Chinese Audio Description Training in a Tertiary-Level Interpreting Program: Learner-Perceived Difficulties and Coping Strategies

Audio description (AD) is a language service that allows people who are visually impaired to access audio-visual products. Audio description training (ADT) is important to guarantee the quality of AD and has attracted increasing attention from researchers. Studies on ADT have generally been based on trainers’ teaching experience and teacher-centred methodological issues. Only recently have learner perspectives been explored. This study aimed to examine students’ feedback on a two-week ADT module and their perceived difficulties and coping strategies in learning. The participants were 30 translation students enrolled in an undergraduate interpreting programme in Hong Kong who were required to complete an AD project in Chinese by the end of the programme. By conducting a qualitative analysis of the students’ written reflections on their AD learning, this study identified three themes in their perceptions: difficulties, strategies, and benefits. The results show that the difficulties encountered by the students in AD making included comprehension of the audio-visual source text, oral presentation, and content selection. In coping with these challenges, the students used strategies such as researching the audio-visual source text, adjusting their oral presentation style, and rehearsing and revising their AD many times. The students reported that ADT improved their Chinese oral language presentation skills, awareness of multimodality, and awareness of accessibility. This study took a learner-centred approach to studying ADT and provides empirical support for previous findings on ADT, leading to suggestions for AD trainers to address learners’ needs in their future training activities.