78691 - Translation - German (LM)

Learning outcomes

The global aim of this course which includes lectures and practical language classes is to develop students translation competence, which means to provide them knowledge and skills needed to be able to translate as well as to reflect upon the process of translation (linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse competence). This will be achieved by analyzing and translating essayistic texts from German into Italian and by discussing the students translations. The focus will be on the main translation problems related to the German-Italian language pair. Language classes will be dedicated to translation exercises from Italian into German. Over the two year period students’ knowledge of German should reach level C1.2 according to the European framework in all four abilities; these classes will work in connection with the lectures to improve students translation skills.

Course contents

Course contents

The course consists of 60 hours of formal classes (lezioni frontali). Please remember that this course goes together with a language learning course (esercitazioni).

Formal classes (with Prof. Barbara Ivancic): The aim of the course is to promote reflection on translation starting from the description of linguistic and textual phenomena. To this aim texts belonging to different text types will be proposed to the students and translated from German into Italian. The translation exercise aims to underline the main translation problems related to the German-Italian language pair.

In order to initiate reflection on the translation process itself, the course includes the reading and discussion in class of a series of articles dealing with particularly relevant and topical translation issues. The list of these texts and the way in which they will be integrated into the course will be communicated in the first lesson.

Through the translating practice the course also aims to promote reflection on the possible integrations between human translation and machine / assisted translation. In this context, particular attention will be paid to the post-editing of texts produced by NMT/LLM translation system.

The language learning course (=  esercitazioni with collaboratore ed esperto linguistico/CEL) is dedicated to exploring and discussing specialized articles (Fachtexte) referred to in the lecture module. These texts focus on current issues in translation studies, such as the use of digital tools to support the translation process, post-editing as a form of translation, and the automation of literary translation. The list of articles will be provided at the beginning of the course, together with the texts themselves, which will be uploaded to the Virtual Platform.

This type of work is intended to practise the following language skills:

· reading and comprehension

· writing, particularly in the form of summaries and comments

· oral skills, understood above all as the ability to express, present and argue theses and opinions

Depending on the needs of the group, individual aspects of the German language (morphosyntactic structures, vocabulary) will also be explored in depth.

There will also be the opportunity to prepare and give presentations (Referate) lasting approximately 10 minutes, based on texts dealing with translation-related topics. The texts may be chosen in agreement with the teacher, drawing on sources that will be made available in the classroom. Those who participate in this activity will have fewer questions in the written test related to this part of the course (see below).

Both the formal classes and the language learning course will take place in the second semester.

Readings/Bibliography

Reference texts will be communicated at the very beginning of the course.

Teaching methods

lectures and seminar classes

Assessment methods

Formal classes (with Prof. Ivancic)
The exam consists in the translation of an article (text type: comment) from German into Italian. Text length: ca. 250 words; exam duration: 2 hrs.

The use of either paper and/or online dictionaries (both monolingual and bilingual) is allowed, whereas machine translation systems and CAT-Tools may not be used.

Language learning course (Esercitazioni):

The assessment consists of three questions relating to the texts discussed in class (Lesetexte). The questions will be posed in German and require a response in German, which will be assessed in terms of its adequacy and consistency with regard to content, as well as to the linguistic correctness and accuracy.

For students who prepare and give a presentation during the course, according to the procedures that will be explained in class, the number of questions in the written test will be reduced from three to one.

Duration of the exam: 60 minutes.

The use of dictionaries or other materials is not permitted during the exam.

Duration: 60 Min.

 

Attending and non-attending students have to take both exams, in order to proceed with the "verbalizzazione".

The final mark of the course will be the average mark between the lezioni frontali exam's result (counting two times) and the esercitazione mark.

The "verbalizzazione" takes place in the office hours of prof. Ivancic or on request per mail. 

Teaching tools

power point presentations, texts

platform "Virtuale" (https://virtuale.unibo.it/)

 

Students with SLDs or temporary or permanent disabilities: we suggest that you contact the relevant university office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and your professor immediately to work together to find the most effective strategies for attending classes and/or preparing for exams.

Any requests for accommodations must be made at least 15 days before the date of the exam, by sending an email to the lecturer and copying (Cc) the email address [disabilita@unibo.it [mailto:disabilita@unibo.it] ](mailto:disabilita@unibo.it ) (in case of disability) or [dsa@unibo.it [mailto:dsa@unibo.it] ](mailto:dsa@unibo.it ) (for students with Specific Learning Difficulties).

Office hours

See the website of Barbara Ivancic