312
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.62.02.31
How to Cite:
Boyko, Y., Kupchyshyna, Y., Tarasova, O., Dolynskiy, I., & Roskvas, I. (2023). Current trends in english public speech translation
(based on TED talks platform). Amazonia Investiga, 12(62), 312-318. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.62.02.31
Current trends in english public speech translation
(based on TED talks platform)
Tendencias actuales en la traducción de discursos públicos en inglés
(basadas en charlas TED)
Received: December 10, 2022 Accepted: February 15, 2023
Written by:
Boyko Yuliya1
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0998-5657
Kupchyshyna Yulia2
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9618-6107
Tarasova Olga3
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8574-6466
Dolynskiy Ievgen4
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4074-4648
Roskvas Ihor5
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8211-1841
Abstract
Nowadays, the media is rapidly developing, and
messaging processes are inexhaustible thanks to the
Internet. Audiovisual content has become a separate
form of communication and learning. This
document analyzes the popular TED Talks
platform, describes its use with interpretation
students, and shows the research results of students
using TED Talks on translation trends for public
speaking. The document uses the potential of TED
Talks as an unlimited source of knowledge,
information, ideas, and inspiration. The use of
speeches as methodologically sound and authentic
English material has improved listening skills, as
well as pronunciation and spelling through the
ability to read active subtitles and scripts, and
develop and enrich students' vocabulary.
Keywords: video content, a form of interaction,
genre, rhetorical device, discursive strategy.
1
Doctor of Philological Sciences, Lecturer, Head of Department of Germanic Languages and Translation Studies Faculty of
International Relations and Law Khmelnytskyi National University, Ukraine.
2
Candidate of Philological Sciences, Lecturer at Department of Germanic Philology and Translation Studies Faculty of International
Relations and Law Khmelnytskyi National University, Ukraine.
3
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Lecturer at Department of Germanic Philology and Translation Studies Faculty of International
Relations and Law Khmelnytskyi National University, Ukraine.
4
Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor of Department of Germanic Philology and Translation Studies, Faculty of International
Relations and Law, Khmelnytskyi National University, Ukraine.
5
Сandidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Lecturer at Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of International Relations and Law
Khmelnytskyi National University, Ukraine.
Boyko, Y., Kupchyshyna, Y., Tarasova, O., Dolynskiy, I., Roskvas, I. / Volume 12 - Issue 62: 312-318 / February, 2023
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/ February 2023
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Introduction
TED Talks, a free video content platform, is now
one of the most recognized new forms of
information sharing and innovation in the world.
TED Talks is categorized as a hybrid genre. The
platform covers a variety of genres: lecture form,
mass-media, conferences with presentations,
scientific shows. We consider TED Talks to be a
new semiotic model including spoken, written,
video, and acoustic components. TED Talks is
mostly perceived in an “ideas worth spreading”
format, but the question of researching
translations of public speeches on this platform is
still open. This is why TED Talks speeches will
be of interest to scholars in the pragmatic-
linguistic fields (Wu & Qu, 2018). The
specificity of TED speeches is evident in its
local-temporal framework. The main features of
TED speeches are as follows: they are concise,
logically thought out, transparent, clear,
authoritative, dialogic, and persuasive. TED
Talks are perceived by the original genre
exclusively by listeners directly present at the
TED conference. For other users, the speeches
are interpreted as a secondary Internet genre. So,
we can call it a hybrid genre with a foundation of
popular science style with the attributes of
fiction, journalism, and conversational style
(Wijnker et al., 2019).
TED Talks has become a favorite platform for
teaching English Speaking of the benefits of
learning English using this platform, it should be
noted that students are exposed to a variety of
speakers from different countries, with different
accents. This primarily allows one to get into the
language environment of native speakers
(Mamalipurath, 2021). TED Talks public
speeches are also useful for future interpreters, to
improve their oratorical skills and learn to
differentiate between the speakers' verbal and
non-verbal means of communication. Separately,
we highlight the issues of the discursive strategy
of speeches. Its implementation is usually
possible through the introduction of certain
communicative tactics, through linguistic means,
macrostructural elements structurally filled with
argumentative signals with subsequent influence
on the audience, its worldview, and political
preferences (Khajornphaiboon & Vungthong,
2019). What is interesting for interpreters in TED
Talks is the perspective of tracking oratorial
discursive strategies: argumentative, persuasive,
suggestive, and persuasive strategies. Each of
these discursive strategies is conveyed by
specifically chosen linguistic and extralinguistic
means (Al-Jarf, 2020). Consequently, the
speaker's ability in their organic combination is
the determining effectiveness of the manipulative
effect of speech on the recipients (Almaged,
2021).
