Training scientific translation through Flash localisation Dr Lidia Cmara de la Fuente Translation Department Universitat Vic Barcelona, Spain

The trend of using multimedia material as educational support has accelerated in recent years, and looks set for continued expansion in the future. Multimedia extends its influence throughout the whole formative path, from basic to college training rooms, and throughout all disciplines, as in our case, scientific translation. The reasons for the multimedia expansion are above all inherent in the positive influence on learning. It turns out that multimedia is a powerful tool which enables us to decode, for example, the complexity and diversity of scientific issues such as those related to Life Science or Environmental Science and Technology. These areas mentioned are characterised by their interdisciplinarity and that is exactly what our curricula proposal distinguishes. We aim to link scientific literacy, language technacy and translation techniques for the sake of knowledge representation, knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer. To reach our learning objectives we have been applying multimedia for two years. We have been combining the five basic types of media -text, video, sound, graphics and animationwith language technology tools (CAT tools, machine translation tools), among others, within the scientific translation learning environment. This contribution will only focus on the use of animations in Flash format, in particular as a support to assist learning in some key Life Science topics. Keywords: multimedia, localisation, knowledge representation, knowledge acquisition, scientific translation, language technology tools, Flash animation, interdisciplinarity, learning objects

1. Introduction: Underlying assumptions "Nothing lights up the brain like play. Three-dimensional play fires up the cerebellum, puts a lot of impulses into the frontal lobe -- the executive portion -helps contextual memory be developed"

Stuart Brown, 2007

Playing promotes learning is the first assumption which has influenced the decision to include Flash animation in the scientific translation classroom. According to Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play1, a huge amount of existing scientific research containing rich data on play confirm this statement. The existing research explains how play shapes our brains, creates our competencies, and moulds our emotions. Moreover, following Prensky (2001), digital gamed-based learning meets the needs and learning styles of todays and future generations of learners. This technology is being used with amazing and increasing success in corporations, schools and institutions such as the military (Aldrich, 2009). This learning technique motivates because it is fun and versatile, and can be adapted to any subject, information, or skill to be learned. Given this, we have assumed that the inclusion of Flash animations could motivate students with an impact on their knowledge acquisition. Interactive multimodal environments (IME) optimise knowledge management; this is our second underlying assumption. IME learning is a sense-making activity in which the learner tries to build knowledge instead of merely saving information in ones memory. According to the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2001), it has been demonstrated that people learn better from words and pictures than from words alone; from graphics and narration than from graphics and printed text; when a multimedia file is presented in learner-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit; when the multimodal environment requires the user's interaction; and, when words are spoken rather than written. Having said which propositions are taken for granted, as if they were true based upon presupposition without preponderance of the facts, we will pinpoint the different possible reasons for having made those assumptions. For our purposes, we will explain why we use Flash animation in the scientific translation classroom; we intend to show how to find proper Flash animation to achieve our aims. We will then look at the learning goals using Flash in the scientific translation course, and finally hands-on development by means of a decompiler tool and an audio editor.

http://www.nifplay.org/

2. Flash Animation: Learning objects for scientific translation Choosing a Flash animation format in the Scientific Translation classroom is especially convenient, since Flash media is available on most computer systems, the file size is very small and it opens quickly. Moreover, flash is a web-based adaptive hypermedia system, which makes its common accessibility easier than any other games formats, which require gaming devices such as: game consoles (Nintendo WII, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) handheld game devices (Nintendo DS & PSP) and other portable devices (mobile phones & iPods)

In addition, Flash animation often integrates gaming technology characteristics which promote interactivity, in view of the fact that games (animations and simulations) are a merger of content and collaboration that shift the focus of interactivity from the technology itself to the people using it (DeKanter, 2004). Moreover, following the play patterns described by Dr Brown, the manipulating of Flash animation would be a form of object playing and playing with objects is a pervasive and innately fun pattern of play, which creates its own states of playfulness by manipulating to create a new form of the original object. The localisation of a Flash animation into another language is without doubt a new creation even if it is a parallel form of the original one. Besides, animations in Flash are widely used to create learning objects for education in several disciplines, including scientific disciplines. Learning objects can be defined as Any digital resource that can be reused to support learning (Wiley, 2000). According to this author, a learning object can be a single file such as an animation in any digital format, a video clip, a discrete piece of text or URL, or it could be a collection of contextualised files that make up a learning sequence. The concept is that if one can design pieces of independent digital content, they can be hooked up on demand in any other context by an instructor. It is a digital resource that can be identified, tracked, referenced, used and reused for a variety of learning purposes. And that is what we do, reuse pieces of work. If scientific animation has been created within Medical education and other scientific disciplines along with a value of grasping and motivating, why not reuse this material in the scientific translation classroom. In this way, it is possible to make the unseen visible, to make abstract thoughts concrete, closer to reality, for example, blood cells

