69397 - English Liaison Interpreting I (Second Language)

Learning outcomes

Liaison/Dialogue Interpreting between Italian and English II will develop the skills and translation strategies studied in Language Mediation in the 1st year. It will hone skills such as listening, memorization, summarization and oral rephrasing as well as those techniques necessary on an interlinguistic and intercultural level so that the student will be able to act as a dialogue interpreter in various areas of business interpreting (trade fairs, private companies, etc.).

Course contents

The course will be held in the second semester. Students will work on theoretical and practical problems inherent in dialogue interpreting as well as working on the salient features of specific oral and written language skills. During the lessons in tandem with both teachers, students will practice acting as dialogue interpreters in various fields, such as business negotiations and trade fairs, situations that will be recreated by the use of actual material obtained on-the-job. Additionally to roleplays, relevant techniques will include sight translation, oral gist translation of written texts, short consecutive without notes.

Specific language work (“Lettorato”) will take place in the language labs . This will focus on listening comprehension, transcription, and reformulating various text types both orally and in writing. It will include general language improvement, with specific focus on oral language and grammar; particular emphasis on semantic areas and topic fields dealt with in the Mediation course.

Readings/Bibliography

A bibliography of suggested texts may be given out during the course.

Teaching methods

During this learn-by-doing course, students will practice the various skills needed to carry out business interpreting: memory exercises (to improve concentration and synthesis by extrapolating key points in both languages), sight translation, and rephrasing, all of which will be carried out from and into English. There will be discussions on the concepts, theories, and professional ethics involved in the work of a dialogue interpreter. Students will be working both in groups and on an individual level when acting as the interpreter in role plays. During the role plays, realistic situations will be simulated, in which the student must act as the interpreter, facilitating the communication between an Italian speaker and an English one by choosing appropriate lexical and language solutions. The student will be expected to improve his/her oral expression in both Italian and English so as to face and resolve potentially difficult situations within an interpretation.

Assessment methods

Students' competence will be assessed throughout the course, on the basis of how each student interprets during the class role plays and participates in class exercises, vocabulary building, sight translation, etc. Thus, by the end of the course the students will be expected to:

· distinguish strategies to enable an interpreted event between an Italian speaker and an English speaker (including expanding and organizing one's working memory, and staying within the limits of their own language competence)

· refine the lexical knowledge and specific terminology needed in the interpretation

· perfect their oral language ability in both Italian and English

· identify syntactic, lexical and grammatical differences in Italian and English.

Continuous assessment during the year will NOT contribute towards the final mark, but will serve as an indication for students' individual preparation.

The end-of-course exam will consist in a role play (based on one of the subject areas dealt with during the semester) where the student will act as the interpreter, and sight translations from English into Italian and from Italian into English.

Top marks (30L) can only be awarded to performances that are optimal not only from a linguistic, but also from an interactional point of view. Conversational turns are managed seamlessly, the student follows the professional ethics, respects speakers' intentions (both explicit and implied), does not change registers, mediates between business cultures, uses contextual and non-verbal elements to his/her own benefit. Less than optimal performances will be marked as follows:

interaction managed seamlessly, few flaws in language (e.g. style) that do not hinder mutual understanding=> 27-29;

interaction managed correctly, with few changes in meaning that distort only part of the argumentative, humorous, emotional or promotional effect of the texts (not its informative/referential function), few flaws in language (e.g. style) that do not substantially hinder mutual understanding=>24-26;

interaction managed incorrectly at times, and/or with linguistic flaws that may generate local misunderstandings that need additional negotiating=>18-23 (21-23 if this has little impact on the general outcome of the encounter, or with student-initiated repair; 18-20 if repair is other-initiated and requires substantial meaning negotiation).

If the encounter fails due to significant interpreter-induced misunderstandings or insufficient interactional skills, the student will fail the exam.

The final mark for the Liaison/Dialogue Interpreting module will then be averaged out (at 50%) against the mark of the Language and culture module.

Teaching tools

Individual or group hands-on tasks BETWEEN Italian and English will be assigned in class:

1. Roleplays between the two teachers (who will be in class for 50% of hours), with one student taking the role of teh interpreter;

2. Roleplays in groups of 3, with one student acting as the interpreter between two other students who receive either a script or a prompt on how to play their respective parts;

3. Sight translation or oral gist translation of written texts;

4. Memory exercises/short consecutive without notes of oral texts.

For non-Italian exchange students wishing to take this module: please note that some knowledge of Italian is essential for this course. Please consider including the "Italian as L2" module in your LA as well.

Office hours

See the website of Ira Torresi