Relevance - the interest in translation research in
the media sphere (interest in political speeches,
texts, advertising campaigns, Internet discourse)
and the lack of scientific works in the perspective
of public speeches with extended topics. The aim
is to analyze the world experience of using the
TED Talks platform, to describe the project using
the platform in the English language classes of
student-translators, to search for discursive
strategies and rhetorical techniques for
translating speeches. This goal implies the
following tasks: describe the phenomenon of the
emergence of the TED Talks platform;
characterize pedagogical approaches and
component stages of using TED Talks in English
classes; describe the concept of strategy within
discourse analysis; describe the rhetorical
devices in TED Talks and their reproduction in
translation.
Literature Review
TED Talks refers to hybrid genres. The platform
encompasses a variety of genres: lecture form,
mass media, conferences with presentations,
scientific shows. We consider TED Talks to be a
new semiotic model including spoken, written,
video, and acoustic components. TED Talks is
mostly perceived as Ideas worth spreading, but
the question of researching translations of public
speeches on this platform is still open. This is
why TED Talks public speeches are such an
interesting subject in pragmatic-linguistic
research (Crible et al., 2019).
TED Talks is a nonprofit organization that
promotes short spoken-word videos on a variety
of topics. The platform can be used without a
subscription for live conference playback, as well
as the ability to view TED Talks recordings. The
topics are very diverse. The phenomenon of these
talks is their rapidly growing popularity
(Sidelnik, Lutsenko & Germanovich, 2022).
Chinese scholars view the phenomenon of TED
Talks somewhat differently (Wang et al., 2020).
They believe that TED Talks speakers are
characterized by a common trait: having their
idea and communicating it to the audience.
Despite the diversity of topics, the goal is to
successfully convey their message to the
recipients. This, according to scholars, is what
unites them. Public TED Talks are characterized
as the organization and dissemination of ideas in
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the process of communication (Zarzour et al.,
2021). The main component of speech is the
speaker's idea, realized through linguistic and
extra-linguistic discursive means (García-
Sánchez, 2021). The interaction between speaker
and listener is the result of the influence of a
peculiar type of cognitive-communicative
activity related to the strategy of direct
communication. In this case, the speaker
embodies and disseminates his manifestos thanks
to the technical ability to record the conference
and post it on the Internet. TED Talks are actively
used in foreign language teaching (Tanveer et al.,
2018).
In this context, (Shelestova et al, 2021)
recommends this platform for future English
language interpreters, especially in advanced
courses.
The first TED conference was held in 1984, when
Richard Wurman, an American architect, and
designer, decided to bring together experts and
leading specialists in three important areas of
life: technology, entertainment, and design.
Hence the acronym of the name - TED:
Technology, Entertainment, Design. The goal of
the conference was to present groundbreaking
and innovative ideas to the audience. The author
(Salem, 2019) explores this phenomenon in
education in detail. The website www.ted.com
brings together people who have something to
say, often in a very original way. The speeches
are served in English, so the education industry
has very quickly noticed the benefits of
watching, using, and adapting film speeches in
English. (Maazouzi, Zarzour & Jararweh, 2020)
describe TED conference materials from the
perspective of educators who have been using
them consistently since 2009, are passionate
about them, and implement and disseminate the
ideas in the videos they watch. The practical idea
of using TED materials is to download the
speeches in mp3 format and recommend,
especially to working students, that they listen to
the material in the car, on their way to work or
university, for example. Tangential work in (Shih
et a., 2020). The authors write about the TED
portal and search options in the portal. After
clicking on the overview button for the entire
library (the text above the pictures of the films
offered in the middle of the page), a language
search system opens up. Here we can search for
material on the topic we want, and the language
filter will show versions with subtitles in the
selected language. According to (Nursafira,
2020) a much more interesting and useful way to
search for site resources is to use the playlists
prepared by the authors of the portal. Looking for
resources to make your activity more appealing,
you should start by looking at the playlists. In
addition to the ability to download an audio or
video version of a particular speech, almost every
video can be watched with subtitles in the
language of your choice. There are always
subtitles in English. Each video also has an
interactive script, which is a complete recording
of the speech. It is interesting that when we want
to hear a particular sentence, just click on the
selected word and the video will move to the
desired fragment. An interesting question is
raised by (López-Carril et al., 2020). The authors
write about a category of students who are tied to
paper versions. They often print the script and
carefully analyze the text. However, they suggest
that their students analyze the texts of speeches
on a computer screen without stopping the video
and checking each word. Thanks to the Lingro
Dictionary, which is different from others
available on the Internet, you can find all the
words you need. This dictionary is an overlay for
websites. It collaborates with TED materials. The
popularity of TED speeches in education has
prompted more and more teachers to prepare
lessons and exercises using these materials. This
led to the creation of the TED-ED Lessons Worth
Sharning learning platform (Kemaloglu-Er &
Bayyurt, 2019). Interestingly, here you can find
lessons based not only on TED videos but also on
YouTube education resources combined in this
project, giving millions of educators the ability to
create and share lessons on the ed.ted.com
platform using TED and YouTube videos. One of
the biggest problems with watching long videos
in a foreign language is that at some point,
students become confused and don't fully
understand certain passages, causing them to
quickly lose interest and stop watching. Adding
subtitles to a film eliminates the listening
comprehension exercise because our brains
choose the easier and more enjoyable channel of
reading subtitles, especially in our native
language (de Azevedo Fay & Matias, 2019).
