Analysis of challenges and strategies in audio-visual translation (AVT) from English into Kinyarwanda: The case study of : the Deadliest Prey "and Kya Kehna "movies

Abstract

The present dissertation, entitled “Analysis of Challenges and Strategies in Audio-Visual Translation from English into Kinyarwanda”, aims at identifying and investigating the strategies and challenges encountered during the audio-visual translation from English into Kinyarwanda. The research was conducted by focusing on the problems noted in movies translation from English into Kinyarwanda as movies are loosely translated through vernacular language sometimes containing rude and rubbish words, the facts some Rwandan elite do not digest to see their children watch them and most of the time they do what they can to prevent them from watching them. Again, translator’s commentaries and imagination, comedy and free commentaries occupy a lot of time than delivering the real translation of the movie content. Descriptive, qualitative and quantitative research design was adopted for the present study. The study population comprised the movie translators, movie distributors and translated movie consumers living in Kigali City, Huye, Muhanga, Musanze, Nyagatare, Rubavu and Rusizi. “The Deadliest Prey” and “Kya Kehna” translated movies from English into Kinyarwanda were analyzed too. Purposive sampling technique was applied to get specific and relevant information. Interview guide was used for data collection on 230 respondents sampled purposively. All collected data was analyzed, interpreted and presented in tables and figures. The findings revealed that the translators in both movies used these translation strategies: translation by a more general word (0.7%), translation using a loan word or loan word plus explanation (13.1%), translation by cultural substitution (2.1%), translation by omission (83.2%) and translation by paraphrase using a related word (0.7%), translation by paraphrasing (78.6%) and translation by paraphrasing (21.4%). Moreover, the research indicated that the movie translators face the problems linked to cultures differences and language skills at lexical and pronunciation level and figurative language. The research also proposed that the next research should be carried out on: “Analysis of challenges and techniques in audio-visual translation from English into Kinyarwanda”.