69403 - German Liaison Interpreting I (Second Language)

Learning outcomes

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to liaison interpreting, helping them develop the basic techniques which represent the essential tools of the profession: listening and memorisation, comprehension of the context and of the communicative intentions, identification of error sources and misunderstandings, rendering of the memorised content in a clear and comprehensible manner. An excellent comprehension of spoken German and Italian as well as a good ability of oral expression  are required. Besides topics referred to general and current events, the course will also include subjects in the tourism, business and commercial field in order to help students expand specific lexical resources.      

Course contents

During the lessons the following aspects will be dealt more specifically: analysis of the communicative function of interpreting, non-verbal interpreting, ability to express meanings with ease and flexibility, memory exercises, listening exercises, search for a particular topic and presentation in a short report, summarising of texts in another language, text production, as well as first explanations of the note-taking system. 

A variety of themes will be approached:

greeting forms and communicative situations

asking and giving information over the phone

negotiations between travel agencies and tour operators, tourists and hotelkeepers, tour operators and hotelkeepers, students and language schools.

job interview in the hospitality business

company activities and products (ceramic, ice-cream production and wine and food market)

company organisation and company law

reminders, complaints, apologies and justifications

meetings

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliographic references will be provided later on.

Teaching methods

Didactics consist of practical training with interpreting sessions: students will be asked to act as interpreters during the interaction of the two teachers. The lessons will be complemented by short grammatical and syntactic exercisers in order to take a deeper insight into the tourism, business and company language.

Assessment methods

The final exam represents a real interpreting test: the student acts as interpreter in a structured dialogue between the speakers of the two languages on a subject examined in detail during the lessons.   

Students will also be asked to prepare a glossary about the technical themes analysed during the lessons.

Teaching tools

Successful learning will be achieved through individual exercises and in small groups beyond and outside the lesson time. The exercises to be done will be explained during the lessons and involve  the use of a tape recorder.

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Bragagni