• Eye tracking
• Cognitive translation studies
• Audiovisual translation (AVT)
• Translation
• Cognitive load
• Subtitling
• Audio Description
• Reading

I am currently Professor and Head of the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University.  I teach audiovisual translation and media accessibility at Master's level and supervise students in the fields of audiovisual translation as well as cognitive translation studies, with a particular interest in studies that investigate the reception of multimodal texts using eye tracking. 

My research uses eye tracking experiments combined with psychometric instruments and performance measures to investigate the processing of language in multimodal contexts. I am particularly interested in the processing of text (reading) when it has to compete for cognitive resources with auditory and visual information (such as reading subtitles in film). My current work looks at the impact of such redundant sources of information on the reading of subtitles at different presentation rates and in the presence of different languages. My main collaborators are Prof Erik Reichle, Dr Stephen Doherty, and Dr Lili Yu.

I currently supervise 7 PhD students in areas related to translation studies, audiovisual translation and cognitive translation studies using eye tracking and coprpus methodologies. I do not currently have capacity to take on any more students.

Current PhD students:

1. Hayyan Alrosan. Translation of cultural references in the Arabic subtitling of feature films: A parallel corpus-based study
2. Ahmed Alsharif. The impact of subtitle presentation speed (low vs. high) on L2 incidental vocabulary acquisition by Saudi University students.
3. Ahmad Assiri. An investigation into conjunctive markers in subtitling between English and Arabic: A corpus-based study.
4. Wing (Andrea) Chang. An investigation of subtitles as learning support in university education.
5. Della Goswell. Balancing the scales: Impediments to and strategies for Auslan-English interpreters working in legal settings.
6. Sixin Liao. The impact of visual and auditory information on subtitle processing: An eye tracking study
7. Yousef Sahari. A corpus-based study of taboo language in Arabic subtitles.

Completed PhD students:

1. Gordon Matthew (2019): Measuring cognitive load in subtitle reading.
2. Sijia Chen (2018): Cognitive load during note-taking in consecutive interpreting.
3. Este Hefer (2012): Reading second language subtitles: case study of South African viewers reading in their native language and L2-English.
4. Suzanne Lum Ayonghe (2010): Language practice: Subtitling as a tool in academic language proficiency programmes.
5. Helena C. Kruger (2005): Language practice (subtitling): Parameters for the training of subtitlers in South Africa.

Completed research Masters degree students:

1. Ahmed Alsharif (2019): The impact of presentation rate on the effectiveness of subtitles in learning.
2. Sixin Liao (2018): The impact of bilingual subtitles on film comprehension and cognitive load.
3. Hayyan Alrosan (2017): Translating cultural references between English and Arabic subtitles.
4. Yousef Sahari (2017): The translation of swear words in subtitles.
5. Wing (Andrea) Chang (2016): Comparing the impact of subtitles on learning: Automatically generated vs. corrected subtitles.
6. Lonjiao Sui (2016): Are simultaneous interpreters subject to the central processing bottleneck during language production?
7. Johannes Mahlasela (2013): The impact of subtitling on comprehension in content subjects in an ESL environment.
8. Nicole Wilken (2013): The role of mise-en-scene in film reception.
9. Fanny Lacroix (2012): The use of same-language subtitling in an ESL educational environment.
10. Manuella Fernandes (2004): Optimising subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing.
11. JAK Olivier (2004): The role of subtitling in the recognition and protection of language rights on the national broadcaster.
12. Willie Landsberg (2000): The translation of dialect.
13. Althea Kotze (1999): The translation of nonsense poetry: Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’.
14. Haidee Kotze (1999): Beat poetry and the twentieth century: Allen Ginsberg.