Hi, this is an introduction to the Learning Outcomes of this element.
On completion of this training sequence,
you will be able to repeat or reformulate the source text while listening to it;
You will also be able to remember full sentences while lagging behind;
to activate exit strategies while respeaking if you realize the speaker is challenging.
In this presentation,
I will first recall the skills of the respeaker,
to then concentrate on the strategies a respeaker applies in the profession.
This is just a theoretical introduction.
Its aim is to provide you with a framework of reference
for the three skills mentioned.
Don’t worry if you don’t immediately understand every single concept expressed here.
We will go into details of every single skill in the dedicated LOs.
As you have seen in the introduction to this unit,
a respeaker has to do many things at the same time.
In this Element, we will deal with Psychocognitive skills,
which is the first set of skills a respeaker must possess.
In particular,
for a respeaker to be able and become a professional in the field,
he or she has to able and do more things at the same time
like listening and speaking.
A respeaker has also to train a good short-term memory
to be able and process as many concepts as possible,
and apply exit strategies,
or solutions to any problem one may encounter in the subtitling process
if the speaker is challenging.
While you can only develop these competences by the time
and thanks to ad hoc exercises, you may be interested in knowing
the respeaking strategies a professional needs to apply
to be able and make the most out of these skills.
These strategies will be recalled in the different LOs.
As we have seen,
respeaking strategies consist of listening the source text
and speaking the mid text at the same time.
This is only possible
if we manage to remember words and concepts along the process
and when lagging behind.
However, this is not enough.
When in trouble, the respeaker must apply exit strategies
to be able and keep providing good quality subtitles.
To make the most out of these skills that you will develop in the next three LOs,
you need to understand the strategies respeakers have to apply along the process.
As in any multitasking process which involves doing more things at the same time,
in respeaking, two main types of strategies are involved:
understanding strategies and production strategies.
Understanding strategies are aimed at comprehending the source text.
Production strategies are aimed at making the most out of understanding
under stressful conditions and with a reduced processing capacity than usual.
In the next slides, I will first illustrate understanding strategies,
to then move to production strategies.
Concerning understanding strategies,
the strategic model of discourse comprehension was developed by van Dijk and Kintsch in 1983.
It explains how spoken language is understood.
By adapting it,
it is possible to claim that a respeaker understands the Source Text
by adopting the following strategies:
form strategies, content strategies, textual strategies,
procedural strategies and general knowledge strategies.
Form strategies are related to understanding the words and grammar of the source text
from sounds and grammar elements.
Content strategies capitalise on form strategies
to understand the meaning of a text.
Textual strategies contextualise this content.
Procedural strategies relate the ongoing comprehension of the source text
to other texts similar to the one which is heard.
Finally, general knowledge strategies allow to more easily understand
how the source text relates to the rest of the world.
Again, if you don't understand something don't be worried,
because we will go into details in the following LOs.
Concerning production strategies,
after having strategically understood the source text,
the respeaker adopts production strategies to come to the target text
or the subtitles.
By adapting the model proposed by Kohn e Kalina in 1996
for simultaneous interpreting,
it can be said that in respeaking contetxts, professionals follow these strategies:
inferencing, whereby the respeaker anticipates linguistic elements;
memorising, whereby the respeaker postpones linguistic material;
editing strategies either before going on air or while being on air,
either avoiding possible mistakes through synonymy or paraphrase
or by correcting mistakes before they are aired.
Finally, exit strategies, or 3 Gs, are those strategies
which are adopted in extreme conditions to compensate for information loss.
This can be done through generalisation strategies,
whereby the respeaker uses more general synonyms
or repeats previously mentioned content.
Another exit strategy is the Gordian Knot strategy,
also called «cut and knit strategy»,
whereby the respeaker omits bits of a sentence
but manages to produce a grammatically correct and coherent sentence.
The last exit strategy,
called Garwood strategy, is named after my simultaneous interpreting teacher
at the university.
He used to repeat this all the time: «When in doubt, leave it out».
In this brief introduction, we have had an overview
of the first set of skills a trainee must develop
to become a professional respeaker.
We call these skills psycho-cognitive skills,
because they relate to three mental activities
which are at the basis of any live subtitling process.
The first mental activity is listening and speaking at the same time,
which means either repeating word for word what is said
or reformulating what is said.
The second mental activity is memorising words or concepts
to be able and semi-automate the real time subtitling process.
The third mental activity is to understand when to apply exit strategies,
or solutions to problems a subtitler may encounter along the process.
At the basis of these three skills,
we have respeaking strategies, aimed at making the most out of them.
They are divided into understanding strategies and production strategies.
We will see them into detail in the next three Learning Outcomes.