Museum audio description as a foreign language learning tool

Abstract

This contribution focuses on museum audio description (AD), originally intended as an access tool for people with visual impairments, in order to consider its potential for foreign language learning (FLL). Screen AD of films and videos has already been investigated as catering new groups, such as migrants and learners, and as a teaching activity for foreign language (FL) education. Likewise, this paper argues that museum AD may similarly be revisited as a didactic instrument to engage with people studying FLs (e.g. English), as part of both formal and informal learning. The benefits of museum AD for FLL will be discussed by analysing an example of a museum AD script in English and proposing a lesson plan comprising passive and active AD tasks.