flowing in the circulation or the capturing and storing of carbon dioxide, injecting it into underground geological formations. Most animations are simple, smooth and easily understood and have a direct influence on learning and understanding skills, since they include motion features; events that cannot be filmed with a camera in real life are shown step by step, for example, DNA sequencing. Animation helps to attract the audience by providing a richer expression in an ordinary way; the animated image is used to support a narrator, if there is one. The animation is stored on a portable device and the entire animation can be reproduced at any time in any place. In addition, working with Flash animations, students can extrapolate the methodology used to localise a website, since Flash can be embedded on a webpage. But what is a Flash animation? What are proper animations? Where can they be found and which learning aims can be achieved using them? In the following sections we address these issues. 2. 1. Flash animations Across all media, most content is divided into genres. Each genre has its common set of styles, including rules and expectations. Fiction films are categorised, television programs have their genre, while music and video games are categorised (Scholand, 1996 & 2002; Mangiron, 2006; Aldrich 2009). And technology allows the overlapping, integration and fusion of different subgenres, generating a new final product characterised by the amount of modal resources included. By modal resources we understand a myriad of methods, processes or forms of delivery data. They can be text, video, 3D models, animation, panoramic images, audio, video and other application-specific data which normally require different formats but which can come together in a multimedia container format also called a wrapper format. The table below includes some examples of popular multimedia container formats: Format Name
Flash Video

Extension
FLV

Developed by
Adobe Systems (originally developed by Macromedia)

Modal resources
Audio, video, text, data

QuickTime

mov

Apple

Audio, video, text, data

Video Object

VOB

DVD Forum

Audio, video, subtitles and menu contents

Digital Video Express

DivX

DivX Inc. (formerly DivXNetworks, Inc.)

Audio, video, subtitles and menu contents

Table 1: Multimedia container formats For our purposes, we assume a specific categorisation by Rankin & Sampayo (2008) linked to the interactive software shown in Fig. 1 below:

Figure 1. Game categories for education (Rankin & Sampayo, 2008) As it can be seen in the graph, the criterion of classification is linked to the communicative intention of the product. Also, from the standpoint of the complexity of the animation, it is to be considered whether the communicative intention is more educative and formative oriented than playful. Thus, the more training-focussed is the intention, the greater the complexity of the terminology used in the Flash animation. 2. 2. Finding the proper Flash online One of the typical questions related to didactic materials is how can we find a proper Flash animation (text, images, audio) for specific purposes. First of all, we should know that the editable format of a Flash animation is identified as .fla, which is

saved as .SWF format. SWF is an Adobe (formerly Macromedia's) file format and is a vector-based container used to store animation. The editable Flash animation files manipulated with Adobe Flash are compiled and compressed as Shockwave Flash or .swf, which is a non-editable format. Having said that, we can simply use the Advanced functions of Google Search in order to find files with the desired format type or file type. In this case, we look for Shockwave Flash (.swf), one of the file types supported by the Google search engine. The following screenshot shows an example of an Advanced Search.

Figure 2. Google Advanced Search After entering the search equation human cell mitosis, the file type must also be chosen. The search engine returns many hits; the instructor must choose a good example for his specific learning goals.

