NEGOTIATION ENGLISH-ITALIAN 2

This is a characterising course unit in the Linguistic and Cultural Mediation Course. It aims at providing students with the theoretical and practical knowledge to act as liaison or dialogue interpreters. The course is integrated by the esercitazioni (practice in liaison interpreting) sharing the same goals and didactic approach.
Goals of this course unit are: learning about all modes of interpreting and the fundamental concepts related to that, honing techniques and strategies of EN-IT liason interpreting, with a focus on international and business relationships, knowing the basics of translation and interpreting, the professional aspects related to interpreting, learning about IT, terminological and research tools to be able to interpret and translate, knowing to recognise different translation solutions in different contexts.

At the end of the course the students will know the fundamental concepts of equivalence and terminological research. They will know and, in part, be able to apply the main modes of interpreting: liaison and consecutive. They will learn the useful techniques to be applied on the job: sight translation, memorisation, note-taking, whispered interpreting and they will be able to apply them with oral texts in English and Italian. They will know the terminology of some sectors related to the territory (in particular, international relationships and business, tourism and migration). And they will acquire the ability to look for and find the right terminological material on any given field and perform a liaison and consecutive interpreting. They will be able to apply this knowledge to liaison interpreting by listening to and memorising texts in English and Italian with the use of notes and subsequently translating them into the target language. The student will be able to convey an oral message with the correct grammar, style and register. While translating the student will be able to identify and use the most adequate equivalents recognising the context, the interlocutors, the channel and the level of formality, by applying the acquired knowledge, demonstrating to master the fundamental theoretical and practical aspects of translation and interpreting. They will know the ethical and professional aspects involved in this job, they will demonstrate that they can apply them during the lessons: coming on time, doing the assignments as foreseen (just as a way of example, glossaries and text preparation), they will be able to recognise and try to manage stressful situations and work under pressure. They will be able to use the main terminological databases used by interpreters and translators, they will be able to look words up in digital and paper dictionaries, in texts, and recognise authoritative sources of information. They will be able to act as interpreters in an oral interaction between English and Italian. They will be able to identify translation problems and issues related to interpreting: terminological difficulties and others (pronunciation, speed, technicality, stress and anxiety management) learning how to apply coping techniques. The social and cultural skills acquired will enable them to recognise strategies to create a contact with people from other cultures and use their language and cultural knowledge to solve interpreting problems.

Prerequisites: good mastery of the English language (C1) and an excellent knowledge of Italian, good cultural backgound and knowledge of current affairs. Being open minded and ready to deepen the knowledge of the topics and techiniques dealt with is of advantage.

Much room will be left to practice by simulating professional situations. Exercises will be used to foster the required abilities (English and Italian texts will be used, with different kinds of texts and audio-visual material). Students will be asked to prepare texts developing fruitful peer and individual work to exchange practice and skills among peers. Events and exercises will realistically simulate real-life working situations with the students.

Suggested (not compulsory)

Falbo C., Russo M. e Straniero Sergio F., Interpretazione simultanea e consecutiva. Problemi teorici e metodologie didattiche, Milano, Hoepli, 1999.
Russo M., Mack G., Interpretazione di Trattativa, Milano, Hoepli, 2005.
Cecco S., Appunti di consecutiva, Manuale di interpretazione consecutiva dall'inglese all'italiano con esercitazioni pratiche, Milano, Viator, 2016.
Machetti S., Siebetcheu R., Che cos'è la mediazione linguistico-culturale, Bologna, Il Mulino.
Valle G., Italiano Urgente, Trento, Reverdito, 2016.
Noseda P.M., La voce degli altri, Sperling & Kupfer, 2012.
Ennis M. & Petrei G., Teaching English for tourism, Routledge, 2020.
Cirillo L. & Niemants N., Teaching Dialogue Interpreting, Benjamins, 2017.

Students will act as interpreters mediating between English and Italian and vice versa in a 5 minute interview on a given topic, by performing clearly, giving the main message, applying the techniques learnt in the course.

Lecture and seminar: students will work on ad hoc (both oral and written) texts in different contexts and on different topics that will be made available in Moodle. They will practice dialogue and consecutive interpreting. They will be invited to create material for practice and encouraged to study independently by giving advice on how to improve and integrate the acquired skills which will be assessed in class: platforms and websites, repositories, audio-visual material. They will work in groups to carry out terminological research and prepare texts to be used in class and for personal practice.

English

oral