Watching videos on TED Talks or doing
exercises on ed.ted.com, students are faced with
a lot of new vocabulary to learn. This is where
the portal fiszkoteka.pl comes in handy, where
interactive cards can be created (Humeniuk,
Kuntso, Popel & Voloshchuk, 2021). Each word
or sentence entered into the system will read
correctly in the target language.
Methodology
The following methods were used to achieve the
goals of the work: theoretical review of the
scientific literature, projective method,
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pedagogical observation, generalization. By
introducing the elements of TED Talks work into
the English language course for the translation
students, the projective method was used, and the
empirical method of work with TED Talks public
speeches of general social topics was used. The
TED Talks project in practical, distance English
classes was created in stages. The creation of the
project was influenced by the interest of teachers
and transfer students in the popular platform.
Within the framework of the project, the main
task of the students was not only to learn how to
work on TED Talks but also to conduct scientific
research within the framework of their future
specialty, namely, to reveal the main techniques
in English-language public speeches while
working with translations and materials from the
TED Talks platform. The project is divided into
stages:
1) Listening to a TED Talks presentation on a
selected topic by yourself, briefly recording
your own playback of what you heard (3-4
minutes).
2) Listening to TED Talks presentation again
and writing a summary. Oral presentation of
summary (1-2 min.).
3) Presentation of own opinion, idea, speech
(imitation of TED Talks) in a language lab.
4) Writing an academic summary on
“Discursive Speech Strategies” in TED
Talks.
Results and Discussion
With today's technology and Internet diversity, a
teacher can find a lot of materials and ideas to use
in foreign language classes. Their proper use in
the classroom can motivate students to work,
develop their linguistic abilities and uncover
their soft skills. A project implemented in
English classes for future translators using TED
Talks platforms is one of the most popular
platforms for speeches.
The TED Talks project in English classes was
created in stages, and the choice of platform was
influenced by the extraordinary popularity of
TED Talks (Technology, Entertainment, and
Design), a brand of a series of scientific
conferences organized by an American nonprofit
foundation. Its goal is to popularize, as the
initiative's motto indicates, ideas that should be
disseminated. TED Talks conferences are
organized locally around the world and are
independent of TED Talks but use the same
conference format: each speaker is given a
maximum of 18 minutes to deliver an important
idea or proposal. All presentations are available
on the TED Talks YouTube channel and
www.ted.com.
In the first phase of the project (starting in the
second year), students were assigned homework
to listen to a TED Talks presentation on any
topic, record an oral 3–4-minute result in
English, and send it electronically to the
instructor. The oral, communicative, and spoken
components were assessed. The choice of such
criteria was aimed at attracting students-
translators to a new form of classes, to get them
used to recording their voice, above all to
develop the ability to listen, to take notes of the
message, and pronounce it orally. This phase of
the project, depending on the group and the goal
I have to achieve (the emphasis was on oral
outlining rather than reading from the written
version), can be done twice, but the second time
the evaluation criteria also include correctness
and linguistic richness. Because this is an
exercise that students have not yet encountered,
some required additional rehearsal and review of
the criteria and deadlines to get the exercise right.
Students received comments and grades
individually, via email.
