90667 - Introduction To Dialogical Interpretation Between German And Italian (Second Language)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to teach students how to develop those preliminary skills needed to perform spoken interpreting, that is to say the ability to listen, comprehend and speak in both source and target language. Students will also learn how to conduct autonomous research on relevant subjects.

Course contents

More in detail, the course will focus on the following areas: brief overview of the role of interpreters within a communication process, analysis of communication situations both live and on video, focus on non-verbal language, prosody, memory training, listening comprehension, summarising and free speech in the foreign language, relaxing techniques, stress-management and, last but not least. first attempts at liaison interpreting.

The simulations of interpreter-mediated exchanges between German native speakers and Italian native speakers are in general focused on daily contexts (family, hobbies and freetime, weather, means of transport, school system, feasts and traditions, stereotypes and clichés, in the breakfast room, etc.) and in particular on food and wine.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliographic references will be provided later on. Generally speaking, students will receive photocopied material (dialogues, texts, standard sentences, glossaries etc.) useful for the lessons, most of wich will be loaded onto the plattform moodle every week.

Teaching methods

The course consists of two weekly sessions with the teacher responsible for the whole course, one of wich focusing on a prerecorded videomediation in cooperation with a mother tongue teacher.

During the lessons with the teacher responsible for the course great attention will be attached to functional activities to liaison interpreting, such as shadowing or repetition of short texts previously recorded in Italian or German, sight translation mostly from texts in German so as to get students used with translation speedness and quickness. Moreover, other types of activities will be trained such as cloze tests, chuchotage or whispering, dictations of numbers, discussions of some topics linked with the civilization such as geography and placement jobs in Germany etc, coverage of actual topics, glossaries and lexical extension with particular attention on food and wine industry. There will also be space for short explanations of grammar and syntax problems as to mediation, given the fact that the level of language in the German course second language is widely differentiated.

In the lessons dedicated to prerecorded liaison interpreting, short sessions of dialogue interpreting will take place under the guide of the teacher responsible for the course with commentaries on the performances delivered under the linguistic and communicative point of view. Other important topics will be covered such as public speaking, verbal and non verbal communication. The activity is aimed at approaching students progressively to a secure and professional handling of the mediation on general topics.

Lessons will be conducted both in Italian and German according to the skills being trained during the different activities.

Assessment methods

Students will be weekly involved in exercises of different nature and difficulty in front of the whole class, in order to develop and gain a better communication skill and cope with fears and anxieties in a more secure way.

The exam at the end of the course is articulated as follows:

REMOTE SUPERVISED EXAMS will consist in a 10-minute dialogue interpreting session of a prerecorded video between an Italian and a German mother-tongue speakers.

PRESENCE EXAMS consist in three diferent parts:

A shadowing exam of approximately 2 minutes with a simultaneous repetition of a a text previously recorded in German or Italian for Erasmus German native speakers. For this activity a maximum of 5 points is given on a total amount of 30 points for the entire exam.

A sight translation exam of approximately 10/15 lines from a German text (normally the one used during the shadowing exam) into Italian or the other way round for Erasmus German native speakers. For this activity a maximum of 5 points is given on a total amount of 30 points for the entire exam.

A liaison interpreting exam from Italian into German and from German into Italian of approximately 10-15 minutes regarding a dialogue focused on the wine and food topic and the use of the socalled conversational means or standard sentences recurring in dialogues of this kind. The students will be acting as an interpreter in a short dialogue prerecorded by the two teachers discussing common subjects and the performance will be valued according language, translation and communicative skills shown during the exam. For this activity a maximum of 20 points is given on a total of 30 points for the entire exam.

The final mark will be obtained adding the single marks totalled in the three exams.

Teaching tools

The topics covered will include news and country-specific situations and events. Particular use will be made of the latest multimedia tools (internet, you tube, sight translation tools etc.) to practise some of the abilities which will be integrated into the liaison interpretation.

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Bragagni