69562 - Translation from English into Italian II (Second Language)

Learning outcomes

The student knows the basic tools (grammar books, dictionaries and corpora of parallel and/or comparable texts) and basic translation methods (reformulation, editing and revision of a target text). S/he is able to apply these tools and methods to the task of translating a variety of texts, even complex ones, from English (as a second language) into Italian. S/he is able to identify and use the most adequate basic translation strategies, depending on the communicative functions of the texts to be translated.

Course contents

Students will be introduced to a range of textual genres and topics, both literary/journalistic and semi-specialised. They will also be introduced to a variety of resources (mainly search engines and corpora) and translation techniques (reformulation, revision and self-revision) that can be applied to different translation tasks; special attention will be paid to stimulating critical reflection on the appropriateness of these resources and techniques with reference to the different text types.

Specifically, the module will deal with the translation of:

- journalistic reportage and other journalistic genres (e.g. columns and opinion articles), with activities of reformulation, supported by careful use of search engines and various other translation resources available online;

- texts for the publishing industry (fiction and non-fiction), with activities of revision and self-revision;

- semi-specialised texts in the field of industry and trade (e.g. press releases, sustainability reports); methods and tools for the construction and consultation of electronic corpora will be presented to support the translation task.

Readings/Bibliography

Suggested readings

- Bowker, L. & J. Pearson (2002) Working with Specialized Language: a Practical Guide to Using Corpora. London and New York: Routledge.

- Mossop, B. (2007) Revising and Editing for Translators(second edition). Manchester: St. Jerome.

- Scarpa, F. (2008) La traduzione specializzata: Un approccio didattico professionale. Milano: Hoepli.

- Zanettin, F. (2012) Translation-Driven Corpora: Corpus Resources for Descriptive and Applied Translation Studies. Manchester: St. Jerome.

Teaching methods

Lessons will be mostly in the form of workshops/seminars, and active participation of students is expected; during these lessons, activities will include group discussion of translations autonomously prepared by students at home, as well as translation/revision activities in class carried out in small groups. In addition, lectures will be delivered to present tools that can be used to support translators (in particular search engines and corpora).

Students will also be required to hand in one/two assignments, on which the lecturer will provide both individual and collective feedback.

Students are expected to attend at least 70% of the module classes.

Assessment methods

The exam will consist of a written translation test taken in the computer lab; students will translate a text extract of about 300 words from English into Italian belonging to one the text types presented in class. Students will be allowed to use all the resources presented during the module (search engines and corpora, as well as online and/or paper dictionaries). 

Moreover, students will take a mock exam in the last weeks of the course. This will allow them to evaluate their preparation with reference to the objectives of the module, and at the same time will allow the lecturer to spot problem areas which can be solved before the end of the course. The result of the mock exam will not be considered in the computation of the final course mark.

The final mark of the course will result from the arithmetic mean of the marks obtained in the modules of translation from English into Italian (this module), and from Italian into English.

Teaching tools

• Computers with Internet connection (students) and with beamer (lecturer)
• Monolingual and bilingual dictionaries (Italian/English), in their paper and/or online version
• Online translation resources (search engines, terminological databases) and offline translation resources (corpora)
• Freely available software for the construction and consultation of corpora (Notepad++, AntConc)
• Moodle e-learning platform to share texts to be translated and other useful materials (see link)

Links to further information

http://moodle.sslmit.unibo.it/course/view.php?id=1125

Office hours

See the website of Adriano Ferraresi