The next phase of the project (usually conducted
in the first semester of the third year) was to listen
to any TED Talks presentation again and prepare
to write a summary. In addition, students were
asked to give their opinions and reflections on the
presentations they had listened to for 1-2
minutes, using a range of phrases previously
introduced into the context of the class. However,
at this point, they presented a prepared
presentation for 6-10 minutes in front of their
group during the English class. The main criteria
for evaluation were presentation planning, length
of presentation, linguistic correctness and
richness, body language, and manner of
expression. At this stage of the project, students
must deal with the stress of public speaking in
front of a group, improve their ability to plan
their presentation clearly, work on self-
presentation, gestures, and voice, and use modern
technology (multimedia board, projector, web
camera, video clips, PowerPoint, Prezi) for
variety of statements. An important element of
the students' presentation was to express their
own opinions, analyze the idea presented in the
TED Talks, and link to its message and content.
The third stage of the project took place in the
second semester of the third year. This was the
most difficult part because students were asked
to present their idea, speech, story simulating
TED Talks in front of a group of invited
professors. The lingaphone room was
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transformed into a stage (it was decorated with a
red carpet), the speakers stood under the light of
a lamp that replaced a spotlight, and an image of
the text appeared on the blackboard. That is, the
last stage was a locally organized event. The
group was transformed into a lively audience and
the instructor into a conference presenter. This
stage allowed students to express their own ideas,
experiences, and dreams, develop their
knowledge and interests, use many sources of
knowledge in search of relevant information, be
critical of the content and information found,
exchange valuable opinions and ideas, and,
above all, in accordance with the platform motto
- to spread, share interesting ideas with other
English speakers.
The last stage is written-translation work with the
chosen speech, its translation into Ukrainian, and
the identification of discursive strategies for
speaking in TED Talks. Summarizing the
theoretical work of the students, the most
common discursive strategies were chosen:
argumentation, suggestion, inducement, and
persuasion. Argumentation strategy in general
was traced at the beginning of almost all
speeches - introductory passage with causal
connections, in addition, students pointed out a
large number of complex subordinate sentences.
The persuasive strategy was characterized by the
use of the rhetorical techniques of “antithesis”
and “metaphor”. Students found the discursive
strategy of persuasion in the pathos part of the
public speech. The strategy of suggestion was
found in the structure of lexico-grammatical,
lexical, and syntactic argumentation. The
strategy of inducement was expressed in the
presence of the imperative inclination. When
translating the students used the transformation
of the exclamation. This was due to the strict
technical requirements of subtitles on TED
Talks.
So, the main motivation for implementing the
TED Talks project in English classes among
translation students was the desire to use
authentic language material. This project made
the development of listening comprehension
skills, processing of the heard utterance, and,
above all, speaking, especially the formulation of
a long and planned oral utterance. Objectively,
students' motivation to learn a foreign language
outside of class increased significantly, and their
academic performance increased accordingly.
In the course of the project, it turned out that the
ideas presented by the speakers of the TED Talks
conference become a great platform for
discussion during the class. As a result, close
contact is established between teacher and
students, motivation to act and inspiration to plan
for the future and change their own thinking
about reality, people, and the world grows. The
implementation of this project over time has led
to the popularization of collaborative conference
viewing in classes in higher education.
Conclusions
Using the potential of TED Talks presentations
in English classes as a source of unlimited
resources of knowledge, information, ideas, and
inspiration for action from distinguished
speakers, scholars, and ordinary people with a
passion and history is an effective teaching
solution. For teachers of English, the use of
presentations is to work with excellent authentic
material in English, to improve listening,
pronunciation, and spelling skills through the
ability to read subtitles and active script, and to
develop and enrich the vocabulary of future
interpreters. By allowing students to choose the
topic, length, duration, and difficulty of the
presentation they work on, the presentations
become perfectly personalized material and
adapted to the individual needs, interests, and
language competencies of the students, and have
therefore become a stimulus for further language
development work. Further use of the materials
of this research work is promising both for
pedagogy and for translation departments, to find
interesting methods and techniques of teaching
English in higher education institutions.
Recently, more and more websites have been
posting lesson plans using TED Talks conference
materials. They are a great help in preparing
lessons and practicing the language used in the
presentations. Such classes are very popular.
TED Talks guarantee unprecedented emotion in
classroom discussions and make it easier for
teachers to work on various topics that are so
often forgotten in foreign language textbooks.
Many different Web sites and programs facilitate
the use of these videos. However, simply
watching videos will not bring anything to a
student's language life. Every video activity
should be preceded by reflection and a clear
definition of the purpose of its use.
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