Investigating effective audio guiding. A multimodal comparison of the genre in Italian and English

This book proposes a multimodal investigation of fifty professional city audio guides, with an in-depth, and contrastive, analysis of Italian, British, Irish and American audio guides. Here described as a script-based form of public speaking, the audio guide genre is analysed both at the macro-level (structure and content organisation) and at the micro-level (stylistic features and communication strategies), including the ‘soundscape’ (music, sounds and prosodic features of speech). The rich examples highlight similarities and differences to be found between Italian and English strategies aimed at accessibility and visitor involvement. ‘Accessibility’ and ‘involvement’ are indeed the key reference criteria for the discussion of results, which is framed within an Anglo-American public speaking model in order to define the strategies that make the audio guide effective. The results are then condensed into a set of prototype guidelines for translating or creating effective audio guides. This practical focus makes the book of interest not only to academics in the field, but also to lecturers and students of English language and translation, cultural heritage and tourist communication, as well as professionals in the area of audio-visual technology-mediated cultural heritage promotion.