2. 3. Learning goals with Flash Using Learning Objects for Scientific Translation is related to the Learning goals pursued in the scientific translation classroom, which broadly include the following: Enhancing scientific knowledge interest Practising more complex instrumental skills Practising listening skills Practising translation skills through localisation

Nevertheless, working with Flash is part of a progressive complexity in our learning goals. In this sense, Flash localisation is the second step in the gradual teaching of scientific knowledge with multimedia. In our course, the first step is subtitling scientific video clips with the specific aims of: Arousing and developing scientific interest Practising listening skills Practising instrumental skills through subtitle editors Practising language and translation skills through correcting

Having achieved those aims with the subtitling of scientific video clips, the specific learning goals with Flash animations are: enhancing scientific knowledge interest, as the level of this content is more complex than the scientific video clips practising instrumental skills using decompiler tools and audio editors practising listening skills, as students have to transcribe the English audio file which they then have to translate into Spanish being aware of localising principles through graphic and audio manipulation In the next section, we will go through the steps to localise an animation file, emphasising the skills that are intended in each step.

3. Steps to localise a Flash animation file Once we have resolved the issue of which animation we will exploit, students will follow the steps listed below to perform their work. 1. Visualising Flash animation (.swf) with a web browser 2. Opening with Decompiler Trillix 3. Identifying different resources within the Flash file (audio, graphics) and recognising the translatable data 4. Localising graphics 5. Recording audio with Audacity 6. Evaluating the Flash localisation exercise 3.1. Visualising Flash animation (.swf) We will use an animation about the sequencing of the human genome. This consists of audio files, which describe what happens in the animation and text embedded in images displayed as interactive graphics. Students learn how to visualise this file with a simple web browser, because besides from displaying HTML, web browsers can generally display any kind of content that may be included in a web page. Most browsers such as Mozilla Firefox or Explorer can display images, audio, video and XML files, and often have plug-ins to support flash applications and Java applets. Students can also visualise the animation by simply using a media player which supports Flash animation and video formats, such as, for example, Media Player Classic2. 3.2. Opening with Decompiler Trillix After having visualised the file, we need to identify different resources within the Flash file (audio, graphics) in order to recognise the translatable data. To do this, we open the animation file with Flash Decompiler Trillex3, a decompiler tool. We use a decompiler tool in order to restore the original source code of the Flash format.

2 3

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/ http://www.flash-decompiler.com/

Figure 3. File opened using Flash Decompiler Trillex The decompiler enables us to extract the different elements included in the Flash animation as images, text or sound. These elements are organised in folders and we need to separate these elements in order to edit them or localise them in the target language. 3.4. Localising graphics We visualise the text folder with all the translatable text. As we can see in the next figure, the text elements of a folder can be viewed as thumbnails making it easier to choose one to localise it.

Figure 4. Translatable text elements Once we know which part of the translatable material we are going to edit, we choose it and go to the Edit tab and select Texts. Now we can edit a text box embedded in graphics, as you can see in the figure below.

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Figure 5. Editing text with Flash Decompiler Trillex 3.5. Recording audio with Audacity We can see that Flash Decompiler Trillix is useful, when editing the text elements of the SWF file. However, when we have to edit the audio elements, where a voiceover in off is required, the decompiler allows us to export the audio files and save them in a variety of formats to ensure the best possible results, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 6. Importing and exporting sound files using Flash Decompiler Trillex Once we know how to import and export audio files, we have to use an audio file editor. Students are free to use whichever audio file editor they want. In case they do not have any experience with such a tool, we recommend using Audacity4, since it is free open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is very easy and has all the learning material in many languages and is accessible on the web. 5 When tackling this part of the exercise, students can record themselves and save the recording as an audio file whose quality will increase using headphones and a microphone.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/?lang=en http://www.guidesandtutorials.com/audacity-tutorial.html

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Figure 7. Audacity interface 3.6. Evaluating the Flash localisation exercise The last part of the exercise is designed to perform a critical exercise appraisal scenario. In this case, the exercise description does not include proper instructions; it simply proposes the maximum number of words. In almost all cases, the assessment made by the students could be divided into two sections. First, the assessments focus on the problems they have had to solve during the completion of the exercise. Second, however, almost invariably they describe their level of satisfaction for having performed the task as it deals with so many abilities at once. In the section on problems, the first is linked to the specialised language itself and the specific terms used in the Flash. A reliable search of the specific terms in Spanish prompts some students to take the next step. Some students rely on their own sources and ask biology students who also want to see the full Flash animation to propose a solution. Other issues addressed are directly linked to the specific environment of the location. It is mentioned that the space available for text elements is not sufficient to translate since Spanish on average requires more characters than English. To solve the problem some students carry out a work of synthesis (reduction) and prioritisation of textual elements, other students solve this difficulty using a smaller font size, gaining with it space. In this specific case, the option to leave, for example, the button Play in English, as its equivalent in Spanish, Reproducir, has too many characters for the allocated space, is justified by the student because it is supported by an international standard icon. The student adds that if it were a real job order, he would contact the

