69549 - Translation from Italian into English II (First Language) (CL1)

Academic Year 2014/2015

  • Docente: Derek Boothman
  • Credits: 5
  • Language: English
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Forli
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Intercultural and Linguistic Mediation (cod. 8059)

Learning outcomes

Students should know or soon be acquainted with the various tools (decent grammar boooks such as Murphy, mono- and bi-lingual dictionaries and the pitfalls associated with their use, acquire the necessary skills needed for the use of linguistic corpora and then use them on the text typology dealt with in the course, so as to be able to translate in the style (register, vocabulary etc.) that is appropriate for the  target language and culture.

Course contents

The text chosen for translation is a fairly discursive survey of current problems, starting from the economic problems of the European Union, written for a non-specialist public, and going on from there to discuss the politico-instituional of the EU. The book to be used for selected sections is by Bruno Amoroso e Jesper Jespersen: "Un'Europa possibile. Dalla crisi alla cooperazione", published simultaneously in Italian and Danish this year (Italian edition published by Castelvecchi editore: Rome)
The book (described as a "pamphlet" and therefore relatively short) has been chosen with the aim of giving a lead-in to either a master's degree or professional work as a translator.
To avoid clashes with other lectures/lessons, "Class 1" of translation towards English (III year, first language English) will be composed of students who have French or German as their second language; the case of those having Chinese as second language, and any other problems, will be dealt with in the first week of lectures.

Readings/Bibliography

useful practical guides translation are to be found in the works of recent "classical" authors - Jakobson, Nida, Newmark, Venuti, Sager, Snell-Hornby, etc.,just - with the exception of Jakobson - limiting ourselves to English-mother tongue authors

Teaching methods

eminently practical - you acquire translational techniques through the act of translation, just as in other subjects, too, laboratory courses help develop practical skills

Assessment methods

Typically , a three hour examination at the end of the module, translating a text of the type dealt with in the module itself

Teaching tools

paper and electronic dictionaries, intelligent use of the Internet, plus specialist glossaries and corpora

Office hours

See the website of Derek Boothman