The paper discusses the feedback from students in Agricultural Sciences at two South African universities regarding the usefulness of multilingual dubbing and subtitling in YouTube videos developed to support their curricula. The videos were originally created in English by the Department of Animal Sciences at one of the universities to supplement practical dissections and provide material for students to review experimental sessions in their preferred language. The videos were dubbed and subtitled in Afrikaans, isiXhosa, and Sepedi, the official languages of the universities, and in plain and academic English. The project was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic when remote learning replaced practical sessions. Students watched videos with audio and subtitle options and provided feedback through open-ended questions and surveys. The thematic analysis of student feedback revealed that dubbed and subtitled videos improved understanding, access to curriculum content, vocabulary acquisition, and spelling and pronunciation. However, there was a stronger preference for subtitling among students. The study also used Google Analytics to analyse student interaction with the videos, showing the extent of the use of subtitles and dubbing. Overall, the research highlights the positive impact of multilingual dubbing and subtitling in educational videos, particularly in accommodating diverse learning styles and English as a second language learners. The findings suggest incorporating these features can enhance student understanding and engagement with the material.

Authors:
Ignatius Khan Ticha, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa
Dmitri Jegels, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Ignatius Khan Ticha is the Faculty Language Coordinator and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology - CPUT. He is currently working on a project on multilingual subtitling and dubbbing.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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