Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips

Using audiovisual material in the foreign language classroom is a common resource for teachers since it introduces variety, provides exposure to nonverbal cultural elements and, most importantly, presents linguistic and cultural aspects of communication in their context. However, teachers using this resource face the difficulty of finding active tasks that will engage learners and discourage passive viewing.
One way of working with AV material in a productive and motivating way is to ask learners to revoice or caption a clip. Revoicing refers to adding voice to a clip, such as dubbing, free commentary, audio description and karaoke singing. Captioning refers to adding written text to a clip, such as standard subtitles, annotations and intertitles. Clips can be short video or audio files, including documentaries, film scenes, news pieces, animations and songs.
ClipFlair develops materials which enable foreign language learners to practice all four standard CEFR skills: writing, speaking, listening and reading. ClipFlair also defines audiovisual-specific skills, namely watching, audiovisual speaking (i.e. revoicing) and audiovisual writing (i.e. captioning). Within the project scope, material for 15 languages will be created, including English, Spanish and Portuguese, but focus is placed on less widely taught languages, namely Estonian, Greek, Romanian and Polish, as well as minority languages, i.e. Basque, Catalan and Irish. NonEuropean languages, namely Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Ukrainian are also foreseen. In the long term, the project intends to develop materials that can potentially be used by any FL learner by expanding the community to include any
language, level or age.
The ClipFlair platform has two main areas: the ClipFlair Studio and the Clipflair Social Network. The Studio offers the captioning and revoicing tools needed by activity authors to create activities. It is also the space where learners can practice and learn languages by using these activities. ClipFlair activities typically involve captioning and/or revoicing of clips. At the Social Network, users can find material, including activities, clips and tutorials, collaborate through groups, send feedback through forums and find information about the project.
The consortium consists of ten institutions from eight European countries, with proven experience and competences to undertake the tasks in their field of expertise and to create material for 15 languages. There is a balance between experts in the three fields involved: Language Teaching, Audiovisual Translation and Accessibility, Information and Communication technologies.