Teaching Russian-English translation with computer games

Abstract

Nowadays, computer games occupy a large share of the entertainment industry market: according to data for 2019, the market volume was $ 152.1 billion (for comparison, the market volume in 2018 was $ 137.9 billion). The growing popularity of the industry led to the inclusion of computer games in 2005 on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and in 2003 – to the establishment of a video game award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Computer games are increasingly penetrating our lives, and thus follows the language of “gamers”, exerting an increasing influence on the normative language. Computer games are a vast topic for research and study, especially in terms of language and teaching. Teaching translation in the modern world should include a comprehensive preparation of future specialists for work. In the current education system of the Russian Federation, there is no professional training of translators for the localization of computer games, therefore, translators who wish to work in this area need to undergo additional training outside the higher education system. This brings to the fore the issue of needing to identify the features of the translation process and localization of computer games in order to improve the quality of teaching translation. We consider the features of translation and localization from English into Russian based on the texts of the computer game “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”.