69760 - Technical-Scientific Translation from English into Italian (CL2)

Learning outcomes

The student - is to acquire a good working knowledge of the strategies, techniques, traditional and current advanced tools and methods of specialized translation work - is then able to apply them in the translation of specialized texts of different types and genres within the technical-scientific fields - is to be conversant with and capable of using the basic techniques of documentation, writing and revising texts, and is able to assess the quality of the texts s/he has produced - is to be able to identify and apply the advanced translation strategies that are most appropriate to the communicative functions of the source texts.

Course contents

The course focuses on translation and revision of specialised texts in English from at least two domains (economics/finance, legal and technical). The aim is to teach students to tackle highly technical texts, applying their linguistic, semantic and pragmatic knowledge and producing accurate and acceptable Italian translations.

The refinement of documentation strategies and the ability to build one's own translation resources (TMs, glossaries, corpora) will be explicitly targeted through the use of CAT and corpus query tools. Students will thus have a chance to apply and further develop the methodological and technical skills acquired during their first year of studies (e.g., in the Methods and technologies for translators course).

Readings/Bibliography

Byrne, J. 2006. Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation. Dordrecht: Springer.
Mossop, B. 2007. Revising and Editing for Translators (2 ed.). Manchester: St. Jerome.

Teaching methods

Classes are held in a computer lab, in workshop mode, with substantial hands-on practice of translation (individually, in pairs and small groups) with IT tools.  Peer assessment is also used for correction and revision tasks.

Assessment methods

Assessment is by means of an end-of-course translation test in the computer lab; the text to be translated is comparable – in terms of topic and text type – to those translated during the course, and students will be able to use the tools with which they have practiced as well as the resources they have collected or built.

Teaching tools

Networked PCs with Internet access, CAT and corpus query tools; beamer for presentations. Support materials (texts, slides, relevant links etc.) are made available through the Moodle e-learning platform, which also provides a forum for discussion and general communication with the class.

Office hours

See the website of Elena Magistro

See the website of Sara Castagnoli