three main frameworks are employed, namely the pentathlon of criteria by Low pertaining to songs, the synchronisation types defined by Chaume in regards to dubbing, as well as the general translation techniques suggested by Vinay and Darbelnet. By identifying specific translation difficulties and the solutions employed in this case study, a better understanding of the Japanese-English audiovisual translation field may be gained, aiding potential translators.

Intelligibility and comprehensibility in English learners’ pronunciation plays a vital role in effective communication. Empirical studies show that Chinese English learners have difficulties achieving a high level of intelligibility and comprehensibility in their English pronunciation, one possible cause being the lack authentic context for pronunciation practice. Mobile-assisted Language Learning (MALL), i.e., language learning assisted or enhanced through the use of a handheld mobile device, is reported to provide a more authentic and therefore robust learning environment for EFL learners. This research explored the impact of online English film dubbing activities using mobile phones (MALL) on the intelligibility and comprehensibility of Chinese English learners’ English pronunciation. We recruited two classes of first-year college students, one as the experimental group and the other the control group. Recordings of the two classes were collected before and after the online English film dubbing activities, and a questionnaire was administered to the experimental group. The findings show that online English film dubbing activities positively influenced the performance of the EG’s English pronunciation in intelligibility and comprehensibility. The results from the questionnaires showed general positive attitudes towards the online English film dubbing activity.

This book is a thorough quantitative and qualitative study of a typical phenomenon pertaining to the English spoken language; namely question tags (QTs) and invariant tags. More specifically, English tags are analysed on the syntactic, pragmatic and prosodic level, taking into account cross-varietal differences as well as both visual and auditory dimensions, in order to get a more precise interpretation of their communicative functions. This is made possible by examining film language, since films, being complex semiotic \"texts\", provide a more complete set of parameters for analysis, especially in the case of QTs, where intonation is crucial for their interpretation. The study of their function is based not only on their formal properties, but is integrated with the use of spectrograms, which makes it possible to actually \"visualise\" the prosody of tags and to back up the results with material evidence. Moreover, tags are also examined from a translational perspective, with analysis focusing on the transposition of tags in Italian dubbing, a specific type of audiovisual translation, for two main reasons: firstly, to check how and to what extent tags are rendered in Italian, a language which does not have so structured a set of equivalent expressions, and secondly, to see how much space they are granted in a typically \"constrained\" translation like dubbing, which is severely influenced by the visual dimension. After this, the use of the various translating options in Italian dubbing is studied in Italian original film language and compared with spontaneous conversation in both languages, by analysing data in corpora of spontaneous speech both in English and Italian to ascertain whether the use of tags and their Italian counterparts in film language is natural or artificial.The present work is the first to study the syntactic and prosodic properties of English tags from an integrated pragmatic and translational perspective. The study also qualifies as contrastive in that the use of these conversational routines is analysed in two different languages (English and Italian), as well as in different genres and varieties, including film language, dubbese and spontaneous speech.