Course aims and description

The class will foster language awareness through translation from Italian into English and from English into Italian. Students will become familiar with translation issues and techniques which will then be consolidated and enhanced during the fourth year course. Issues such as language contamination, false friends, translating cultural references will be explored in a practical, hands-on way. The course will focus on a variety of text types such as fiction, journalism and critical writing, training students to identify and reproduce a variety of different styles. Students are expected to work individually as well as in groups and to produce weekly translations.

The class will also focus on elements of syntax and lexis and by the end of the course students will be expected to be able to recognise and use all tenses and moods of the Italian language and to write in Italian (and English) with accuracy.

Assessment

Students will take a 2 hour translation examination consisting of two sections in the summer examination period. Section 1 will require translation of a text from English to Italian and Section 2 will require translation of a text from Italian to English. There will be a choice of passages in each section including journalistic and literary passages.

Recommended dictionaries

Please note that the use of dictionaries is NOT permitted in the examination.

 - Il Ragazzini 2008-Dizionario inglese-italiano, italiano-inglese, Zanichelli.

 - Collins-Sansoni: Italian Dictionary: complete and unabridged, Collins.