Translation as Adaptation for Language Pedagogy

• Authors: Sara Laviosa
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper explores, within an ecological perspective on language learning (cf. van Lier 2004), the valuable role that translation as adaptation can play in mediating and making sense of cross-cultural experiences in the multilingual language classroom. The aim is to develop a multilingual pedagogy that includes translation as adaptation as an integral part of the language curriculum in order to foster translingual and transcultural competence, this being the goal of foreign language education in the 21st century (cf. MLA 2007:2). The first part of the paper introduces the theoretical framework that conceptualises translation as being closely related to adaptation. It then analyses salient scenes from Gianni Amelio’s bilingual drama La stella che non c'è/The Missing Star/L'Étoile Imaginaire (2006) filmed in Italy and China and screened in competition as part of the 2006 Venice Film Festival. Moving on from research to pedagogic practice, the final part of the paper outlines a teaching unit that is based on the film and is aimed at undergraduate L1 Chinese learners of Italian and L1 Italian learners of Chinese. The objective of the pedagogic unit is to raise awareness of the transformative power enshrined in linguistic and cultural exchanges mediated by audio-visual translation as an eminent example of adaptation.

Keywords

EN

symbolic representation; symbolic action; symbolic power; translingual and transcultural competence

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Linguaculture
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 2014
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 63-72

Dates

published

2014-02-01

online

2015-04-18

Contributors

author

Sara Laviosa

• University of Bari

References

• Bastin, Georges L.“Adaptation.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Eds. Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha. 3-6. London and New York: Routledge, 2009. Print.
• Islam, Yusuf. “Maybe There’s a World: Live in Naples.” You Tube, 6 Jan. 2007. Web. 7 Sep. 2014.
• -----. “Maybe There’s a World.” YouTube, 17 Jul. 2010. Web. 7 Sep. 2014.
• Kramsch, Claire. E-mail Message to Sara Laviosa, 31 Mar. 2009. Web.
• -----. The Multilingual Subject: What Foreign Language Learners Say about their Experience and Why it Matters. Oxford: Oxford UP., 2009. Print.
• -----. “Symbolic dimensions of the intercultural.” Language Teaching 44.1 (2010): 1-14. Print.
• Krebs, Katja. “Introduction: Collisions, Diversions and Meeting Points.” Translation and Adaptation in Theatre and Film. Ed. Krebs. 1-12. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. Print.
• La stella che non c’è. Dir. Gianni Amelio. Perf. Sergio Castellitto, Ling Tai, Angelo Costabile. Cattleya/ Babe Film/ RAI Cinema, 2006. DVD.
• MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages. “Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World.” 1-12. MLA Web, 2007. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
• Rea, Ermanno. La dismissione. Turin: Rizzoli, 2002. Print.
• Raw, Laurence and Tony Gurr. “Bridging the Translation/ Adaptation Divide: A Pedagogical View.” Translation and Adaptation in Theatre and Film. Ed. Katja Krebs. 166-77. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. Print.
• van Lier, Leonard. The Ecology and Semiotics of Language Learning: A Sociocultural Perspective. Boston: Kluwer, 2004. Print.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/lincu-2015-0014