82031 - Specialized Translation from Italian into English (CL2)

Learning outcomes

The student - knows the strategies, techniques, traditional and state-of-the-art tools and methods used in specialized translation tasks - is able to apply them to the translation of technical and scientific texts from different genres and text types, from Italian into English, meeting specific translation briefs and respecting the communicative functions of the source texts - knows the basic techniques required for information mining, drafting, editing and revising texts, including the overall quality evaluation of the translated text

Course contents

 The course guides the graduate student to a level of higher-quality translation, focusing on the specific translation and revision of Italian texts taken from the corporate, academic, legal and small business fields.

The aim of the course is to allow students to deal with texts in any specialized field and to produce translations in English that an expert reader will evaluate as being accurate and authentic; students will be asked to apply the knowledge acquired during their undergraduate courses (linguistic, practical and translation notions) when translating and revising texts. Special attention will be paid to the key steps of translation practice in the specialized field: identification and analysis of context, genre and discourse features of the source text, the collection of reliable reference documents, selection of relevant terminology and developing ad-hoc translation resources.

Particular importance will also be placed on speed of translation.

Course duration: 40 hours

Readings/Bibliography

Balboni, P. 2000. Le microlingue scientifico-professionali. Natura e insegnamento. Torino: UTET.
Bhatia, V. 1993. Analysing genre: language use in professional settings. Harlow: Longman.
Byrne, J. 2006. Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation. Dordrecht: Springer.
Cortelazzo, M. 1994. Lingue speciali. La dimensione verticale. Padova: Unipress.
Cortese, G. (ed.) 1996. Tradurre i linguaggi settoriali. Torino: Cortina.
Cosmai, D. 2007. Tradurre per l'Unione Europea (2 ed.). Milano: Hoepli.
Mossop, B. 2007. Revising and Editing for Translators (2 ed.). Manchester: St. Jerome.
Musacchio, M. 1995. La traduzione della lingua dell’economia. Dall’inglese in italiano. Trieste: Lint.
Scarpa, F. 2008. La Traduzione Specializzata (2 ed.). Milano: Hoepli.
Tosi, A. (ed.) 2013. The EU multilingual translation in an ecology of language perspective. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Special Edition), 23:1.
Zanettin, F. 2012. Translation driven-corpora: corpus resources for descriptive and applied translation studies. Manchester: St. Jerome.

Teaching methods

Lessons in this course are carried out in a combined lab-lecture mode, with theoretical explanations by the instructor and the use of power point slides. Students actively participate in lessons to contextualize the materials being analyzed and translated; the correction of translations and revision/discussion of translation options guides students and stimulates debate among peers.

Lessons take place in language labs, where each student has a PC with translation software and an internet connection, permitting work in at the individual level, in pairs or in small groups.

Attendance of at least 70% of lessons is obligatory.

Assessment methods

Students will be evaluated on whether they have acquired specialized translation techniques and are able to manage terminology and complex contents. Course evaluation includes a mid-term test and a final written exam devised to simulate the authentic work conditions of a free-lance translator in a specialized field.

The final grade for the IT>EN component will be calculated as follows:

Final exam (70%): the translation of a specialized text of about 300 words, similar to those analyzed during lessons in terms of topic and type of text. Students may use the instruments that were at their disposal during lessons, as well as the resources they have created or procured during the course. The use of dictionaries, glossaries and documents available on the Internet are furthermore permitted during the final exam.

A mid-term test (30%): the translation of a specialized text of about 200 words, similar to those analyzed during lessons in terms of topic and type of text. Students may use the instruments at their disposal during lessons, as well as the resources they have created or procured up to that point in the course. The use of dictionaries, glossaries and documents available on the Internet are furthermore permitted during the mid-term test.

Students’ final mark for the Specialized Translation Course is the average of the following two grades: their final mark for the component ‘Specialized Translation from English into Italian’ (50%) and their final mark for the component ‘Specialized Translation from Italian into English’ (50%).

Teaching tools

Networked PCs with Internet access, CAT and corpus tools, online dictionaries, and language search-engine software. Teaching support materials (texts, slides, relevant links etc.) are made available on the AlmaDL-AMS Campus platform (Moodle).

Office hours

See the website of Catherine Farwell