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customer to propose some solutions: modify the structure of the Flash or not incorporate text directly into the function buttons since its pictogram and intuitive are enough. Finally, it highlights the difficulty of locating the audio file. The main problem is also related to the important difference that requires words in Spanish audio over the English original. Since the size of the audio file in Spanish should be the same size as the original, this requires significant effort to reduce and prioritise text. As we have already noted above, the second group of comments are related to their satisfaction in using two tools which make it possible to embed their translation work in a professional environment. In this sense, they not only give feedback on how interesting it is to cope with problems of location, they also describe how they work unwittingly, investing much effort in the accomplishment of the task and at the same time having fun. 4. Conclusion We started with the underlying assumption that multimodality is a central feature of comprehensive learning technology systems, which enables successful learning experiences, and from the assumption that this motivates students with an impact on their knowledge acquisition. This belief is part of the definition of the Media Literacy concept understood as a 21st century approach to education that provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms. (Centre for Media Literacy). We have also discussed how playing in combination with gamed-based learning contains implicit possibilities that can be used to benefit students. We saw that Flash animations foster learning through playing in the scientific translation classroom, that Flash editing supports transversality of knowledge and learning goals, contributing to the better assimilation of content through the use of technologies and, moreover, students take on the challenges and design problem-solving strategies to grapple with complicated multimedia formats. Students feedback shows that animations, in terms of visuality, arousing attention and easiness in perception, makes learning in this way more attractive. However, we should be aware that this is not the only way to learn. Although we could not find any cases of dissatisfaction among our students, we assume that there are other

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things people are motivated to learn without games and of course, there are people who do not prefer game-based technology for learning. Nevertheless, among people who study scientific and technical translation, the inclusion of multimedia and digital games is justified, since this scenario is a perfect simulation to prepare the student for their professional future where translation assignments sometimes are hugely complex not just because of the content but the technology used to display these contents. Underneath that pleasant veneer, working with Flash animations is a multi challenge issue for the students and teachers but it is a challenge that is worthwhile taking part in since it retrain students and teachers in a new way of learning to do, not just learning to know. 5. Bibliograhy Aldrich, C. The complete guide to simulations and serious games. Pfeiffer 2009. Brown, S. & Vaughan, C. Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, Penguin Group, 2009. Center for Media Literacy, http://www.medialit.org/ DeKanter, N. Gaming redefines interactivity for learning Springer Boston, TechTrends Volume 49, Number 3 / mayo de 2004 Mangiron, C. Video Games Localisation: Posing New Challenges to the Translator. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, Vol. 14:4. 2006 Mayer, R. E. Multimedia learning. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2001 National Institute for Play, Online, http://www.nifplay.org/ Rankin, J.R. & Sampayo, S. A review of Serious Games and other game categories for Education, SimTect 2008, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 305-311. Prensky, M. Digital Game-Based Learning, The MccGraw Hill Companies, Minnesota. 2001.

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Scholand, M. Computerspiele als Form der interaktiven Unterhaltung. Globalisierung, Lokalisierung, bersetzung. Germersheim: Johannes Gutemberg- Universitt Mainz. 1996. Scholand, M. Localizacin de videojuegos. Tradumtica, N. 1. 2002. Online version Retrieved February, 2010, from the World Wide Web:

http://www.fti.uab.es/tradumatica/revista/articles/mscholand/mscholand.pdf Wiley, D. A. Connecting learning objects to instructional design theory: A definition, a metaphor, and a taxonomy. In D. A. Wiley (Ed.), The Instructional Use of Learning Objects. 2000. Online Version. Retrieved February, 2010, from the World Wide Web: http://reusability.org/read/chapters/wiley.doc