Having fun in the classroom: Subtitling activities

Abstract This article analyses the role of subtitles both as a functional activity and a didactic tool in translation teaching and foreign language learning. It presents the results of a didactic project carried out with a class of university students enrolled in the first year of Laurea Magistrale in Lingue e Letterature Straniere (University of Parma). In particular, the aim of the project was to exploit the potentials of subtitling – and in particular those of fansubbing – in a formal teaching context such as a translation course (Lingua e Traduzione Inglese). More specifically, students were asked to engage in multimodal activities in order to create interlingual subtitles for a variety of TV series, acting as non-professional subtitlers. Such activities included the translation of episodes of their favourite TV programmes, ranging from medical dramas to crime, legal and science fiction series, thus presenting students with a variety of backgrounds and different fields. Using the software Subtitle Workshop, students were asked to complete the translation of the episode in a very short time, trying to solve as many problems as possible (regarding terminology, cultural references, language varieties, taboo language, etc.) and making the most of their fan cultural knowledge.