- Docente: Roberto Mulinacci
- Credits: 9
- SSD: L-LIN/09
- Language: Portuguese
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
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Corso:
First cycle degree programme (L) in
Languages, Markets and Cultures of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (cod. 9264)
Also valid for First cycle degree programme (L) in Foreign Languages and Literature (cod. 0979)
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from Feb 09, 2026 to Apr 24, 2026
Learning outcomes
At the end of this module, students should be able to reach Level C1 of the Portuguese language proficiency levels described in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Course contents
The course of "Portuguese and Brazilian Linguistics and Language 3" has two parts:
1. - Formal lectures given by the professor (30 hours);
2. - A language learning course (90 hours) given by the tutor.
1. LINGUISTICS COURSE CONTENTS
This course (Translating from Portuguese) aims to address theoretical and practical aspects of translation from Portuguese into Italian. Starting, in fact, with some preliminary and essential notions of translatology, which will enable students to familiarise themselves with some theoretical concepts useful for translation practice, the course will focus, in particular, on the new frontiers of the translator's profession, whether editorial or not, which are as broad as they are threatened by the new technologies. A number of lectures will be devoted to the challenge thrown down to “translation proper” by machine/assisted translation, in order not only to test the effectiveness of these tools (GT, Deepl, etc.) as regards the comprehension of texts in Portuguese and the quality of their rendering in Italian, but also and above all to train the students in that increasingly fundamental operation for those working in this sector, namely post-editing. Thus, with a view to the progressive development of theoretical awareness of translation, rather than the simplistic reduction of this ‘competence’ to an illusory set of rules, part of the teaching will also be devoted to the critical and comparative analysis of translations (mostly literary ) by professional translators, with the aim of reflecting on the strategies adopted by them in individual texts and on any interpretative problems encountered there. At the end of this process of critical refinement of their translating background, each student will then be confronted, individually and/or in groups, with the translation, retranslation and/or post-editing of textual samples of various kinds (bureaucratic, journalistic, specialised, literary), by means of exercises to be carried out at home and discussed collectively in the classroom.
2. LANGUAGE CLASSES CONTENTS (Esercitazioni Linguistiche)
The grammatical contents that will be addressed during the course will, in summary, be as follows:
Aperfeiçoamento do Indicativo;- Revisão do Subjuntivo;- Contrastes entre Indicativos ou Subjuntivos;- Infinitivo pessoal;- Tópicos frasais;- Conectores;- Regências;- Crase;- Concordância Verbal;- Concordância Nominal;- Pronomes oblíquos;- Colocação pronominal;- Pronomes relativos;- Derivação;- Composição;- Acentuação;- Pontuação.
Readings/Bibliography
1. LINGUISTICS COURSE
The final exam will cover the following course readings, which will be made available to students at the beginning of the course:
- Anthony Pym, Explorando as teorias da tradução, São Paulo, Editora Perspectiva, 2017.
For those who are interested in deepening their knowledge about reverse translation, from Italian to Portuguese, it is recommended the reading of the following book:
- Claudia Zavaglia - Reginaldo Francisco, Parece mas não é: as armadilhas da tradução do italiano para o português, São Carlos, Editora Claraluz, 2008
Further readings, especially concerning machine/assisted translation, will be recommended and provided during the lectures.
Given the theoretical-practical nature of the course, with parts of individual and group work subject to collective revision in the classroom, students non attending classes are advised to contact the lecturer in order to agree together on bibliographical supplement that may enable them to at least partially compensate for that training gap.
The slides presented in class and the theses analysed will be made available on the ‘Virtuale’ platform (virtuale.unibo.it) of the professor teaching the course.
2. LANGUAGE CLASSES (Esercitazioni Linguistiche)
Reference texts will be communicated at the beginning of the course.
Teaching methods
1. LINGUISTICS COURSE
The course will be delivered through lectures and workshops, including translation exercises. This course provides participants with ample opportunities to apply techniques and skills through a series of translation assignments which form the basis for class discussion.
2. LANGUAGE CLASSES (Esercitazioni Linguistiche)
Students are also expected to attend language practice classes given by a native-speaker tutor. Active participation from the students in the discussions and the other activities is an essential part of the learning process and exam preparation.
Assessment methods
The assessment will be divided into several stages.
As regards the linguistics course, the first stage will consist of a written translation test (lasting two hours) from Portuguese into Italian on a text of various genres and will take place immediately after the end of the lessons, on a date agreed with the students. The test, which may be taken with the aid of any type of dictionary, whether printed or online, is designed to assess the student's translation skills according to criteria of adequacy of the target text in relation to the source text and will be graded on a scale of 30. The correspondence of the student's translation to the above criteria of adequacy will also be the subject of the first part of the oral exam, in which the student will review their work and discuss their translation choices with the teacher, thus demonstrating that they have developed a coherent idea of translation and, above all, that they are able to practise it professionally. To this end, the theoretical reflections and bibliographical references addressed during the course will form the basis for dialogue between teacher and student, during which certain concepts of translation studies will be examined in a non-notionistic way, i.e. by seeking to grasp their concrete implications for translation practice.
The marks obtained in the written translation test and, more generally, in the oral interview will then be combined into a single partial mark for the linguistics course, which must, as usual, be supplemented by the equally partial mark resulting from the average of the two marks obtained in the written and oral tests relating to the language exercises (see below).
As regards the language learning course (Esercitazioni linguistiche), to be carried out with the native speaker, these will consist, as usual, of a written and oral exam aimed at assessing the effective acquisition of the four skills (reading comprehension, listening comprehension, written expression, oral expression). In particular, the written exam, lasting 3 hours, will consist of interpretation and text production exercises (mostly related to Brazilian Portuguese), while the oral exam - to which students must qualify by obtaining a score of at least 18/30 in the written exam - will focus mainly on the student's oral expression skills, who will be asked to demonstrate their mastery of Portuguese by talking to the examiner about linguistic and cultural issues. The final mark resulting from these two tests, written and oral, will then be averaged with the single mark of the aforementioned linguistics exam.
There are no prerequisites requirements between the course exam and the language practice exam. The exams for the two courses can therefore be taken in different sessions and in any order.
For the practical language exame, however, prerequisites are strictly enforced, to the extent that the oral exam can only be taken after passing the written exam.
Finally, please note that each exam session includes at least two exam dates for the linguistics module, one for the written part of the practical exercises and two for the oral part.
However, the written part of the language practice exam can also be taken in the form of two ONGOING ASSESSMENTS, one at the end of the first semester and the other at the end of the second semester, in order to gradually assess learning progress.
Of course, only those who have passed the first test will be able to take the second test. By passing both tests, the written part of the exercises can be considered complete, and only the oral test will need to be taken in one of the regularly scheduled exam sessions starting from the 2025/2026 summer session.
Those who have not taken or passed the ongoing tests will have to take the written test, as described above.
Please Note: In order to take the Portuguese and Brazilian Language and Linguistics 3 exam, students must have already taken Portuguese and Brazilian Language and Linguistics 1 and 2 and Portuguese and Brazilian Literature 1 and 2.
Teaching tools
PowerPoint, machine translation tools and dictionaries.
Virtuale platform (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 Roberto Mulinacci
SDGs

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.