78399 - Interpreting from English into Italian I (6 CFU) (CL1)

Learning outcomes

Students know and are able to use the basic interpreting techniques (including sight translation and note-taking) from English into Italian.

Course contents

The course will focus on developing students' skills concerning the analysis, comprehension and reproduction of spoken speeches from English into Italian, and on their control of their delivery and of the communicative event.

Consecutive and simultaneous interpreting skills will be developed through preliminary exercises of sight translation, memorizing and note-taking. Students will be mainly exposed to original speeches, some of them containing difficulties such as information redundancy, high speech rate, unusual accents and varieties of English, lack of coherence and/or cohesion so as to develop specific strategies.

Students will be divided into two classes, each class receiving 24 hours of interpreting from English into Italian from Ira Torresi + 24 hours from Maura Radicioni.

Those studying English as Language A will additionally attend classes of interpreting from Italian into English.
Those studying English as Language B will additionally attend English Language classes instead.

Readings/Bibliography

(The following texts are not mandatory.)

Bersani Berselli, Mack,Gabriele e Zorzi, Daniela (a cura di) (2004), Linguistica e interpretazione, CLUEB, Biblioteca della SSLMIT, Forlì.

Pöchhacker, Franz (2003) Introducing Interpreting Studies, London/New York, Routledge.

Interpretazione simultanea e consecutiva – Problemi teorici e metodologie didattiche (1999), a cura di Falbo Caterina, Russo Maria Chiara e Straniero Sergio Francesco, Milano, Hoepli.

Straniero Sergio, F. (2007). Talkshow interpreting: la mediazione linguistica nella conversazione spettacolo. Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste.

Teaching methods

Practical exercise in class, monitored by the teacher and peers; self-training and self-monitoring.

Assessment methods

End-of-course assessment consists in one consecutive and one simultaneous interpreting tests from English into Italian, each one accounting for 50% of the final mark of the Interpreting from English into Italian I module. Both tests are taken in the booth on the same day, and their topic is communicated via Moodle one week in advance. Exam results are given via Moodle's forum (only student registration numbers, not names, will be shown) a few days after the exam.

The mark of the Interpreting from English into Italian I module is then averaged out (at 50%) against:

- for students having English as A language: Interpreting from Italian into English I, whose tests are structured in the same way as those into Italian, and are taken on the same day. Both components (from and into Italian) must be taken on the same day. (But see "Congelamenti" below.)

- for students having English as B Language: English language for interpreters. This part of the exam is taken on a different day and follows the procedure that is indicated by the relevant instructor.

"Congelamenti": student must take all the relevant English interpreting tests on the same day (A language: consecutive and simultaneous into Italian, consecutive and simultaneous into English; B language: consecutive and simultaneous into Italian). If at least 50% of the tests - 2 tests for A Language, 1 test for B Language - is assessed positively, the tests that have been passed are kept as good. All the remaining English interpreting tests must be taken together, and the 50% rule continues to apply.

Example: English is my A language. The first time I sit the exam, I pass only the simultaneous into Italian and the consecutive into English. The second time over, I take the remaining two tests and pass the consecutive into Italian. The following time, I re-take the simultaneous interpreting test into English. The final mark is an average of all 4 tests.

NB1 instructors may choose to give students a general assessment of single tests that have been passed, without telling them the mark.

NB2 if Interpreting from Italian into English I is taken as a free choice exam (opzionale) by students with English as a B language, it counts as a separate exam for the purposes of "Congelamenti" and marking.

Teaching tools

Audio- and video-recordings of real working situations and from the Internet.

Office hours

See the website of Ira Torresi

See the website of Maura Radicioni