Speech-to-text interpreting, Part 1

INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS

Speech-to-text interpreting, part 1: new skills for a T&I portfolio

by Nancy Guevara

With live subtitles now ubiquitous throughout mainstream visual media, particularly news and current affairs, many viewers find themselves wondering exactly how the text is generated. With the use of interlingual live subtitling also growing quickly, Spanish–English T/I, subtitler and respeaker Nancy Guevara shares a practitioner’s insights into this growing industry.

Listening to a message in the source language; extracting and analysing the message; and reproducing it in the target language while listening to what comes next. Sounds familiar?

Now let’s add into this complex process: dictating the interpreted message into speech recognition software (to help you produce it in the written form), using voice commands to insert any punctuation as it's needed; then checking the output and immediately correcting errors where possible—all the while, of course, still listening to what comes next. Exhausted yet? Welcome to the world of interlingual speech-to-text-interpreting: an intersection between audiovisual translation, simultaneous interpreting and accessibility.

Speech-to-text interpreting (STTI) is the process by which subtitles are created in realtime for live programs and events such as conferences, live television broadcasts, webinars, corporate meetings, and many other online and onsite events. STTI can be intralingual (captions created and displayed in the same language), or interlingual (from one language into another).

... nowadays captioning is a service utilised not only by specific groups, but by the broader population.

STTI is of particular importance in ensuring accessibility for the d/Deaf* and hard-of-hearing communities and, in the case of interlingual STTI, extending access to speakers of other languages. However, usage goes beyond these groups; think about how often you watch video feeds with the captions on and the sound off: often, right? On the bus, in doctors’ waiting rooms … nowadays captioning is a service utilised not only by specific groups, but by the broader population.

Several methods can be used to create intra- or interlingual live subtitles. Speech-to-text interpreters can use a standard keyboard, a steno machine or a Velotype, or alternatively employ a relatively new method called ‘respeaking’. In this process, the respeaker listens to the original audio source and simultaneously repeats, rephrases or interprets what they hear, dictating to a speech recognition software that generates the written text. Compared to the other methods, respeaking skills can be developed a lot faster; and the increasing demand for accessible content, combined with clients’ budgetary constraints, have resulted in service providers focusing on respeaking as the preferred method for creating live subtitles.

STTI via respeaking is a very complex and demanding activity which requires practitioners to possess a variety of skills—including multitasking, listening while speaking, and processing information quickly—as well as good short-term memory and extensive knowledge of both working languages. Once again, this sounds familiar, right? Yes, the same skills are required as for simultaneous interpreting.

However, this doesn’t mean that only experienced interpreters can become good respeakers. In fact, interpreters have to unlearn some skills, such as sounding pleasant to the human ear and using the appropriate intonation, as respeaking requires dictation to a machine in a robotic, steady tone.

Experienced translators and subtitlers, accustomed to working with written texts and paying particular attention to grammar and punctuation, are also well positioned to acquire the skills needed to become proficient respeakers. But as with interpreting and translation, you need to continuously practise and work on building your skills.

Nancy's home-based respeaking set-up, which she will describe in her next article (see note at end)

Given the increasing amount of media content being created online, the current conditions in which we’re consuming media products, and the push by the international community to maximise accessibility of content, the demand for both intra- and interlingual live subtitling is growing significantly. Many high-profile organisations now have intra- or interlingual live subtitles added to their online events.

This creates a great opportunity—for anyone experienced in conference interpreting, audiovisual translation or subtitling, or interested in media accessibility—to explore STTI as a new skill to add to their portfolio.

Academia is only just catching up with the industry, but good progress is being made in conducting research, developing training program models and creating industry connections. Researchers have established that interlingual speech-to-text interpreting—by providing an intersection between audiovisual translation, simultaneous interpreting and accessibility—is responding to the demand for content to be available to all, and also that language professionals are well equipped to work towards fulfilling that demand.

If you’re interested, a good place to find out more about interlingual STTI is the ILSA (Interlingual Live Subtitling for Access) project website: http://ka2-ilsa.webs.uvigo.es/project/

Interlingual STTI is in its infancy, but it’s definitely here to stay. Watch this space!

* ‘Deaf’ (capital D) refers to those who were born deaf (pre-lingually deaf; Deaf people often have sign language as their first language), whereas ‘deaf’ (lowercase d) refers to those who have an onset of hearing loss later in life (post-lingually deaf; most deaf people have a spoken language as their first language, although they may go on to learn sign language after becoming deaf or hard of hearing).

Author bio:

Nancy Guevara is one the world’s first qualified interlingual speech-to-text interpreters, having completed both intra- and interlingual respeaking programs (English, Macquarie University, 2017 and English–Spanish, University of Vigo, Spain, 2019). Nancy currently provides remote live subtitles for online events for several agencies based in Australia and overseas, and also freelances: her latest assignments include live webinar subtitling for Budweiser Group and the OECD (UK), BHP and Thiess (Australia) and Enel Group (Italy). Recently taken on by Red Bee Media on a freelance basis, she is looking forward to captioning live television programs here in Australia soon.

In the second article of this two-part feature, scheduled for our December issue, Nancy will share practical insights into this new profession.